Interior receives its highest rating on score card

Several agencies inched forward on their quarterly management progress reports, the Office of Management and Budget announced Tuesday. The Interior Department snagged its first top score, while others took a step backward.

OMB awarded Interior, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Small Business Administration improved grades on the President's Management Agenda score card while lowering the scores of the General Services Administration and Veterans Affairs.

Interior received a green rating, its first top score, for its competitive sourcing efforts, and also improved from red, the lowest score, to yellow, the middle rating, for its budget and performance integration. The Small Business Administration improved its e-government initiatives to green, and the Army Corps of Engineers improved its competitive sourcing initiatives to yellow.

GSA's budget and performance integration score, however, dropped from yellow to red, and Veterans Affairs similarly sunk to red on that measure.

Viki Reath, a GSA spokeswoman, emphasized that GSA achieved its goals in the competitive sourcing area, for which it has received a green score for the past two quarters, and also said the agency is pleased with its performance in e-government, real property and human capital.

"The score card also reflects room for improvement in the areas of financial performance, and budget and performance integration," she said, adding that GSA expects improvement as a result of audit work and the reorganization of its Federal Technology Service and Federal Supply Service.

A VA spokeswoman could not immediately provide comments.

Diana Price, a procurement specialist for the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, said she wasn't surprised that Interior received a top score for competitive sourcing. "OMB's approval is a badge of dishonor and indicative of everything that is wrong with the privatization process," she said, adding that she was skeptical of Interior's evaluation methods in job competitions.

OMB cast the new score card in a positive light. In a press release, the president's executive office emphasized agencies' overall improvement since the Bush administration began using score cards in 2002.

"I congratulate the agencies that have made an ongoing commitment to improving their programs," said Clay Johnson, deputy director of OMB, in a written statement. He added, "While many agencies have taken concrete steps toward meeting their management goals, we still face the challenge of ensuring that agencies remain focused on their opportunity to enhance performance."

The score card rates five main initiatives-human capital, competitive sourcing, financial performance, e-government and budget and performance integration-along with agencies specific initiatives, including faith-based and community efforts, real property asset management, elimination of improper payments and a handful of others.

OMB singled out the Education Department's Federal Student Aid program for a green score and for getting off the Government Accountability Office's high-risk list, and also pointed to the Defense Department's military housing programs' improved management and newly green status.

The Labor, State and Energy Departments continue to be the top three scorers, with four out of five initiatives ranked green. Labor and State have yet to shake off yellow scores for competitive sourcing, while Energy lags in e-government initiatives.