GSA - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Why was OGP's Center for Policy Evaluation (CPE) established?

The CPE was established in OGP to obtain a clearer picture of our policy impact government wide. We want to obtain a baseline of where we and the agencies are and identify targets for future improvements. In the Office of Travel, Transportation and Asset Management (MT), we are responsible for 7 policy areas: aircraft, mail, motor vehicles, personal property, relocation, transportation and travel.

We want to learn if:
1) Our policies are helpful, followed and how they can be improved;
2) Best practices are being used and if not, reasons why they are not;
3) Our systems and tools (FAST, FAIRS, CFL, eTravel, PRT, etc.) have helped agencies manage assets and if enhancements or new systems/tools are needed.

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2. How do agencies respond to questions?

Agencies will access the Program Review Tool (PRT) found on the MT CPE website at www.gsa.gov/cpe. This tool allows access to the Data Collection Forms (DCFs) for each of the policy areas. The DCFs consist of significant policy questions as identified by MT subject matter experts. Each agency's POCs will respond to the DCF questions by submitting interim and final responses on the MT CPE website.

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3. How will MT's CPE conduct evaluations?

You will be evaluated on the strength of your response, including your agency's policy and best practice adherence, performance measures, and policy adoption activities.

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4. How do we determine policy adherence agency wide?

Frequent contact with agency components and active management of your policy is the best way to determine if there is agency wide adherence with policy regulations and best practices. Discussions with operational components determine whether regulations and best practices are being followed. Analysis of data submissions and follow-up questions will help you determine adoption and reasons for non-adherence. Once root causes of non-adherence are identified, improvements can be implemented for better asset management.

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5. How should we collect information from our regional offices and bureaus?

For each of the policy areas, we recommend that you identify one point of contact (POC) in your agency. The POC should ensure uniform, accurate, complete and timely submission to CPE. Normally, the POC is from the agency's policy office that is responsible for each of the 7 policy areas. They should be most familiar with the policy and its management.

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6. How long does the review take?

We expect that our government wide reviews will take 4 months. This allows for ample time to respond to our evaluation questions, receive MT CPE feedback, resubmit your responses and receive our final evaluation. Agency reports will be produced between June-July and governmentwide reports will be published in November.

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7. Who will receive information about our review results?

Agency-specific evaluation results will be provided to the agency concerned. Government wide data that does not identify specific agency results will be reported to OMB and posted on our website.

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8. Can I get an advance copy of the Data Collection Forms (DCFs)?

Yes, the DCFs can be downloaded from our website at www.gsa.gov/cpe. However, for submission of these forms you will need to log into a password protected site and submit online. These forms will be updated annually by November 30th to reflect feedback we have received, the latest regulations and hot topics.

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9. How many Data Collection Forms (DCFs) should I submit?

Agency POCs will be responsible for providing MT with one, aggregated agency wide response for each of the 7 policy areas that are applicable to their agency. Some agencies will have fewer than 7 policy areas if they do not own/lease or operate aircraft or contract out a policy area. For each area that agencies respond to, all agency sub-components should be reflected in the agency-wide repsonse. For instance, the Department of the Treasury will provide MTC with 7 completed DCFs to reflect the Treasury and its Bureaus (Engraving and Printing, Mint, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, etc).

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10. How often are agencies evaluated?

We plan to evaluate all agencies as defined by Â§301-1.1 annually. Currently there are 24 agencies that fall into this category. Agencies that have policy areas identified as 'weak' and require remediation will have an opportunity to correct them with assistance from GSA, as required.

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11. Will you ask the same questions every year?

No. About half of our annual questions will change to address new or modified regulations, best practices and hot topics. We will track about 50% of the responses for trend analysis.

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12. Isn't a one year cycle insufficient to look for improvements?

No. Some improvements may require multiple years to obtain additional FTE, contracting or system dollars, while other improvements have minimal resource needs. We expect to see some gains annually.

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13. What happens if we do not submit responses by the deadline?

As we need to evaluate all agencies for baseline and trend analysis, we will consider your agency as weak in all policy areas where no response is received.

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14. Where can we get additional information?

More information can be found on our website at www.gsa.gov/cpe. The website contains the DCFs, FAQs, overview presentation, samples of weak/ok/strong responses, POC information and, eventually, government wide reports.

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15. What do we do if we have questions?

Agencies can contact our Center's policy experts if they have questions. CPE POCs can be found on www.gsa.gov/pcec or www.gsa.gov/cpe. Click on the link at the top right of the page under "Contacts". We prefer to work directly with the agency POCs to ensure a uniform approach across the agency. However, we are available to discuss issues with anyone.

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16. Why do you list performance measures on the DCFs?

We provide agencies with suggested performance measures that they may use to determine their adherence with agency policy. These measures may provide you with a good indication of whether your agency has adopted the regulation and allow you to track changes over time. The performance measures are only suggestions and other measures may be more appropriate for use within your agency. We are interested in learning what measures you use and sharing those performance measures with other agencies.

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17. What is the difference between the mandates and best practices questions?

Mandates relate to policies that contain the word "must", while best practices relate to policies that contain the word "should". The definitions of must and should can be found in the Mail Management Regulations, §102-192.20. "Must" identifies steps that Federal agencies are required to take and "should" identifies steps that GSA recommends. Accordingly, mandate questions relate to "must" portions of the regulation, while "should" questions are found in best practices. Best practices questions also contain recommendations that are conveyed to agencies in a non-regulatory fashion, such as meetings, working groups, bulletins, website postings, etc.

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18. Do you want numerical responses to your policy questions?

Providing quantitative data is not necessary or required. The process is a qualitative evaluation and, as such, your responses should be in narrative form. The questions are focused on policy adherence and evaluation, and your written responses should illustrate the actions your agency has taken to: develop and publish written policy that is consistent with government wide policy; ensure that employees are aware of requirements through training; and verify policy adoption. More information on the scoring criteria can be found at "Evaluation Criteria".

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Last Reviewed 12/16/2008

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

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