Adopting a results-orientation requires transforming organizational cultures to improve decisionmaking, maximize performance, and assure accountability—it entails new ways of thinking and doing business. For example, in 1998, the Congress chartered the Office of Student Financial Assistance as a performance- based organization, and required it to implement performance agreements. However, we reported in April 2001 that, overall, agencies’ fiscal year 2001 performance plans reflected different levels of attention to strategic human capital issues. Very few of the agencies’ plans addressed   succession planning to ensure reasonable continuity of leadership;   performance agreements to align leaders’ performance expectations with the agency’s mission and goals;   competitive compensation systems to help the agency attract, motivate, retain, and reward the people it needs;   workforce deployment to support the agency’s goals and strategies;   performance management systems, including pay and other meaningful incentives, to link performance to results;   alignment of performance expectations with competencies to steer the workforce towards effectively pursuing the agency’s goals and strategies; and   employee and labor relations grounded in a mutual effort on the strategies to achieve the agency’s goals and to resolve problems and conflicts fairly and effectively. In the 4 years since the governmentwide implementation of GPRA, we have seen more agencies make more explicit links between their annual performance plans and budgets. If GPRA is effectively implemented, the governmentwide performance plan and the agencies’ annual performance plans and reports should provide the Congress with new information on agencies and programs addressing similar results.
Why GAO Did This Study

This testimony discusses the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993.

What GAO Found

During the last decade, Congress, the Office of Management and Budget, and executive agencies have worked to implement a statutory framework to improve the performance and accountability of the executive branch and to enhance executive branch and congressional decisionmaking. The core of this framework includes financial management legislation, especially GPRA. As a result of this framework, there has been substantial progress in the last few years in establishing the basic infrastructure needed to create high-performing federal organizations. The issuance of agencies' fiscal year 2000 performance reports, in addition to updated strategic plans, annual performance plans, and the governmentwide performance plans, completes two full cycles of annual performance planning and reporting under GPRA. However, much work remains before this framework is effectively implemented across the government, including transforming agencies' organizational cultures to improve decisionmaking and strengthen performance and accountability.