Senator says OMB sets poor example on performance reports

The Office of Management and Budget isn't setting a good example for other agencies to follow in complying with the Government Performance and Results Act, said Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., in a recent letter to OMB director Jacob Lew.

Thompson, chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee and a Results Act watchdog, told Lew he was disappointed in OMB's 1999 performance report because its goals were too broadly defined and its performance data was inadequate.

"Without such measures or goals, it is difficult, if not impossible, to assess progress in addressing major management problems and to hold people accountable," Thompson said.

Agencies' performance reports mark the culmination of the first complete cycle of the Government Performance and Results Act, a 1993 law that required agencies to write strategic plans and prepare annual performance plans and performance reports. Agencies wrote their first performance reports for fiscal 1999. The reports, due last month, were supposed to explain whether agencies met the goals in their plans.

OMB's goals were not tied to specific and measurable outcomes, as required under the law, Thompson said.

But Lew's response was simple: Do as we say, not as we do. OMB is an oversight agency, and doesn't run programs like most federal agencies do, he said. As a result, many of its activities do not lend themselves to quantification, Lew explained.

"Many of the measures we urge on operating agencies are not applicable to OMB's own work," Lew said.

Still, OMB took to heart Thompson's suggestion that the agency print an updated list of the President's priority management objectives (PMOs), including progress to date on the top goals of the administration. In his letter, Thompson urged Lew to publicly release the goals and measures associated with the PMOs for fiscal 2001, saying "if you allow OMB to be held publicly accountable for progress in addressing major management challenges, agencies will be more likely to take such accountability on themselves."

"Given the importance of the PMOs to OMB's oversight of government management, this is a very helpful suggestion," Lew wrote. The fiscal year 2001 budget has the goals for the coming year, he added. "We are very willing to provide information on what we are trying to accomplish and the results that were achieved."

Here's what OMB had to say about some of 1999's major Priority Management Objectives: