FIRST-EVER
FEDERAL AGENCY PERFORMANCE REPORTS EXPECTED
Office of Management and Budget reports false information
Washington,
DC -- Senator Fred Thompson (R-TN), Chairman of the Senate Committee
on Governmental Affairs, today said he is disappointed to find
misinformation included in the Office of Management and Budget’s
(OMB) first-ever performance report. "These performance reports
will provide the Congress a real chance to judge the effectiveness of
the programs it put in place," he said. "However, the
information should be correct for the system to work and OMB has
illustrated the need for that today."
The
report, distributed today at the same time agency reports are due for
the first time under the Government Performance and Results Act
(Results Act), was supposed to outline the success OMB had in meeting
goals. OMB, which oversees the preparation and publication of all
agency performance reports, stated in its report that it achieved its
goal of 18 clean opinions on agency financial statements. GAO has
reported, however, based on information provided to it by OMB, that
only 13 agencies received clean opinions on their financial
statements.
"OMB
has a unique responsibility of leadership in implementing and
sustaining the move toward greater use of performance information in
policy decisions," said Senator Thompson. "Today, OMB has
shown that, despite the rhetoric of the Vice President on government
reform, they are abdicating their leadership by providing inaccurate
information to the Congress. And that will not be tolerated."
GAO has
reported extensively on the trouble many agencies have had with
obtaining reliable information on which to report their results. In a
July 1999 report, GAO wrote that agencies have not provided adequate
assurances that performance information in Results Act documents will
be credible.
Senator
Thompson said of his concern over the quality of data, "we have
an opportunity to use performance information to improve government
service and save taxpayer dollars. OMB has demonstrated that they view
this as just another opportunity to ‘spin’ the results. And if OMB
is misleading Congress, we better be careful about what other agencies
are telling us."
The
Results Act, passed in 1993, is designed to provide policy-makers and
the public with systematic, reliable information about where federal
programs and activities are going, how they will get there, and how we
will know when they have arrived. Agencies have had mixed results
complying with the reporting requirements of the Act. The Act requires
performance reports to be filed by March 31st of each year, beginning
this year.