The Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 requires federal agencies to produce strategic plans, annual performance plans, and annual performance reports. The Annual Performance Report Scorecard began in 1999, the first year of required performance reporting, with the goal of fostering continuous improvement in the quality of disclosure in performance reports. Agencies must adequately disclose their activities and performance results if citizens and elected policy makers are to make informed decisions - transparency is a crucial first step towards effective government accountability.
The Scorecard evaluates and ranks the annual performance reports of the 24 major federal agencies covered under the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990. Our scoring process evaluates:
- how transparently an agency discloses its successes and failures;
- how well an agency documents the tangible public benefits it claims to have produced; and
- whether an agency demonstrates leadership that uses annual performance information to devise strategies for improvement.
An experienced research team (supported by an advisory panel of experts) reviews each report according to 12 criteria under those three main categories. While the same criteria have been applied consistently each year since the study began, the rigor of application has tightened as agencies find ways to improve reporting practices and set new standards. Our study does not make judgments about the quality of the actual results the agencies produced, but rather focuses only on the quality of the disclosure to the public.
Related Links:
Video Coverage of the 10th Annual Performance Report Scorecard Release - Available on the Mercatus Center's Channel on YouTube.
Scorecard Evaluation Criteria - Description of the 12 criteria used to evaluate agency performance and accountability reports.
Criteria Guidance - Observations of Agency Reports - Highlights best and worst reporting practices seen over the years in the Scorecard analysis.
Recommendations for Summary Documents (Citizens Reports) - Describes features of a good summary document, provided to agencies for fy 2007, the first year of OMB's pilot.
Agency Contact Information - Contact information for a representative of the 24 agencies scored in the Scorecard, as well as links to agencies' performance and accountability reports.
Individual Agency Evaluations:
Individual Agency Evaluations, Fiscal Year 2008
Individual Agency Evaluations, Fiscal Year 2007
Individual Agency Evaluations, Fiscal Year 2006
Individual Agency Evaluations, Fiscal Year 2005
Individual Agency Evaluations, Fiscal Year 2004
Past Scorecards:
10th Annual Performance Report Scorecard - Fiscal Year 2008
9th Annual Performance Report Scorecard - Fiscal Year 2007
8th Annual Performance Report Scorecard - Fiscal Year 2006
7th Annual Performance Report Scorecard - Fiscal Year 2005
6th Annual Performance Report Scorecard - Fiscal Year 2004
5th Annual Performance Report Scorecard - Fiscal Year 2003
4th Annual Performance Report Scorecard - Fiscal Year 2002
3rd Annual Performance Report Scorecard - Fiscal Year 2001
2nd Annual Performance Report Scorecard - Fiscal Year 2000
1st Annual Performance Report Scorecard - Fiscal Year 1999
