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9th Annual Performance Report Scorecard

Which Federal Agencies Best Inform the Public?

Maurice McTigue, Jerry Ellig, Henry Wray

May 13, 2008

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The Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) celebrates its 15th anniversary in 2008. Enacted in 1993, GPRA directs agencies to define outcomes they seek to produce, identify measures that show whether they are making progress on these outcomes, and disclose the results to Congress and the public. This Scorecard ranks the quality of disclosure of the reports of the 24 agencies covered by the Chief Financial Officers Act. We used the same criteria as in previous years.

New for fiscal 2007 was the option for agencies to participate in a "pilot" program, allowing them to publish their performance reports in a different format than previous years. Nine agencies took part in the pilot this year, publishing detailed performance information in their congressional budget justifications, producing a separate financial report, and producing a "highlights" document intended to summarize both performance and financial results. For the purposes of the Scorecard, our research team reviewed primarily the highlights document, referring to the other sources when clearly referenced within the highlights document.

Key findings include:

• Average total score fell for the first time in five years.
• The principle benefit for the public of the pilot format that is currently evident is its emphasis on the highlights document. In general, the pilot reduced the quality of disclosure to the public.
• Good strategic planning is a crucial input into good performance reporting, because strategic planning establishes the goals and measures to be reported on.