United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1997-07-11 monographic deposited born digital 19 p. GA 1.13:RCED-97-199R https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-199R P0b002ee180374732 f:rc97199r DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-199R machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-199R RCED-97-199R Agency missions Strategic planning Congressional/executive relations Interagency relations Reporting requirements Program evaluation Management information systems Energy research Research program management Competition Correspondence RCED Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Energy's (DOE) draft strategic plan, focusing on: (1) whether it fulfills the requirements of the Government Performance and Results Act; (2) whether DOE's key statutory authorities are reflected in the draft plan and, if so, how they relate to the missions and goals in the draft plan; (3) whether it reflects interagency coordination for crosscutting programs, activities, or functions that are similar or complementary to those of other federal agencies; (4) whether it addresses major management challenges that GAO had previously identified; and (5) the adequacy of DOE's data and information systems for providing reliable information for measuring results.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) DOE has been actively pursuing the objectives of the Results Act since 1993; (2) its draft plan provides a mission statement that is generally complete, results-oriented, and fulfills public needs; (3) however, the draft plan does not meet all the requirements of the Results Act; (4) the draft plan fully addresses two of the six required elements of the Results Act-the mission statement and goals and objectives-partially addresses a third, and acknowledges that three others need to be completed for the final plan; (5) because the draft plan does not contain all six elements, the Congress is missing critical pieces of information for its consultation with DOE; (6) the draft plan does not expressly link its mission, goals and objectives, and strategies with DOE's relevant major statutory responsibilities; (7) the Results Act does not require agencies' strategic plans to contain a statement of statutory authorities; (8) however, GAO believes that including such linkages may permit a better understanding of the diversity and complexity of DOE's overall mission and goals and objectives; (9) on the basis of GAO's review of relevant legislation, GAO believes that: (a) the missions and activities defined in DOE's draft plan are generally supported by broad legislation; and (b) the draft plan accurately reflects all of DOE's major legislative requirements; (10) DOE is sharing its draft plan with other federal agencies for coordination but believes its functions are unique; (11) its draft plan therefore does not identify programs and activities that are crosscutting or similar to those of other federal agencies; (12) however, DOE's mission does involve or overlap those of other agencies; (13) GAO's previous work has highlighted serious problems with DOE's management of contracts and major projects; (14) DOE's plan, under a section called corporate management, includes objectives and strategies that focus on these management challenges; (15) however, the specific measures in the draft plan to address these challenges appear limited in scope or are unclear; (16) the information system DOE uses to track performance measures and to identify management problems noted several weaknesses; (17) the system will require modification to track performance measures evolving from the draft plan; and (18) in addition, the system depends on information from other systems, some of which have had problems with data accuracy and completeness. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-199R/html/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-199R.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-199R/pdf/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-199R.pdf GAO/RCED-97-199R https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-199R Correspondence GAO/RCED-97-199R; Results Act: Observations on the Department of Energy's Draft Strategic Plan; Agency missions Strategic planning Congressional/executive relations Interagency relations Reporting requirements Program evaluation Management information systems Energy research Research program management Competition