Budget and Performance Integration

One of the five initiatives on the President's Management Agenda is budget and performance integration. This initiative builds on the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) and previous efforts to identify program goals and performance measures and to link them with the budget process. The FY 2003 President's Budget was the first to include explicit assessments of program performance.

Program Assessment Ratings Tools (PARTs)

The Administration has taken unprecedented steps to reform the budget process by establishing a systematic, consistent process for developing program performance ratings and then using that information to make budget decisions. To enhance the practical use of performance information, OMB, in collaboration with other Federal agencies, has developed the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART), comprised of assessment criteria on program performance and management. The PART establishes a high, "good government" standard of performance and will be used to rate programs in an open, public fashion. Ratings for 20 percent of programs will be published in the FY 2004 Budget, and the basis for the rating made available to the public.

The Program Assessment Rating Tools (PARTs) are a series of questions designed to provide a consistent approach to rating programs across the Federal government. The PARTs are diagnostic tools that rely on professional judgment to assess and evaluate programs across a wide range of issues related to performance. The questions reflect familiar concepts and incorporate existing practices OMB examiners rely on to assess program performance. The formalization of performance evaluation through this process is intended to develop defensible and consistent ratings of programs for the FY 2004 Budget Request and beyond.

The questions are written in a Yes/No format and require the program to provide a brief narrative explanation of the answer and include any relevant evidence to substantiate the answer. Hard evidence of performance may not be readily available for all programs. In these cases, OMB assessments will rely more heavily on professional judgment. Unless otherwise noted, a Yes answer is definite and reflects a high standard of performance. No one question in isolation determines the performance of a program. In fact, some questions may not apply to every program.

Each PART is divided into four sections. Each section includes a series of questions designed to elicit specific information for the evaluation.

To the left and above are more specific information for the Office of Science PARTS

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