In 2003, ONDCP requested the assistance of a group of HIDTA Directors to develop performance measures for the program. The result was the Performance Management Process (PMP) which monitors the extent to which individual HIDTAs meet performance goals they negotiate with ONDCP. The central element of the PMP is a set of required tables that standardize the collection of key data from each HIDTA. These tables require each HIDTA to identify the number of DTOs they targeted and either disrupted or dismantled, the operational scope (e.g., local, multi-state, or international) of the targeted DTOs, the amount and value of illegal drugs seized or destroyed, the value of the cash and other resources denied DTOs, and other pertinent information necessary to assess the performance of a HIDTA.

The PMP has several features that make it particularly appropriate for measuring performance in the HIDTA program:

• The principal performance objective, disruption and dismantlement of DTOs, is a reasonable proxy for reducing the supply of drugs in the United States.

• The PMP focuses on the common features of what HIDTAs actually try to do—disrupt and dismantle DTOs—and not on measures the HIDTAs can only indirectly affect; e.g., drug-related assaults.

• The PMP is flexible enough to be used for HIDTAs with very different strategies, including those that attempt to disrupt smuggling operations along the southwest border, methamphetamine production in the Central Valley of California, marijuana cultivation in Appalachia, or money laundering wherever it occurs.

• It is easily understood—“Tell me what you said you were going to achieve and tell me what you did.”

Rewarding performance is at the heart of ONDCP’s effort to sharpen the focus of the HIDTA program. To do so, however, requires the ability to identify and measure performance in a way that reflects the intent of the program and preserves program strengths. ONDCP believes the PMP meets that test. Using the PMP, ONDCP is now able to assess the performance of each HIDTA in meeting the goals negotiated with ONDCP and to factor that performance into the proposed funding level for the HIDTA.