Wednesday, May
16, 2001
Senator Thompson Applauds Improvement in
Annual Agency Reports
Says Committee Review Will Show Whether
Reports Demonstrate Results
WASHINGTON- Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman
Fred Thompson (R-TN) today joined Congressman Steve Horn (R-CA),
the Honorable Maurice McTigue, and Dr. Jerry Ellig to announce
the results of the Mercatus Center’s annual review of federal
agency annual performance reports.
"Accountability begins with federal agencies effectively
telling us what they’re trying to accomplish and whether or
not they’re accomplishing it," Senator Thompson said.
"Unfortunately, too few agencies achieve this ideal,
although we’re getting better. Some of the reports have
improved the second time around."
The Mercatus Center graded the reports of the government’s
23 of the 24 biggest agencies, and found the best to be the
Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of
Transportation, and the U.S. Agency for International
Development. Among the worst were the reports of the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration, Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, and Department of Health and Human Services. The
Department of Agriculture report was submitted more than a month
late – too late to be included in the Mercatus review.
The Mercatus Center assessed the agency reports in three
areas:
C Does the agency report its accomplishments
clearly in a way that people can understand?
C Does the report disclose the
tangible benefits the agency produced, rather
than just what
activities they conducted?
C Does the report show how the
agency is looking ahead at how it can improve?
"We’re still not at the point where we can confidently
allocate resources based on the information in these
reports," said Thompson. "But I can’t emphasize
enough the importance of the Mercatus Center’s grades. They
are keeping the heat on agencies to make their performance
accessible and understandable to Congress, the President, and
most importantly, the American people."
At the press conference, Thompson described further analysis
of the agency reports being conducted by the General Accounting
Office on behalf of the Governmental Affairs Committee.
"The Mercatus analysis does a great job of judging the
quality of the reports. But the Governmental Affairs
Committee has again asked the General Accounting Office to tell
us what the reports say. We want to know if agencies are
meeting their goals. If not, we want to know what agencies are
going to do about it," said Senator Thompson, noting that
the General Accounting Office reviews will be completed by late
June.
2nd Annual Performance Report Score Card
Scorecard
Summary and Ranking for Fiscal 2000
Comparison
of Fiscal 1999 and Fiscal 2000 Scores and Rankings
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