The Results Act: Observations on the U.S. Export-Import Bank's Draft
Fiscal Years 2001-06 Strategic Plan (Correspondence, 02/16/2000,
GAO/GGD/NSIAD-00-93R).
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the
U.S. Export-Import Bank's (Eximbank) draft fiscal years 2001-2006
strategic plan, focusing on the: (1) improvements made to the February
1999 draft strategic plan; and (2) areas where Eximbank's draft
strategic plan could better meet the Government Performance and Results
Act of 1993 and related guidance.
GAO noted that: (1) Eximbank has made improvements in its latest draft
fiscal years 2001-2006 strategic plan over its February 1999 draft plan
that GAO reviewed this past summer; (2) specifically, the revised plan:
(a) more fully addresses Eximbank's purpose in aiding the financing and
promotion of exports; (b) removes routine operational objectives, such
as developing a recruiting process; (c) provides greater details on
program evaluation plans; and (d) presents information in a more
concise, user-friendly format; (3) however, Eximbank could further
improve its draft strategic plan to make it more useful to congressional
and other decisionmakers; (4) the plan could more fully explain the
strategic goals' expected results and better discuss the strategic
goals' relationship to the annual performance goals; (5) the plan could
better describe the means and strategies to be used to achieve strategic
goals and the planned coordination of activities and programs that cut
across other federal agency efforts; and (6) other areas of the plan
could be improved, including: (a) adding language to more completely
address the portion of Eximbank's mission statement that focuses on
promoting and maintaining U.S. jobs; and (b) clarifying how some
external factors in the strategic plan relate to achieving Eximbank's
goals.
--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------
REPORTNUM: GGD/NSIAD-00-93R
TITLE: The Results Act: Observations on the U.S. Export-Import
Bank's Draft Fiscal Years 2001-06 Strategic Plan
DATE: 02/16/2000
SUBJECT: Strategic planning
Off-budget federal entities
Exporting
Financial management
Performance measures
Agency missions
Interagency relations
IDENTIFIER: Eximbank Draft Fiscal Years 2001-06 Strategic Plan
Eximbank February 1999 Draft Strategic Plan
GPRA
Government Performance and Results Act
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GAO/GGD/NSIAD-00-93R
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Page 4 GAO/GGD/NSIAD-00-93R Eximbank 2001-06 Strategic Plan
B-284539
February 16, 2000
The Honorable James A. Leach,
Chairman
The Honorable John J. LaFalce
Ranking Member
Committee on Banking and Financial Services
House of Representatives
The Honorable Michael B. Enzi
Chairman, Subcommittee on International
Trade and Finance
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
United States Senate
Subject: The Results Act: Observations on the U.S. Export-
Import Bank's Draft Fiscal Years
2001-06 Strategic Plan
As requested, this letter provides our observations on the
U.S. Export-Import Bank's (Eximbank) draft fiscal years 2001-
06 strategic plan, which was submitted to Congress on November
30, 1999, to meet the consultation and review requirements of
the 1993 Government Performance and Results Act (the Results
Act).1 This past summer, at your request, we offered Eximbank
advisory comments on ways that it might improve its draft
February 10, 1999, strategic and annual performance plans. In
this letter, we describe (1) the improvements made to the
February draft strategic plan and (2) areas where Eximbank's
draft strategic plan could better meet Results Act and related
guidance. In several instances, we have included illustrative
examples of possible improvements that were drawn from
material presented in the draft strategic plan and other
Eximbank sources.
Results in Brief
Eximbank has made improvements in its latest draft fiscal
years 2001-06 strategic plan over its February 1999 draft plan
that we reviewed this past summer. Specifically, the revised
plan (1) more fully addresses Eximbank's purpose in aiding the
financing and promotion of exports; (2) removes routine
operational objectives, such as developing a recruiting
process; (3) provides greater details on program evaluation
plans; and (4) presents information in a more concise, user-
friendly format.
However, Eximbank could further improve its draft strategic
plan to make it more useful to congressional and other
decisionmakers. First, the plan could more fully explain the
strategic goals' expected results and better discuss the
strategic goals' relationship to the annual performance goals.
In addition, the plan could better describe the means and
strategies2 to be used to achieve the strategic goals and the
planned coordination of activities and programs that cut
across other federal agency efforts. Lastly, other areas of
the plan could be improved, including (1) adding language to
more completely address the portion of Eximbank's mission
statement that focuses on promoting and maintaining U.S. jobs
and (2) clarifying how some external factors in the strategic
plan relate to achieving Eximbank goals.
Background
A key requirement of the Results Act is that agencies must
develop strategic plans in consultation with Congress.
Strategic plans are the starting point and basic underpinnings
for results-oriented management. Complementing the strategic
plans are annual performance plans that are to set annual
goals with measurable target levels of performance and annual
program performance reports that compare actual performance to
the annual goals.
The Act requires that an agency's strategic plan contain the
following six key elements:
(1) a comprehensive agency mission statement;
(2) agencywide long-term goals and objectives for all major
functions and operations;
(3) approaches (or strategies) and the various resources
needed to achieve the goals and objectives;
(4) a description of the relationship between the long-term
goals and objectives and the annual performance goals;
(5) an identification of key factors, external to the agency
and beyond its control, that could significantly affect
achievement of the strategic goals; and
(6) a description of how program evaluations were used to
establish or revise strategic goals and a schedule for future
program evaluations.
Improvements Have Been Made to the Draft February 1999 Plan
Eximbank has made improvements in several areas in the latest
draft strategic plan over the February 1999 draft plan we
reviewed. First, the plan more fully addresses Eximbank's
purpose in aiding the financing and promotion of exports. For
example, the plan now contains goals to (1) match financing
offers from foreign, officially supported competition and (2)
fill financing gaps caused by the lack of private financing
for all qualified exports.
Second, the plan has removed routine operational objectives.
For example, Eximbank has removed operational objectives, such
as developing a recruitment process, that were contained in
the February 1999 draft strategic plan. The plan now more
clearly emphasizes the long-term programmatic and policy goals
of Eximbank.
Third, the plan provides details on program evaluation plans,
such as an evaluation of transactions facing competition and
the relative effectiveness of Eximbank's programs in the face
of that competition. The plan describes the general scope and
methodology for the evaluation and key issues to be addressed.
This evaluation could provide a critical source of information
in assessing the validity and reasonableness of goals and
strategies as well as for identifying factors likely to affect
Eximbank's performance. Other planned Eximbank program
evaluations could provide the same type of critical
information.
Lastly, the plan presents information in a more concise, user-
friendly format by linking the required elements in the plan
by strategic goal. For example, by individual strategic goal,
the plan displays strategies, the relationship between long-
term goals and annual performance goals, and external factors.
This format of tying together the critical components for each
goal makes it easier for the reader to review the plan.
Opportunities for Continued Improvement in Eximbank's Draft
Strategic Plan
Although Eximbank has made improvements in its draft strategic
plan, there are opportunities to make further improvements in
the draft strategic goals and in describing how they will be
accomplished. The plan could better explain (1) the strategic
goals' expected results, (2) the strategic goals' relationship
to annual performance goals, (3) the means and strategies to
achieve the goals, (4) federal agency crosscutting efforts,
(5) how the job promotion portion of the mission statement is
to be achieved, and (6) the impact of external factors on
achievement of goals. These improvements should make it
easier for Congress to clearly follow Eximbank's strategic
direction and for Eximbank managers to establish annual
performance goals, measures, and means and strategies to
achieve performance goals.
Strategic Goals Could Better Explain Expected Results
According to the Results Act and related guidance, strategic
goals should explain what results are expected from its major
functions and operations and when to expect those results. The
goals should be sufficiently precise to direct and guide
agency staff toward actions that fulfill the agency's mission.
The goals also should be stated in a manner that allows a
future assessment to be made of whether the expected results
were or are being achieved and the schedule for their
implementation.3
Eximbank's draft fiscal years 2001-06 strategic goals focus on
many of the key aspects of Eximbank's mission statement.
However, for the most part, the goals do not clearly explain
what is expected from the agency's major functions and
operations-its programs-and when results are anticipated. As a
result, the extent to which the goals have been achieved will
be difficult to assess in the future. Examples of
opportunities to improve Eximbank's strategic goals follow:
�Strategic goal 1 states: "For qualified transactions,
aggressively match financing offers from foreign, officially
supported competitors."
Although this strategic goal sets out Eximbank's goal to
aggressively match financing offers and is consistent with the
mission statement, it could be more definitive. This goal is
intended to provide strategic direction for the agency's major
product areas and could more precisely provide an
understanding of what would be expected of the Eximbank
divisions in achieving the goal.
If the goal is intended to improve or sustain the ability to
match financing offers in terms of attributes such as quality
or timeliness, then the draft plan's key strategies
discussions could provide further information about potential
strategic goals. To illustrate, the current strategies for
strategic goal 1 indicate that Eximbank expects to (1) expand
Eximbank's ability to offer credits in difficult markets and
compete with a mismatched loan, (2) conduct smaller
transactions, and (3) increase positive customer perceptions
of Eximbank's financing criteria. Expectations in improving
the ability to match financing offers could be stated in a
strategic goal or defined by planned annual performance goals
that support a more general strategic goal. More precise
strategic goals could also address specific performance
targets for major financing assistance products, drawing on
the Eximbank product material contained in appendix 2 of the
draft plan.
�Strategic goal 4 states: "Develop techniques and/or programs
that will maximize Ex-Im Bank's support for U.S. exports by
leveraging Ex-Im Bank's resources."
Strategic goals should be predominately outcome-type goals.4
However, this strategic goal is to develop techniques and
programs, not an intended result. In the description of the
goal's strategies, the draft plan indicates that Eximbank does
have more specific outcome intentions in mind, such as (1)
greater risk-sharing with up to 10 percent borne by the
private sector and (2) providing some level of support to
industries that do not meet standard credit guidelines (but
with, we assume, a reasonable assurance of repayment). It
appears to us that these items, currently described as
strategies, could form the basis for more outcome-type goals.
For example, a strategic goal might quantify achieving greater
risk-sharing with the private sector. This would focus the
goal on an outcome, versus a strategy for achieving an
outcome.
�Strategic goal 5 states: "By FY2005, increase the percentage
of U.S. exporters aware of Ex-Im Bank by 20%."
Although this strategic goal is designed to increase U.S.
exporter awareness, it is not clear what outcome is expected
of that increased awareness. The goal's explanatory
information indicates that the goal is especially directed at
providing financing services for small businesses. A more
specific outcome for such a goal might be to establish a
baseline and an expected percentage increase in the use of the
Eximbank financing by small businesses by a given year.
Another way of specifying an outcome would be to develop
performance expectations for the Eximbank's partnership with
other organizations, such as cities, states, and trade
associations, to provide support for small business exporters.
To illustrate, a strategic goal might cover the results, such
as increased financing services for small businesses, from
city and state partners marketing Eximbank's programs to local
businesses and commercial banks or packaging transactions for
banks.
Relationship Between Strategic and Annual Performance Goals
Could Be Better Discussed
Under the Results Act and related guidance, performance goals
and measures included in the agency's annual performance plans
should be based on the strategic goals in its strategic plan.
Office of Management and Budget guidance states that the
strategic plan should outline (1) the type, nature, and scope
of the performance goals to be included in annual performance
plans; (2) the relationship between the performance goals and
the strategic goals; and (3) the relevance and use of
performance goals in helping to determine the achievement of
strategic goals.
In our view, the draft fiscal years 2001-06 strategic plan
could provide more specific and clearer information on the
type, nature, or scope of the planned annual performance goals
and their relationship to the strategic goals. This is
particularly important as many of Eximbank's strategic goals
(strategic goals 1, 3, and 4) are not defined in a way that
allows for a direct assessment of achievement, and the annual
performance goals should be used to provide the basis for the
assessment.
To illustrate, Eximbank's discussion of the annual performance
goals for strategic goal 1 states that annual performance
goals are division goals for programs to match financing
offered by the competition. According to the plan, the goals
are modified and reviewed annually through a "Competitiveness
Report" and are statements of changes planned to achieve case-
by-case competitiveness. From this discussion, it is difficult
to understand the specific type, nature, and scope of the
annual division goals expected in the annual plan. Further,
the discussion does not clearly outline the relevance and use
of division performance goals in meeting strategic goal 1,
which is to aggressively match foreign, officially supported
competitor financing offers. Currently, there is no clear link
between the strategic goals and the divisional
responsibilities and performance goals in implementing the
strategic plan.
In other cases, the planned annual performance goals outlined
in the draft fiscal years 2001-06 plan are strategies that
might be used to support annual performance goals, rather than
actual performance goals. For example, the annual performance
goal discussion for strategic goal 5 states that annual
performance goals focus on identifying (1) small business
exporters, (2) their knowledge of the existence of government
financing support, and (3) their need for government financing
support. The plan also says annual goals will target improved
use of new methods to increase customer awareness. These
"performance goals" describe processes or activities to
identify exporters and financing characteristics or to
increase customer awareness. A more results-oriented goal
might be to establish expectations to increase knowledge or
awareness or respond to a need for government financing
support.
Means and Strategies Could Better Describe How Goals Will Be
Achieved
According to the Results Act and related guidance, a strategic
plan should include a discussion of means and strategies
describing how strategic goals will be achieved. These means
and strategies cover operational processes, skills, and
technologies as well as human, capital, information, and other
resources that are needed to achieve the goals. The discussion
of a plan's means and strategies needs to be sufficiently
specific to enable an assessment of whether they would help
achieve the goals in the strategic plan.
Eximbank's draft fiscal years 2001-06 strategic plan's means
and strategies information does not fully describe how the
strategic goals will be achieved. For example, the plan
describes operational activities such as developing new
products or revising procedures. However, the plan does not
discuss specific staff skills needed and only minimally
mentions the use of current or planned technologies. For
resources, the plan does not address the specific human,
capital, information, and other resources that will be needed
to achieve the individual strategic goals. Instead, the plan's
appendix 3 provides an allocation of personnel by functional
organization.
In addition, some strategies cannot be fully evaluated because
their intent is unclear, they appear to be already completed,
or they appear to lead to other strategies that are not
clearly defined. For example, one strategy for strategic goal
1 to match financing offers from competitors is to deal with
philosophical issues, but the philosophical issues are not
defined. In strategies for strategic goal 3 to provide
financing support where private financing is not available,
the plan indicates that the strategy to develop initiatives to
reach out to businesses is completed, and that the strategy to
establish a sales and marketing program will apparently end in
fiscal year 2001. Another strategy implies that automating an
intake and case processing system also will be done quickly to
support other activities, such as monitoring risk profile
changes. There does not appear to be other strategies planned
for later years covered by the strategic plan. The plan could
be improved by providing information on additional strategies
throughout the time covered by the strategic plan, such as
monitoring risk profile changes.
Lastly, the strategic plan does not outline how Eximbank will
communicate strategic goals throughout the organization and
hold managers and staff accountable for achieving these goals
as required by Results Act guidance. Without this information
required by the guidance, it is not clear what steps Eximbank
plans to take to ensure that managers and staff (1) are aware
of the strategic goals, (2) use the strategic goals in guiding
daily activities, and (3) are accountable for the results.
Federal Agency Crosscutting Efforts Should Be Identified and
Coordinated
The Results Act envisions that federal programs contributing
to the same or similar results should be closely coordinated
to ensure that goals are consistent and, as appropriate,
program efforts are mutually reinforcing.
With the exception of mentioning coordination with the
Department of the Treasury in developing environmental
guidelines, the draft strategic plan does not address the role
of other federal agencies in supporting Eximbank's efforts.
However, the draft February 1999 plan indicates that Eximbank
coordinates with other federal agencies on common program
interests, such as efforts with the Small Business
Administration to provide U.S. exporters with working capital
and with the Department of Commerce's U.S. Export Assistance
Centers in providing export finance. In addition, Eximbank is
part of the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee that was
created, among other things, to coordinate the delivery of
federal export promotion sources. The final strategic plan
would better meet the Results Act's requirements if it
describes the interface between Eximbank's programs and the
programs of other federal agencies and outlines how agency
efforts support common goals and objectives.
Job Promotion Addressed in the Mission Statement Is Not
Discussed in the Plan
The Results Act and related guidance state that a
comprehensive mission statement should be brief and should
define the agency's basic purpose, with particular focus on
its core programs and activities. Eximbank's mission statement
sets out its basic purpose as follows: ".to match foreign
officially supported competition and fill financing gaps in
order to maximize support for U.S. exports and contribute to
the promotion and maintenance of U.S. jobs." In this
presentation, matching competition and filling financing gaps
is set out as the primary purpose of the agency that leads to
maximizing support for U.S. exports and contributing to U.S.
job promotion and maintenance.
However, in its letter transmitting this draft strategic plan
to Congress, the Eximbank states its mission is ".to create
and sustain U.S. jobs by facilitating U.S. exports." In this
case, employment of U.S. workers is set out as the basic
purpose of Eximbank, not matching competition and filling
financing gaps. Therefore, it is unclear to us whether the
agency intends that creating and sustaining U.S. jobs be the
basic mission of the agency.5 If Eximbank maintains that
creating and/or maintaining jobs is a major purpose of
Eximbank, then the strategic plan should address the impact
its activities might have on U.S. jobs. For example, the plan
could (1) describe how financing exports and matching foreign
offers from foreign, officially supported competitors affect
the job environment or (2) address job impact in the program
evaluation part of the plan if data on the specific impact are
not available.
Impact of External Factors Could Be Clarified
Under the Results Act and related guidance, the strategic plan
is to identify the key factors external to Eximbank that are
beyond its control and that could have an impact on achieving
the strategic goals. The draft plan includes a section on
external factors for each strategic goal. However, it is not
clear how external factors for strategic goals 1 and 3 relate
to achieving those goals. For example, strategic goal 1 is to
match financing offers from foreign competitors. The trend of
global economic conditions-affecting the demand for
financing-is cited as the key external factor that might
affect this goal. However, how economic conditions and
financing demand will affect Eximbank's ability to develop
competitive rates, terms, and other conditions is left
unclear. To illustrate, if Eximbank had a strategic goal to
achieve a certain level of financing support, then it would be
clearer as to how global economic conditions would be a
factor.
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation
We discussed our observations with the Eximbank staff on
January 27, 1999, and February 1, 2000, and obtained written
comments on a draft of this letter from the Group Vice
President - Policy, which are reprinted in the enclosure.
Overall, Eximbank was appreciative of the technical assistance
we provided the agency over the past 8 months, and the agency
believed this assistance helped move its strategic plan
forward to a greater level of focus and readability. Eximbank
also believed that the information in this letter provided
useful guidance on areas in the strategic plan that could be
strengthened. For example, Eximbank stated that it had
identified opportunities to add further information on (1) the
relationship between strategic goals and annual performance
goals, (2) means and strategies, and (3) federal agency
crosscutting efforts.
Eximbank further commented that because it necessarily reacts
to the needs of the business community, the agency found it
fundamentally impossible to develop measurable, results-
oriented, quantifiable goals. Instead, Eximbank believed that
it could develop qualitative goals connected to the results
over which Eximbank does have some control. Focusing on
measurable qualitative results of its programs should help
Eximbank strengthen its performance management system.
However, as we indicated in our observations on specific
strategic goals, Eximbank has opportunities to develop both
qualitative and quantitative goals covering the agency's major
functions and operations and to define when results are
anticipated. For example, the first strategic goal could
include time, quality, and cost performance expectations that
would address Eximbank's ability to match financing offers.
The fourth strategic goal provides an opportunity to consider
an outcome-type goal that might quantify achieving greater
risk-sharing with the private sector. These examples
highlight factors over which Eximbank has some control and go
beyond qualitative performance expectations.
Lastly, Eximbank stated that it was difficult to measure the
direct link between its programs and employment results.
Eximbank stated it plans to explore the development of
measures that would provide a link between programs and the
promotion and maintenance of jobs. In our view, if Eximbank
maintains that creating and maintaining jobs is a major
purpose of Eximbank, undertaking the planned program
evaluations should assist Eximbank in identifying ways to
connect program activities and any potential employment
benefits.
Scope and Methodology
To review the Eximbank's draft fiscal years 2001-06 strategic
plan, we used the Results Act requirements supplemented by the
Office of Management and Budget's July 1999 guidance on
developing the plans (Circular A-11, part 2) as criteria to
determine whether the draft plan complied with the Results
Act. To judge the overall quality of the plan, we used our May
1997 guidance for congressional review of strategic plans.6 We
also relied on our other related work on improving strategic
plans.7
We did our work in December 1999 and January 2000 in
accordance with generally accepted government auditing
standards.
We are sending copies of this letter to interested
congressional committees and to the Honorable James A. Harmon,
President and Chairman of Eximbank. We will also make copies
available to others on request.
This letter was prepared under the direction of Kane Wong and
John Hutton. Sharon Caudle was a key contributor to this
letter. Please call me at (202)-512-8678, if you or your staff
have any questions concerning this letter.
Richard J. Hillman
Associate Director, Financial Institutions
and Market Issues
_______________________________
1 Public Law 103-62, 107 Stat. 285 (1993).
2 As defined by the Office of Management and Budget, means
and strategies are the processes, skills, technologies, and
various resources that will be used to achieve goals.
3 The Office of Management and Budget's Circular A-11 guidance
on the preparation and submission of strategic plans states
that a strategic goal should define how an agency will carry
out its mission over a period of time. A goal that is defined
quantitatively facilitates assessing if expected results are
achieved, as does a goal that is centered on the achievement
of a single event, such as landing astronauts on the Moon.
When strategic goals are defined in such a way that precludes
a direct future determination of achievement, the performance
goals and indicators in the annual performance plan should be
used to provide the basis for the assessment.
4 Office of Management and Budget guidance defines an outcome
goal as a description of the intended result, effect, or
consequence that will occur from carrying out a program or
activity.
5 Job creation and maintenance also is stressed in Eximbank's
fiscal year 1999 annual report to Congress. In that report,
Eximbank stated that in the past 7 years, Eximbank has
supported more than $100 billion of U.S. exports that have
directly created or sustained more than 1 million jobs in the
United States.
6 Agencies' Strategic Plans Under GPRA: Key Questions to
Facilitate Congressional Review (GAO/GGD-10.1.16, May 1997).
7 See Managing for Results: Critical Issues for Improving
Federal Agencies' Strategic Plans (GAO/GGD-97-180, Sept. 16,
1997), Managing for Results: Building on Agencies' Strategic
Plans to Improve Federal Management (GAO/T-GGD/AIMD-98-29,
Oct. 30, 1997), and Managing for Results: Observations on
Agencies' Strategic Plans (GAO/T-GGD-98-66, Feb. 12, 1998).
Comments From the Export-Import Bank
Page 12GAO/GGD/NSIAD-00-93R Eximbank 2001-06 Strat
egic Plan
*** End of Document ***