A Procurement Performance Working Group, chaired by the Director, Acquisition Resources Service, was established within VA.   Other members were senior representatives from the Office of the General Counsel (OGC), the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), and the major administrations within VA (Veterans Benefit Administration, Veterans Health Administration, and the National Cemetery Service).   This group was tasked with developing and implementing a procurement performance measurement system that measured the four performance goals established by the President’s Management Council (price, quality, timeliness, and productivity).

Five performance measures were chosen.   They are:

• Purchase card activity measured by the number of purchase card transactions as a percentage of total number of transactions under $2500.   It measures timeliness and productivity.
   
  
• Electronic data interchange (EDI) activity measured by the number of EDI transactions as a percentage of total IFCAP transactions.   It measures timeliness, productivity, and quality.
   
  
• Amount of dollar recoveries by the Procurement Working Group (OIG, OA&L, and OGC).   It measures price.
   
  
• Percentage of defect-free headstones, grave markers, and niche covers where actual delivery time meets contractual requirements.   It measures timeliness and quality.
   
  
• Calculation of cost avoidance based on a comparison of actual usage of standardized products and historical data (e. g., preferred source contracts vs. pre-preferred source contracts).   It measures price.

VA’s plan was implemented at the beginning of FY 97.