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President's Management Agenda: Review of OMB's Improved Financial Performance Scorecard Process

GAO-07-95 Published: Nov 16, 2006. Publicly Released: Nov 16, 2006.
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Highlights

The President's Management Agenda (PMA) focuses attention on ensuring resources entrusted to the federal government are well managed and used wisely. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) developed standards to measure success and a PMA scorecard that gives a "green", "yellow" or "red score" by agency. Green indicates success, yellow indicates mixed results, and red indicates unsatisfactory results. For the Improved Financial Performance Initiative, GAO was asked to (1) study and evaluate OMB's process and criteria for awarding a green score for current status and progress and (2) provide examples of how agency managers use financial data to better manage on a day-to-day basis. To fulfill these objectives, GAO interviewed OMB and agency officials and examined OMB and agency documentation relevant to OMB's scoring process.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Office of Management and Budget To help ensure consistency and continuity in the Improved Financial Performance Initiative scoring process over time and as the staff changes, the Director of OMB should direct the Office of Federal Financial Management to establish a process to more systematically document the basis for all key decisions and judgments made in determining agency green scores.
Closed – Not Implemented
In November 2006, GAO issued its report on President's Management Agenda (PMA), "Review of OMB's Improved Financial Performance Scorecard Process", which was under President George Bush's administration. Shortly following the issuance of this report, Barack Obama became President and took over the executive administration. Consequently, former President Bush's PMA was terminated and the executive branch under President Obama's administration no longer required the scorecard to be prepared. Therefore, this recommendation is no longer relevant.
Office of Management and Budget To help ensure consistency and continuity in the Improved Financial Performance Initiative scoring process over time and as the staff changes, the Director of OMB should direct the Office of Federal Financial Management to establish a process to document the receipt and review and approval of Green Plans, including updates used in the scoring process.
Closed – Not Implemented
In November 2006, GAO issued its report on President's Management Agenda (PMA), "Review of OMB's Improved Financial Performance Scorecard Process", which was under President George Bush's administration. Shortly following the issuance of this report, Barack Obama became President and took over the executive administration. Consequently, former President Bush's PMA was terminated and the executive branch under President Obama's administration no longer required the scorecard to be prepared. Therefore, this recommendation is no longer relevant.

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Topics

AccountabilityAuditing standardsEvaluation criteriaEvaluation methodsFinancial managementFinancial management systemsFinancial statement auditsInternal controlsPerformance appraisalPerformance measuresProgram evaluation