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FY 2003 Annual Performance Plan

STRATEGIC GOAL 4: BUILD A RESULTS-ORIENTED ORGANIZATION

Rationale

ACF is committed to being a customer-focused, citizen-centered organization as we provide assistance to America's most vulnerable populations. It is essential that the organization continues to focus on results, provide high quality, cost-effective and efficient services, meet customers' needs and expectations, and use state-of-the-art information technology to improve management and data systems.

The FY 2003 funding request in Federal Administration will provide critically needed funds for mandatory pay raises, inflationary non-pay increases, critical information technology infrastructure investments and associated funding to maintain a Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in accordance with the President's recent Executive Order.

The following objectives are major administration initiatives for this goal:

9. Develop and retain a highly skilled, strongly motivated staff

10. Improve automated data and management systems

11. Streamline ACF organizational layers

12. Ensure financial management accountability

As part of the President's Management Agenda, ACF is working closely with DHHS to implement the following reforms:

• Strategic Management of Human Capital

Delayering management levels to streamline organizations and reshaping organizations to meet a standard of excellence;

• Competitive Sourcing

Making greater use of performance-based contracts;

Expanding A-76 competitions and more accurate FAIR Act inventories.

• Improved Financial Performance

Achieving "clean" audit opinions throughout government and providing more accurate and timely financial information to secure the best performance and highest measure of accountability

• Expanded Electronic Government

Expanding electronic Government applications and other E-Government services

• Budget and Performance Integration

Making Government results-oriented-guided not by process but by performance

Strategic Management of Human Capital During last several years ACF has included activities in the annual performance plan that address human capital issues. Our goal is to achieve a higher standard of excellence through increased emphasis on training of staff as well as realignment of staff functions in a more customer-friendly configuration, e.g., the co-locations of grants staff with program offices to work as a team with grantees and their clients. Our objective to "develop and retain a highly skilled, strongly motivated staff" (Objective 9) has been tracked since FY 2000. In FY 2003, ACF reinstated a FY 1999-2000 measure "to increase the manager to staff ratio" and added the objective "Streamline ACF organizational layers" (Objective 11). Other initiatives underway include using the results of workforce planning to realign and/or integrate like programmatic/functional responsibilities currently housed within two or more organizations within ACF. Examples include realignment of major research functions into the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), Family Violence programs from the Office of Community Services (OCS) to the Family Youth Services Bureau, Fatherhood Initiatives from the Office of Child Support Enforcement to the Office of Family Assistance (OFA), Tribal TANF from OCS to OFA, and TANF programs and fiscal data collections from OPRE and the Office of Administration to OFA; and increasing internal capacity and contracting services from the private sector.

Competitive Sourcing ACF contracts out several major activities to private vendors and the Program Support Center (PSC) within DHHS: information technology (IT) help desk support; human resources services (personnel, employee relations, employee assistance and select EEO activities such as investigations, counseling, court reporting services); administrative services (records management, personal property management, mail, transportation, incidental labor, management of employee transit benefits and space management); and financial services (all ACF procurements and the credit card program; and, in some ACF components, aspects of the grants process, including intake, review of applications).

In order to meet the 5 percent goal of expanding A-76 competitions set forth by OMB for FY 2002, ACF will continue outsourcing these functions. ACF is also contracting out a significant portion of its administrative support needs. As a result, approximately 13 FTEs will not be hired to perform these duties. In addition, ACF is relying heavily on contractor support to accomplish its programmatic responsibilities in FY 2002.

ACF plans to further evaluate its current staffing inventory and in FY 2003 study the functions of audit resolution, grant closeouts, oversight reviews, performance audits, and additional administrative support functions for possible outsourcing. Functions in the information technology management and client services areas will also be studied for possible outsourcing.

Improved Financial Performance ACF added a new objective to measure our efforts to achieve this Presidential management reform - Ensure financial management accountability (Objective 12). Federal agencies' financial statements are audited to reassure the public that they fairly and accurately represent the financial condition. A "clean" and timely audit opinion on these statements is essential if decisionmakers within the agency and at OMB and Congress are to use this information.

ACF received a "clean" or unqualified opinion from the auditors for fiscal years 1999 and 2000-a major accomplishment that contributed significantly to the Department's clean audit opinion. Nevertheless, this is only one step, albeit a significant one, toward financial accountability to the public. Although we have achieved a clean opinion for two years, improvements to our accounting systems and services are still needed, especially with required compressed deadlines beginning with the FY 2001 audit cycle. The Reports Consolidation Act of 2001 requires that the Department's FY 2002 audit cycle be completed and its Accountability Report be submitted by February 1, 2003, approximately one month earlier than has been required in previous years. In order to accomplish this successfully in FY 2002, DHHS imposed earlier milestones on its OPDIVs as a pilot for the FY 2001 audit cycle. Over the past several months, departmental financial and accounting officials, the OPDIVs and the auditors have been collaborating on ways to achieve the compressed schedule. Because FY 2001 final reportable data are not available until the second or third quarter following the end of the fiscal year, we provided FY 2000 data in the audit report. Additionally, current standard accounting reports available to ACF do not provide necessary detail to conduct the level of financial analysis required for the audit. ACF has requested access to the database and/or additional supporting documentation used in preparing the financial statements.

ACF is committed to improve the linkage of financial management systems and data to program performance and results. We recognize the need for more accurate and timely data to provide financial and program managers needed information for informed decisionmaking. We anticipate that the DHHS integrated financial system will help us access the type of data that is needed to help managers determine which resources have the greatest positive impact on our client populations. OMB requirements for future quarterly financial statements, accelerated end-of-year reporting, comparative financial reporting, and reports that integrate financial and performance information will provide better financial accountability through the Federal Government and to the public.

Expanded Electronic Government Improve Automated and Data Management Systems responds directly to this Presidential management reform (objective 10). ACF has developed unique software to provide a common solution for building its Internet applications. The first use of this software will be to capture, validate and store all information now submitted by grantees or potential grantees using government forms for the Grants Administration Tracking and Evaluation System. This information includes grant applications, funding requests and performance reports. The enhanced process significantly reduces the data-entry burden on ACF grants staff and grantees, expedites the receipt and processing of grants and makes timely up-to-date grant information available for ACF decisionmaking.

Other ACF applications will employ this software to Internet-enable other program applications, such as the Publications, Requestors and Orders Management Information System (PROMIS), supporting the ACF minority outreach program as well as internal administrative requirements in both the central and regional offices. Additional internal administrative systems will be Internet-enabled. This software ensures that ACF will be able to meet the October 2003 target date of the Government Paperwork Elimination Act. This legislation requires agencies to provide for the optional use and acceptance of electronic documents and signatures, and electronic recordkeeping where practicable.

ACF has a major initiative under way for better managing e-government activities. Currently, ACF is upgrading its infrastructure and business practices and is making e-government an integral part of the business processes. Training of ACF staff in efficient and effective use of the Internet and Internet-based applications is being conducted. ACF has more than 100,000 web pages receiving thousands of hits daily from the public. ACF intends to use the Internet more effectively to make our processes more citizen-centric.

Budget and Performance Integration Head Start has been identified as a pilot program for this reform. ACF finance, budget and GPRA staff are participating with other OPDIVs in the Department's budget/performance integration project. This project has the dual goal of substantially improving the link between budget and performance in the FY 2004 budgets and performance plans and supporting the President's Management Agenda.

As part of DHHS faith-based and community-based management improvement initiative to track the number of applications, increase outreach efforts, assess the quality of applications and provide a technical assistance plan, ACF will develop baselines in FY 2002 for the number of faith-based and community-based organizations which apply for discretionary grant programs in four program activity areas: Urban and Rural Community Economic Development, Assets for Independence, Adoption Opportunities and Runaway and Homeless Youth Programs. In FY 2003, ACF will track the increased number of applications from the FY 2002 baseline.

Developmental Input Indicator	Programs	FY 2002 (baseline - tbd)	FY 2003 proposed target of 10% increase over baseline
The number of faith-based and community-based organizations which apply for discretionary grant funds	Urban/Rural Commuity Economic Development	blank cell	blank cell
	Assets for Independence	blank cell	blank cell
	Adoption Opportunities	blank cell	blank cell
	Runaway and Homeless Youth Programs	blank cell	blank cell

 

Program Description, Content, Legislative Intent, and Program Goals

ACF has endeavored to embrace the principles of GPRA reinventing the way we do business through partnership building, strategic planning, measurable outcomes, customer focus, streamlining of operations and devotion to quality. ACF's goal of becoming a more results-oriented, citizen-centered organization has brought about changes in its internal management. Efforts in recent years include:

• Reinventing the regional office structure to locate resources where partners most need them;
  
  
• Developing and implementing diversity and minority initiatives that allow for alignment of the workforce with the goals and priorities and help us achieve our diversity objectives that reflect all groups including our most under-represented populations;
  
  
• Establishing a successful labor-management cooperative agreement with the National Treasury Employees Union (which represents the bargaining unit);
  
  
• Investing in technology such as videoconferencing equipment and satellite linkages to bring regional and central offices and partnership closer together and save on travel costs;
  
  
• Developing an agency training strategy and implementing a new desktop Distance Learning training capability across the organization;
  
  
• Establishing a presence on the World Wide Web;
  
  
• Reengineering the grants management business process to improve service to partners and achieve greater efficiency;
  
  
• Surveying partners and customers for assessment and guidance on the quality and appropriateness of ACF's services;
  
  
• Establishing an ACF-wide Workforce Analysis Workgroup which made recommendations to senior staff for the most efficient and effective utilization of the ACF workforce in accomplishing ACF's priority results and other mandates now and into the future;
  
  
• Participating in the Workforce Planning Project workgroup (part of a larger DHHS effort), which identified cross-cutting work processes with needed core and technical competencies for the next three to five years and provided recommendations for future training and expansion of staff based on a competency assessment of the ACF workforce;
  
  
• Participating in the Department's response to the President's workforce planning initiative throughout government to help agencies redistribute higher-level positions to front-line, service-delivery positions that interact with citizens;
• Promoting financial management accountability;
  
  
• Partnering with other Federal Agencies to support the Government-wide Federal Commons project where potential grantees will be able to apply for grant funds through a single portal on the Internet in the future; and
  
  
• Investing in internal systems improvement and technology so that current and potential ACF grantees can apply for grant funds over the Internet through On-line Data Collection.

Examples of strategies that have proven most successful in strengthening ACF as a results-oriented and citizen-based organization include:

• Achieving two consecutive years of "clean" (unqualified) audit opinions of its annual audited financial statements;
  
  
• Assurance that human services sector agencies transitioned their information systems for the Year 2000 without interruption of benefits or services to children and families; ACF focused specific attention on five of its own programs-child care, child support enforcement, child welfare, low income home energy assistance (LIHEAP) and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF);
  
  
• Implementation of the Balanced Scorecard to expand its performance measurement system to include customer service feedback, employee satisfaction as well as its program measurement system focused on results;
  
  
• Initiation of the FasTrac Distance Learning opportunities for ACF employees nationwide to address and sharpen professional developmental needs: every employee has access to nearly 700 technical and non-technical training courses at no cost; and
  
  
• Participation in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), an index which has measured customer satisfaction with goods and services in the private sector since 1994.

 

 

 

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