Assessment of Justice’s Progress and Strategies in Achieving Selected Key Outcomes

This section discusses our analysis of Justice’s performance in achieving the selected key outcomes and the strategies it has in place, particularly strategic human capital management and information technology, when appropriate, for accomplishing these outcomes. Justice did not set fiscal year 2000 performance targets for its performance related to dismantling Asian criminal enterprises, dismantling Eurasian criminal enterprises, and cases in Indian Country.Justice did not set performance targets for these measures because it considered two of the measures to be new measures, and for the number of cases in Indian Country, Justice did not want to set performance levels because it believes that setting performance targets could cause the public to perceive law enforcement as engaging in “bounty hunting” or pursuing arbitrary targets merely for the sake of meeting particular goals. Again, we believe that opportunities exist for Justice to improve the usefulness of its annual report and plan by better articulating a results-orientation that would include explanatory information on goals and measures. And finally, we also noted that this year Justice issued a combined fiscal year 2000 performance report and fiscal year 2002 performance plan. The third column discusses the extent to which Justice’s fiscal year 2002 performance plan includes performance goals and measures to address the challenges that we and the OIG identified.
Why GAO Did This Study

This report reviews the Department of Justice's fiscal year 2000 performance report and fiscal year 2002 performance plan required by the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 and assesses Justice's progress in achieving selected key outcomes that were identified as important mission areas.

What GAO Found

Justice's overall progress toward achieving the key outcomes was difficult to ascertain because generally the performance report lacked fiscal year 2000 performance targets to measure success and lacked clear linkage between performance measures and outcomes. Justice did not set fiscal year 2000 performance targets for some measures because the measures were new, and for some measures Justice believes that setting performance targets could cause the public to perceive law enforcement as engaging in "bounty hunting" or pursuing arbitrary targets merely for the sake of meeting particular goals. Justice's strategies varied in the extent to which they included sufficient information to inform decisionmakers about initiatives to achieve these outcomes. GAO notes opportunities for Justice to improve the usefulness of its reports and plans.