It also requires that an agency’s strategic plan contain the following six critical elements: a mission statement; agencywide goals and objectives; the strategies and resources needed to achieve the goals and objectives; the relationship between the long-term goals and objectives and the annual performance goals; the key external factors that could affect the achievement of goals; and a description of how program evaluations were and will be used to establish or revise strategic goals. Though the Act does not include a requirement that the draft strategic plans should contain a description of how the activities of an agency relate and will be coordinated with the activities of other agencies with similar programs, OMB guidance does provide that the letter transmitting the strategic plan include a summary of the general scope and nature of the consultation and the types of entities consulted. National Science Foundation

While NSF addresses five of the six required elements of the Results Act, at least four of them need further development, and the sixth element—key external factors—is not included in its draft strategic plan. The Department is finalizing these elements and expects to include them in the final plan. On the basis of our work, however, we believe that Energy’s broad missions do involve or overlap those of other agencies. Commerce’s draft plan also does not identify crosscutting programs and activities or whether such shared responsibilities were coordinated in the development of the draft plan. National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Of the six elements required by the Results Act, NASA includes four in its draft strategic plan. However, the draft plan does note the importance of working with other agencies in achieving its objectives, and NASA officials stated that coordination has occurred at the program level. Environmental Protection Agency

EPA’s draft plan contains four of the six elements required by the Results Act, certain aspects of which could be improved. Although the goals and objectives—one of the completed elements—are generally results-oriented and measurable, some do not clearly define the expected results, and it is unclear how EPA would assess progress toward achieving them. EPA’s draft plan does not discuss the agency’s programs and activities that are crosscutting or similar to those of other federal agencies, but it does address the need for coordination with its stakeholders, which include federal entities. According to EPA officials, the agency is including in its coordination all of the other five science agencies discussed in this testimony. The lack of coordinated performance goals that are results-oriented may be problematic as the Congress begins to evaluate programs and activities that are crosscutting among the science agencies.
Why GAO Did This Study

GAO discussed the implementation of the Government Performance and Results Act in federal science agencies, focusing on six agencies' fulfillment of the requirements of the Results Act and the interagency crosscutting science programs, activities, or functions that are similar or complementary to those of other federal agencies. The agencies GAO discussed are the Departments of Commerce, Energy, and Transportation as well as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) overall, the six agencies' draft strategic plans show progress toward meeting the purposes of the act; however, only one of the six agencies' plans contains all six of the act's critical elements; (2) in addition, some of the completed elements were insufficient; (3) for example, the goals and objectives were frequently results-oriented, but it was unclear in all of the plans how some of the goals would be measured; (4) developing effective performance measures for these program goals will be a major challenge for science agencies; (5) futhermore, five of the six plans did not include information on past and future program evaluations and the one inclusion could be improved; (6) because the draft plans do not contain all six elements, the Congress is missing critical pieces of information for its consultations with the agencies; (7) under Office of Management and Budget guidance, the agencies' final submission should include a summary of consultation efforts, including crosscutting activities; (8) currently, the agencies' draft plans generally do not address how crosscutting activities correspond with those of other agencies; (9) in addition, the plans generally do not address whether such shared responsibilities were coordinated in the development of the draft plans; (10) however, some of the agencies' missions and goals do involve or overlap those of other agencies; (11) despite the fact that the draft plans do not reflect coordination activities, several agencies have initiated efforts to coordinate crosscutting research programs governmentwide; (12) coordination has occurred primarily at the program level rather than at the senior management level which is necessary to ensure consistency of program objectives among agencies; and (13) in GAO's opinion, recognition of such coordination activities as part of the final submission will be useful to the Congress in making funding decisions that involve similar or complementary science programs.