United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office General Government Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2000-09-19 monographic deposited born digital 28 p. GA 1.13:GGD-00-207 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GGD-00-207 P0b002ee18039e22c f:gg00207 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-GGD-00-207 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GGD-00-207 GGD-00-207 Postal service Performance measures Strategic planning Agency missions Program evaluation Public administration Reporting requirements Government Performance and Results Act GPRA Letter Report GGD

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Postal Service's (USPS) performance measures, reports, and plans, focusing on: (1) how well USPS fiscal year (FY) 1999 performance report addressed USPS progress toward achieving the goals established by the FY 1999 performance plan; and (2) whether USPS FY 2001 preliminary performance plan demonstrates continued progress in developing a resonable basis for establishing accountability for results.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) GAO's assessments of USPS' FY 1999 performance report and its FY 2001 preliminary performance plan are not as positive as prior years' assessments of USPS efforts under the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA); (2) although both the FY 1999 performance report and FY 2001 performance plan contain several positive aspects, GAO did not see the continued progression of improvements in USPS' GPRA-related documents that GAO observed in the past; (3) more specifically, GAO believes that some aspects of USPS' FY 1999 performance report were not as straightforward and clearly stated as intended by GPRA, and some aspects of USPS' FY 2001 preliminary performance plan were not as comprehensive as they had been in prior plans; (4) GAO also has concerns about other aspects that may limit the plan's usefulness; (5) it appears that some aspects of USPS' FY 1999 performance report could be misleading; (6) the report could mislead readers into concluding that USPS' Total Factor Productivity increased during FY 1999 due to the report's portrayal of negative postal productivity as a strongly positive result; (7) there are also a number of reasons why USPS' FY 2001 preliminary performance plan may not have been as useful to Congress, postal managers, and others as it could have been; and (8) those reasons include instances where: (a) without detailed explanation, several prior years' subgoals--and their associated indicators and targets--were not carried forward into FY 2001 preliminary performance plan; (b) the criteria USPS used to measure its success toward achieving certain goals were unclear; (c) the descriptions of strategies to accomplish certain results were incomplete; (d) information contained in prior years' plans were carried forward into the current year's plan without always being updated to reflect known or anticipated changes; and (e) little or no explanation was given on why the plan lacked baseline data for some quantitative indicators. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GGD-00-207/html/GAOREPORTS-GGD-00-207.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GGD-00-207/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GGD-00-207.pdf GAO/GGD-00-207 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GGD-00-207 Letter Report GAO/GGD-00-207; U.S. Postal Service: Enhancements Needed in Performance; Postal service Performance measures Strategic planning Agency missions Program evaluation Public administration Reporting requirements Government Performance and Results Act GPRA Title 39 Section 2803 Title 39 Section 2804 39 U.S.C. 2803 39 U.S.C. 2804