Federal Management Issue Area Plan--Fiscal Years 1995-96 (Letter Report,
03/01/95, GAO/IAP-95-9).
GAO provided information on its Federal Management issue area plan,
focusing on: (1) the integration of management requirements, improvement
strategies, and tools into management framework; (2) management reform
initiatives; (3) program implementation strategies that can be used to
improve efficiency and effectiveness; (4) federal statistical programs
that measure performance; and (5) the federal government's role as a
provider of accessible data.
GAO plans to: (1) describe key management laws and requirements and how
they function at the agency and program level; (2) identify strategies
that can support and integrate management improvement efforts; (3)
identify major challenges and opportunities in institutionalizing
strategic planning and performance measurement; (4) help agencies
implement the Government Performance and Results Act and expand
understanding of the act across GAO; (5) describe initiatives to
reinvent work and budget processes; (6) assess alternatives in carrying
out governmental functions; (7) assess available options to resolve the
District of Columbia's fiscal crisis; (8) identify ways to enhance
acceptance of the Consumer Price Index as a measure of inflation; (9)
determine the usability of federal statistical data; (10) identify
measures to reduce the cost of the 2000 Census; and (11) develop a
framework for publishing and electronically disseminating government
information.
--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------
REPORTNUM: IAP-95-9
TITLE: Federal Management Issue Area Plan--Fiscal Years 1995-96
DATE: 03/01/95
SUBJECT: Statistical data
Information dissemination operations
Strategic planning
Census
Cost effectiveness analysis
General management reviews
Compliance
Data integrity
IDENTIFIER: OMB 2000
Consumer Price Index
District of Columbia
GMR
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Cover
================================================================ COVER
General Government Division
March 1995
FEDERAL MANAGEMENT ISSUE AREA PLAN
- FISCAL YEARS 1995-96
GAO/IAP-95-9
Abbreviations
=============================================================== ABBREV
FOREWORD
============================================================ Chapter 0
The Federal Management issue area is one of the General Accounting
Office's 35 issue areas. Relying heavily on consultation with
congressional committees, agency officials, and other experts, GAO
develops strategic plans to ensure that its limited resources are
directed toward the most important concerns of the Congress. The
Federal Management issue area reviews a broad range of cross-cutting
federal management and statistical policy issues that include the
Government Performance and Results Act; the National Performance
Review; regulatory reform; privatization and other public-private mix
alternatives; and the examination of the quality, reliability, and
usefulness of leading social and economic statistical data series.
GAO serves as a source of timely, accurate information and unbiased
analysis for decisionmakers in the Congress and executive agencies.
For each issue area, GAO's strategic plan describes the significance
of the issues, our objectives, and the focus of our work. Our work
results in such products as reports, briefings, and testimonies.
GAO's work on federal management issues is focused on the following
principal issues:
�the integration of management requirements, improvement strategies,
and tools into a consistent management framework;
�use of strategic planning and outcome-oriented performance
measurements to continually improve agencies' effectiveness;
�the management reform initiatives that are being or can be
implemented;
�the mix of program implementation strategies, including expanding
the use of the private sector and its delivery methods, that can be
used to improve effectiveness and efficiency;
� federal statistical programs as a source of accurate, adequate, and
timely measures of social and economic activity and government
performance; and
� the federal government's role as a provider of useful and readily
accessible data at reasonable cost.
In the pages that follow, we describe our key planned work on these
pivotal issues.
Because events may significantly affect even the best of plans, our
planning process allows for updating the plan and responding quickly
to emerging issues. If you have any questions or suggestions about
this plan, please call either me or Charles I. Patton, Associate
Director, on (202) 512-8676.
William M. Hunt
Director
Federal Management Issues
Contents
FOREWORD
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:1
1
TABLE I: KEY ISSUES
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:2
4
TABLE II: PLANNED MAJOR WORK
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:3
8
TABLE III: GAO CONTACTS
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:4
9
TABLE I: KEY ISSUES
============================================================ Chapter 2
Issue Significance
--------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------
Integrated management framework: In the next several years, a wide array
How can current management of government reinvention and reform
requirements, improvement strategies, initiatives will be undertaken by both
and tools be integrated into a the legislative and executive branches.
management framework to accomplish Many of these initiatives will affect
agencies' goals in a results-oriented the management of agencies and
environment? programs. These efforts will follow
recent reforms, including the Chief
Financial Officers Act, the Government
Performance and Results Act of 1993
(GPRA), and the first phase of the
National Performance Review (NPR) as
well as earlier reforms, such as the
Federal Managers Financial Integrity
Act and the Paperwork Reduction Act.
The success of these new initiatives
will rest in part on how well they can
be integrated into a management
framework to leverage current and
earlier improvement initiatives as well
as ongoing management processes. The
administration also is planning to
introduce its own set of initiatives
that need to be considered in any
management framework.
Managing for results: How can agencies The landmark GPRA seeks to
use strategic planning and outcome- fundamentally change the orientation of
oriented performance measurements to federal management and accountability
continually improve effectiveness and away from a preoccupation with inputs
responsiveness within given resource and rigid adherence to prescribed
levels? processes to a greater focus on
outcomes and results. Outcome-oriented
strategic planning and performance
measurement and reporting are the core
elements of GPRA. Many of the current
management initiatives in the Congress
and the administration (e.g., Senator
Roth's Blueprint for Reform, efforts to
shift responsibility for many federal
programs to states and local
governments, NPR, and the
administration's streamlining efforts)
require agreement on the desired
outcomes of federal programs and the
existence of systematic methods and
measures to assess their progress.
Management reform initiatives: A number of plans have been proposed or
What management reform initiatives are are under way to reform the way federal
being or can be implemented to improve programs are managed and implemented,
government operations and including NPR, OMB 2000, and
effectiveness? congressional initiatives to
restructure government and reduce the
burden of federal regulations. Taken
together, these efforts have the
potential to significantly improve the
efficiency, effectiveness, and
responsiveness of government.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Objectives Focus of work
--------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------
--Describe key management laws and � Identify major requirements contained
requirements and their linkage points in laws and regulations that govern
and identify opportunities to align and federal managers and their rationale,
streamline requirements that enhance underlying assumptions, and
management capacity while ensuring applicability to current conditions.
accountability. � Assess key requirements to determine
gaps and overlaps between various laws
--Describe how requirements are and regulations and to identify the
communicated to and function at the impact on agency operations and
agency and program operating levels. opportunities to better integrate and
align requirements.
--Identify and describe effective � Describe the linkage among the major
strategies and tools that can support management processes created through
and integrate management improvement law and case studies that describe and
efforts. analyze the various strategies and
tools used in linking requirements and
--Determine how federal agencies manage systems to achieve program results.
and integrate recent and ongoing � Identify and assess practices that
changes. provide agency managers greater
capacity to manage and integrate recent
and ongoing changes in their agencies.
--Identify major challenges and � Assess agencies' efforts to implement
opportunities in institutionalizing and institutionalize GPRA concepts.
strategic planning and performance � Identify the critical steps necessary
measurement. for the Congress and agencies to
implement outcome-oriented strategic
--Provide tools and methodologies for planning and performance measurement
implementing and improving strategic systems.
planning and performance measurements. � Facilitate work on strategic planning
and performance measurement by program
--Help agencies to implement GPRA by issue areas across GAO.
transferring knowledge, helping them to � Support OPM's GPRA training efforts,
build skills, and providing lessons as required by GPRA.
learned from related public and private � Provide agencies with tools to assess
efforts. their progress in implementing GPRA.
--Expand the understanding of GPRA-
related concepts and principles across
GAO and facilitate their use in GAO
assignments and in other federal audit
organizations.
--Describe agencies' initiatives to � Monitor reinvention lab issues,
reinvent their work processes and processes, and accomplishments,
lessons learned from those describing certain labs in detail.
initiatives. � Describe OMB 2000 goals and
--Describe OMB's efforts to integrate implementation strategies within OMB
management into its budget process and and selected agencies.
to improve its relations with other � Develop case studies of businesses'
federal agencies. regulatory burdens, problematic
--Identify opportunities for the regulations, and possible solutions.
Congress and agencies to improve � Assess the second phase of NPR.
federal regulatory management.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Issue Significance
--------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------
Implementation strategies: What mix of As congressional and executive branch
program implementation strategies, leaders seek to make fundamental
including expanding the use of the reforms in the role of government and
private sector and its delivery the way it delivers programs, these
methods, can be used to improve leaders must have current information
effectiveness and efficiency? on the options available and the degree
of success others have had in
implementing these options.
Federal statistics: Do federal Decisionmakers in both the public and
statistical programs provide accurate, private sectors need to rely on federal
adequate, and timely measures of social statistics to understand current
and economic activity and government economic and social conditions and to
performance? estimate the likely effects of their
decisions. The accuracy and timeliness
of these statistics are frequently
questioned, most notably in the recent
debate over the reliability of the
Consumer Price Index for adjusting
federal taxes and expenditures for
inflation. Successful GPRA
implementation, furthermore, will
increase the demand for federal
statistics to improve their capability
to measure the outcomes of federal
programs. Inaccurate or incomplete data
inherently limit the ability of
decisionmakers to plan, evaluate, and
improve programs. These needs must be
balanced against the costs of
statistical programs, particularly the
paperwork burden.
Information policy: How can the federal Government-generated information is the
government improve its role as a lifeblood of the federal government and
provider of useful and readily is essential to agency missions as well
accessible data at reasonable cost? as to an informed public debate. The
government's ability to provide the
public with useful, accurate, and
timely information in a cost-effective
manner has been the subject of
considerable debate, especially with
the emergence of various electronic
technologies. Conflicting proposals
have been made on how best to reform
the methods the government uses to meet
its basic responsibility for informing
the nation about its activities.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Objectives Focus of work
--------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------
--Assist the Congress by assessing � Describe uses and accountability of
alternative approaches to carry out government corporations.
governmental and quasigovernmental � Survey other governments' use of the
functions. private sector.
� Identify alternative guidelines for
--Develop criteria for identifying public sector roles.
alternatives to public sector roles. � Analyze U.S. cities' experiences in
resolving fiscal crises to improve the
--Describe lessons learned from other District of Columbia's management and
jurisdictions in expanding market operations.
mechanisms to make them more � Assist the Congress in drafting
effective. legislation for a D.C. oversight
board.
--Assist the Congress in assessing the � Provide the D.C. oversight board with
District of Columbia's fiscal crisis needed information on other oversight
and the options available for resolving boards and related issues.
it.
--Identify improvements that the Bureau � Assess the quality of federal
of Labor Statistics should make in statistics that underlie federal
order to enhance the analytical program decisions and evaluations.
soundness, popular understanding, and � Analyze and assess measurement issues
acceptance of the Consumer Price Index in the Consumer Price Index.
as a measure of inflation. � Recommend improvements in reporting
data on international transactions that
--Assist federal statistical agencies are to increase their reliability in a
in improving the accuracy, cost-effective manner.
completeness, and cost-effectiveness of � Analyze potential benefits and costs
international transaction statistics so of greater consolidation or
that those statistics can be more privatization of federal statistical
useful to government policymakers and programs for the Congress.
business users.
--Assist the Congress in determining
whether the current dispersion of
statistical production among 70
agencies best serves the nation's need
for accurate, timely, and usable
statistical data in the most cost-
effective manner.
--Improve the coverage, accuracy, � Improve the accuracy and reduce the
timeliness, and cost-effectiveness of cost of the decennial census and other
sociodemographic data used to formulate sociodemographic surveys.
public policy. � Suggest ways the federal government
can obtain printing services in order
--Identify measures that the Bureau of to increase efficiency and economy.
the Census can take to improve the � Review federal guidance for providing
effectiveness and reduce the cost of government information electronically.
the 2000 Census.
--Assist in developing a framework for
publishing and electronically
disseminating government information.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TABLE II: PLANNED MAJOR WORK
============================================================ Chapter 3
Issue Planned major job starts
------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------
Integrated management --Develop a comprehensive inventory of the major
framework legislative requirements for federal managers.
--Identify and describe management strategies and
tools for integrating statutory requirements.
--Assess how agencies' use management tools to manage
changes
being introduced.
Managing for results --Provide agencies with tools to assess their
progress in meeting GPRA requirements.
--Continue assessing efforts to implement GPRA.
--Evaluate agencies' implementation of GPRA as
required by law.
Management improvement --Monitor and assess the status of the
initiatives administration's "NPR II" initiative.
--Identify ways to refocus federal regulatory
management from an emphasis on procedural compliance
to an emphasis on outcomes.
--Assess the Office of Management and Budget's
oversight and coordination of federal regulatory
policies.
Implementation strategies --Conduct a survey of public-private mix options.
--Identify criteria and oversight capability for
establishing government corporations.
Federal statistics --Identify ways for improving the Consumer Price
Index.
--Identify and assess ways for improving the accuracy
and usefulness of international transaction
statistics.
--Identify opportunities for improving coordination
of data gathering and streamlining the organization
of federal statistical production.
Information policy --Identify opportunities to improve the accuracy and
reduce
the cost of the decennial census and other
sociodemographic surveys.
--Suggest ways the federal government can obtain
printing services in order to increase efficiency and
economy.
--Review federal guidance for providing government
information.
--Develop a framework for publishing government
information electronically.
--Review federal agencies' electronic data
dissemination policies and practices.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TABLE III: GAO CONTACTS
============================================================ Chapter 4
DIRECTOR
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.1
William M. Hunt (202) 512-8676
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.2
Charles I. Patton (202) 512-3532
ASSISTANT DIRECTORS
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.3
James A. Burow
Frances P. Clark
Curtis W. Copeland
James McDermott
J. Christopher Mihm
John K. Needham
*** End of document. ***