Corporations send out annual reports to stockholders with an accounting of their finances,  accomplishments and a forecast of things to come.  Government agencies do the same thing. Each department produces an annual report card for Congress and the American public — the Performance and Accountability Report.

Interior has almost 70,000 employees working on a wide range of programs and projects.  Just as corporations gather the full scope of their activities into a single report, Interior’s collective performance is summarized in the PAR.  You might not realize how vital your contribution is to this report.

Your job activities are connected to performance measures and to the departmentwide goals. Your work could be rehabilitating a wetland clogged with invasive purple loosestrife or improving a visitor center at a national park. It might involve monitoring the rehabilitation of a played out mine or adding real-time capability to a flood warning system. Or you could be the one who facilitates responsible production of energy on public lands or helps an American Indian child become a better reader.  Whatever you do is likely connected to a performance measurement reflected in this report, either directly or in a supporting role.  Performance measures maintain our focus on the bottom line — specific results we must achieve to be successful.

Interior’s Strategic Plan is our basic blueprint for defining what the department, through its bureaus, is trying to accomplish. We have four mission areas that describe what we do. (See figure 2.) All of our programs fall into one of these four missions:

• resource protection
• resource use
• recreation
• serving communities
  

Within these mission areas are 14 outcome goals that we have signed up to accomplish by working together as a department. Under the outcome goals are 209 measures that track the progress we’re making in specific programs.

This year Interior spearheaded a new approach in the PAR. Rather than attempting to report on 209 measures, we selected representative performance measures, or key indicators. We defined key indicators as those measures which best represented Interior’s performance across the Bureaus. We analyzed all 209 measures to determine which ones embodied the broadest scope of our work and the enormity of the department’s responsibilities. We decided on 26 measures — at least one measure for each of the 14 outcome goals. 

In past PARs, we followed the accepted model and reported on whether or not we met each of our performance targets for the year. However, this year we were creative and took the innovative approach of pairing performance with how much our achievements cost.  We are the first department to present performance information in this way.  For the first time, our audience, the American public and Congress, can see how funds are spent and the corresponding results. Each of the 26 measures includes a graph or table tracking performance and the related cost data for that activity. The graphs show data from 2004 through 2007, with the projected plan for the upcoming year.

One of the graphs within the report measures visitor satisfaction. (See figure 3.) This particular measure compiles data from three of our bureaus: Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service, who measure visitor satisfaction through visitor surveys. Many of the representative measures are multi-bureau since our goal was to show achievements and activities across the entire department.

Looking at cost and performance in this way led to interesting questions for discussion.

• Performance Measure: Percent of DOI acres that have achieved desired condition where condition is known.
  

This measure refers to one of Interior’s main missions of improving and restoring land.  “Desired condition” depends on whether the land is, for example, upland, wetland, desert, open space, or refuge. There are standards for each category. “Where the condition is known” means that we know the condition of only a portion of the 500 million acres Interior manages. Our performance increased 2 percent  over 2006, with 18 million more acres in desired condition. While this progress is positive, there is still more to accomplish.  How much more do we want to accomplish next year given the available funds and people-power necessary to make an impact?

• Performance Measure: Percent of threatened or endangered species that are stabilized or improved.
  

The bald eagle is a good example of the challenges facing this program. There has been a 25-fold increase in the eagle population in the last 40 years — some 10,000 nesting pairs. This illustrates how long it takes to bring back a species — often decades of collaborative effort. If we look at availability of funds, the size of the challenge and amount of time and effort, what are the prospects for the future?

• Performance Measure: Percent of baseline acres with invasive plant species that are controlled.

Invasive plants are everywhere! Performance is nearly 2 percent controlled — a result that might seem insignificant until one considers the 38 million acre magnitude of the problem.  Is it possible to achieve more? What is needed to do that?

To highlight details of the representative performance measures and show specific examples of the kind of work you do, we included sidebar stories with photos. The stories the bureaus sent in for the PAR give greater detail than could be included in the general discussion of each measure.   Every story needed a picture. We cast  a wide net to find those photos, as there is no central repository; each bureau chronicles their own activities. (See figures 4 through 9.)

Interior's core values statement, “Stewardship for America with Integrity and Excellence,”  was our theme for 2007. The employees across the Department of the Interior, like you, are the stewards of America. We wanted to include pictures of employees doing their jobs. The result was a PAR cover with photos of people from each bureau actively engaged in stewardship. (See figure 10.)

The goal is to convey to the American people what we are doing, how well we are doing it, and the cost for Interior’s stewardship.  Without the willing help of people in all the bureaus and in our departmental offices, the PAR would not come together.  We found over and over that you, as an DOI employee, believe in Interior’s mission wholeheartedly and do your work with dedication and commitment. Thank you. Without you, we wouldn’t have anything to report!