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Federal Aviation Administration: Improved Tracking of Results Needed to Provide Confidence in Benefits of Streamlining Activities

GAO-15-247 Published: Jan 27, 2015. Publicly Released: Feb 26, 2015.
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Highlights

What GAO Found

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) used a decentralized process to track the status of streamlining and reform initiatives identified in response to the Section 812 mandate in the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012. FAA's actions to implement the initiatives were mostly consistent with three key practices for organizational transformations but were less consistent with the key practice of adopting leading practices for results-oriented reporting, which includes using performance measures to show progress toward achieving results. Without information on the results of the initiatives, FAA and Congress cannot have confidence that FAA's efforts streamlined and reformed the agency.

Decentralized process: The Office of Finance and Management (AFN)—which led FAA's response to the Section 812 mandate—used a decentralized process to track initiatives. Individual offices responsible for the initiatives determined their status using varied definitions for “implemented.” For example, FAA considered an initiative to centralize leadership training “implemented” after officials created a plan for developing a series of courses, while FAA will consider an ongoing initiative to create standard procedures for the Office of Airports “implemented” after officials develop and deploy 24 new, standard procedures. As of January 2015, FAA considered 33 of the 36 initiatives implemented.

FAA's actions generally consistent with three key practices: GAO found that FAA's actions to implement the initiatives were mostly consistent for three key practices for organizational transformations—dedicate an implementation team, set implementation goals and a timeline, and establish a communication strategy. For example, FAA's actions were consistent with establishing a communication strategy for 30 of 36 initiatives and partially consistent for 6 of 36 initiatives.

FAA's actions less consistent with key practice regarding results-oriented reporting: GAO found that FAA's actions were inconsistent with this key practice for 3 of 36 initiatives, partially consistent for 12 of the 36, and consistent for 21 of 36. For example, for an initiative that was partially consistent, officials said that until they develop performance measures for the effect of the initiative, they would measure only whether staff use the new procedures. FAA's limited efforts to measure performance or outcomes of the initiatives hinder its ability to assess the initiatives' results. AFN has neither required offices to track performance measures nor made a specific effort to track any common measures across initiatives. As a result, offices used a range of performance measures to report results. GAO has previously found that information on results is critical for improving program performance and that agencies should have measures for the intended results of streamlining efforts—like cost savings and customer service—to help decision makers improve program performance. Actions to implement most of the 36 initiatives are continuing, and FAA plans to create a database to track these initiatives. Moving forward, FAA also plans to use the database to track other process improvement activities. To date, FAA has not decided what information to capture in the database but initially plans to include only descriptive information on each initiative. Lastly, Section 812 did not require FAA to track or report to Congress on the initiatives' results. By requiring such tracking and reporting, Congress could help ensure that FAA provides information on the results of a reform mandate, if required of FAA in the next authorization.

Why GAO Did This Study

As fiscal pressures facing the federal government continue, so too does the need for federal agencies to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of programs and activities. Section 812 of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 mandated that FAA review its programs, offices, and organizations to, among other things, identify and address inefficient processes, wasteful practices, and duplication. In response, FAA identified 36 initiatives, including centralizing administrative functions and modernizing records management.

GAO was asked to examine FAA's progress to streamline and reform the agency as Congress considers reauthorizing FAA in fiscal year 2015. GAO examined how FAA determined the status of initiatives and the extent to which its efforts to implement initiatives were consistent with selected key practices for organizational transformations. Since each initiative sought to streamline or reform FAA, GAO identified four key practices for organizational transformations as applicable to these initiatives. GAO assessed FAA's efforts by comparing FAA documents to the selected key practices and interviewing agency officials leading each initiative.

Recommendations

As Congress considers FAA reauthorization, GAO suggests that Congress consider requiring FAA to track and report on the actual results of future agency-reform efforts. GAO recommends that FAA take steps to capture the results of improvement initiatives in its planned database for process improvements. The Department of Transportation agreed with the recommendation.

Matter for Congressional Consideration

Matter Status Comments
If, in the next authorization for FAA, Congress chooses to mandate that FAA take actions to streamline and reform the agency, Congress may wish to consider requiring FAA to (1) track measures of and (2) report to Congress on the actual results of such efforts.
Closed – Not Implemented
Congress has passed several pieces of legislation to authorize FAA since GAO issued this 2015 report. This includes passing a multi-year authorization for FAA in 2018. In this 2018 authorization, Congress asked FAA to report on the results of its past actions to streamline the agency-those covered in GAO's 2015 report-and to identify and take new actions to further streamline and reform the agency. Congress did not, however, direct FAA to track and report on the results of this new effort. Therefore, this matter can no longer be implemented. GAO is closing it as closed-not implemented.

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Transportation To better enable FAA to track, aggregate, and report on the results of its streamlining and reform initiatives, the Secretary of Transportation should direct FAA to develop a mechanism to capture the results of its efficiency initiatives in its planned database for process improvements. Measures of results might include, for example, cost savings, timeliness, or customer service metrics, which may be common to several types of process improvement efforts and therefore facilitate aggregation across improvements.
Closed – Implemented
Section 812 of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 directed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to take various actions to streamline and reform the agency. FAA responded with a January 2013 report to Congress that identified 36 initiatives that reflected both ongoing efforts in these areas and new opportunities to improve processes and drive efficiencies across the agency. In 2015, GAO reported that FAA's limited efforts to measure performance or outcomes of the initiatives hindered its ability to assess the initiatives' results. The FAA office that led the response to the Section 812 mandate did not require offices to track performance measures and did not make an effort to track any common measures across initiatives. As a result, FAA offices used a range of performance measures to report results. Without the use of some common performance measures that FAA can use to more easily aggregate benefits and assess results across multiple initiatives, Congress and FAA would not know the extent to which the agency's efforts made the agency more efficient. At the time of GAO's report, actions to implement most of the 36 initiatives were ongoing, and FAA planned to create a database to track these initiatives and other process improvements. FAA had not yet decided what information to capture in the database but initially planned to include only descriptive information on each initiative. However, because many of the initiatives involved continuous action to realize benefits, collecting information on the results of these initiatives through the planned database could help FAA aggregate and report the results of the Section 812 initiatives as well as any future improvement and efficiency initiatives. Therefore, GAO recommended that FAA develop a mechanism to capture the results of its efficiency initiatives--results like cost savings, timeliness, or customer service metrics--in its database for process improvements. In 2018, GAO confirmed that FAA created a database that included a field to capture post-implementation information on the initiatives, including realized benefits. FAA also collected information from its offices using this new data field and produced a report on the 36 initiatives that described realized benefits. Moreover, the report presented information on several of the initiatives that contained common results like estimated or actual dollars saved. As a result, FAA is in a better position to track, aggregate, and report on the results of these efficiency Section 812 initiatives.

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Topics

Best practicesCommunicationFederal agency reorganizationInformation technologyInternal controlsMonitoringOrganizational changePerformance measuresProductivity in governmentRecords managementReporting requirementsStrategic planningDuplication of effortProgram goals or objectivesProgram implementation