The Results Act requires that the Office of Management and Budget (0MB) direct each executive agency to prepare an annual performance plan, beginning with fiscal year 1999. The performance plan is one of three components of the Results Act, the others being the strategic plan, submitted by agencies in September 1997, and the annual report due March 31, 2000. The performance plan should describe (1) annual performance goals and measures, (2) the strategies and resources to achieve those goals, and (3) procedures to verify and validate reported performance. The act requires that performance goals be linked to the program activities in agencies' budgets and be expressed in an objective, quantifiable, and measurable form. 0MB is to use agency performance plans to develop the overall federal government performance plan submitted annually to Congress, beginning with the President's fiscal year 1999 budget.
As you requested, we have reviewed the 24 Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act agencies' fiscal year 1999 performance reports and fiscal year 2001 performance plans required by the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA). In essence, under GPRA annual performance plans are to establish performance goals and measures covering a given fiscal year and provide the direct linkage between an agency's longer-term goals and day-to-day activities. Annual performance reports are to subsequently report on the degree to which those performance goals were met. This letter contains two enclosures responding to your request concerning key program outcomes and major management challenges at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Enclosure I to this letter provides our observations on NASA's fiscal year 1999 actual and fiscal year 2001 planned performance for the key outcomes that you identified as important mission areas for the agency. These key outcomes are (1) expand scientific knowledge of the Earth system, (2) deploy and operate the International Space Station safely and cost- effectively, and (3) expand the commercial development of space. Enclosure II lists the major management challenges facing the agency that we and NASA's Inspector General identified, how their fiscal year 1999 performance report discusses the progress the agency made in resolving these challenges, and the applicable goals and measures in the fiscal year 2001 performance plan.
The Government Performance & Results Act of 1993 seeks to shift the focus of government perform. & accountability away from a preoccupation with activities to a focus on the results or outcome of those activities. This report provides summary information based on a review & evaluation of the FY 2000 performance plans of the 24 agencies covered by the Chief Financial Officers Act. It summarizes the extent to which the agencies' plans include three key elements of informative perform. plans: (1) clear pictures of intended performance, (2) discussions of strategies & resources, & (3) credible perform. information. Discusses the major strengths & key weaknesses of FY 2000 performance plans.
GPRA is intended to shift the focus of government decisionmaking, management, and accountability from activities and processes to the results and outcomes achieved by federal programs. New and valuable information on the plans, goals, and strategies of federal agencies has been provided since federal agencies began implementing GPRA. Under GPRA, annual performance plans are to clearly inform the Congress and the public of (1) the annual performance goals for agencies' major programs and activities, (2) the measures that will be used to gauge performance, (3) the strategies and resources required to achieve the performance goals, and (4) the procedures that will be used to verily and validate performance information. These annual plans, issued soon after transmittal of the President's budget, provide a direct linkage between an agency's longer-term goals and mission and day-to-day activities. Annual performance reports are to report subsequently on the degree to which performance goals were met The issuance of the agencies' performance reports, due by March 31 of each year, represents a new and potentially more substantive phase in the implementation of GPRA-the opportunity to assess federal agencies' actual performance for the prior fiscal year and to consider what steps are needed to improve performance, and reduce costs in the future. NASA's final performance plan was provided to the Congress on July 17, 2001.
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) fiscal year (FY) 2000 performance plan, which was submitted to Congress in response to the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, focusing on: (1) assessing the usefulness of the agency's plan for decisionmaking; and (2) identifying the degree of improvement the agency's FY 2000 performance plan represents over the FY 1999 plan. GAO noted that: (1) NASA's FY 2000 annual performance plan should be useful to decisionmakers; (2) it provides a limited picture of intended performance across the agency, a general discussion of strategies and resources the agency will use to achieve its goals, and limited confidence that performance information will be credible; (3) an example of a positive change regarding the plan's presentation of strategies and goals is the discussion on NASA's objective of extending the use of Earth Science research for national, state, and local application; (4) the plan links that objective with the achievement of three performance goals, namely having at least one Regional Earth Science Application become self-sustaining, developing at least two new data products for routine decision-making by user organizations, and implementing at least 5 joint applications research projects/partnerships with state and local governments in remote sensing applications; (5) NASA's FY 2000 plan represents a moderate improvement over the FY 1999 plan in that it indicates some degree of progress in addressing the weaknesses identified in GAO's assessment of the FY 1999 plan; (6) in reviewing the FY 1999 plan, GAO observed that the plan could have provided a clearer picture of intended performance across the agency, did not fully portray how strategies and resources would help achieve performance goals, and partially provided confidence that performance information would be credible; and (7) among improvements in the FY 2000 plan is the inclusion of: (a) performance objectives or targets that fully or partially address 5 of 10 management challenges identified by NASA's Office of the Inspector General or GAO; (b) a crosswalk to relate budget categories with performance objectives and targets; and (c) expanded detail on internal and external evaluations of performance.
