Finally, the reports should also relate performance measurement information to program evaluation findings, in order to give a clear picture of an agency’s performance and its efforts at improvement. In our assessments of annual performance plans, we identified challenges that will affect agencies’ abilities to reliably report on the achievement of program goals and, in cases where goals are not met, either identify opportunities for improvement or whether goals need to be adjusted. This information is also helpful to congressional and other decisionmakers in assessing the degree to which strategies are appropriate and reasonable. Without such a discussion, decisionmakers will have difficulty determining the implications for assessing the subsequent achievement of performance goals that agencies include in their performance reports. Agencies Face Limitations in Producing Credible Performance Data

In order to successfully measure and report progress toward intended results, agencies need to build the capacity to gather and use performance information. However, our work over the past several years has identified limitations in agencies’ abilities to produce credible performance data. Specifically, those limitations relate to program design issues that may make it difficult to collect timely and consistent national data, the relatively limited level of agencies’ program evaluation capabilities, and long-standing weaknesses in agencies’ financial management capabilities. Education is one of many agencies where the interest in having enough information for accountability and federal program management continually competes with the aim of providing local agencies with the flexibility needed to implement their programs on the basis of their local needs. Performance Reports Provide Opportunities to Show Progress in Addressing Data Credibility Issues

Agencies’ March 2000 performance reports will provide them with an opportunity to show the progress they have made in addressing data credibility issues. In our report on reasonable approaches to verify and validate performance information, we identified a wide range of possible approaches that can be organized into four general strategies, as follows:
Management can seek to improve the quality of performance data by fostering an organizational commitment and capacity for data quality. These approaches can help agencies improve the quality, usefulness, and credibility of performance information. The Results Act requires agencies to describe in their annual performance plans how they will verify and validate the performance information that will be collected. Including such information in performance reports can be equally important in helping to assure report users of the quality of the performance data. Discussing data credibility and related issues in performance reports can provide important contextual information to Congress and agencies to help them address the weaknesses in this area.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO identified some of the challenges agencies face in producing credible performance information and how those challenges may affect performance reporting, focusing on: (1) whether the weaknesses identified in agencies' performance plans imply challenges for the performance reports; (2) some of the challenges agencies face in producing credible performance data; and (3) how performance reports can be used to address data credibility issues.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) it appears unlikely that agencies consistently will have for their first performance reports the reliable performance information needed to assess whether performance goals are being met or specifically how performance can be improved; (2) over the past several years GAO has identified limitations in agencies' abilities to produce credible data and identify performance improvement opportunities; (3) these limitations are substantial, long-standing, and will not be quickly or easily resolved; (4) they are likely to be reflected in agencies' initial performance reports as they have been in the performance plans to date; (5) in administering programs that are a joint responsibility with state and local governments, Congress and the executive branch continually balance the competing objectives of collecting uniform program information to assess performance with giving states and localities the flexibility needed to effectively implement intergovernmental programs; (6) the relatively limited level of agencies' program evaluation capabilities suggests that many agencies are not well positioned to undertake necessary evaluations; (7) program evaluations are important to providing information on the extent to which an agency's efforts contributed to results and to highlight opportunities to improve those results; (8) long-standing weaknesses in agencies' financial management capabilities make it difficult for decisionmakers to effectively assess and improve many programs' financial performance; (9) in order to help agency managers select appropriate techniques for assessing, documenting, and improving the quality of their performance data, some agencies proposed or adopted reasonable approaches to verify and validate performance information; (10) these approaches include senior management actions, agencywide efforts, and specific program manager and technical staff activities, which could be used, where appropriate, to improve the quality, usefulness, and credibility of performance information; (11) performance reports provide agencies with an opportunity to show the progress made in addressing data credibility issues; (12) the Government Performance and Results Act requires agencies to describe in their annual performance plans how they will verify and validate the performance information that will be collected; and (13) including information in performance reports describing the quality of the reported performance data and the implications of missing data can be equally important and can provide key contextual information to Congress and other users of the performance reports.