Claiming Management Success

In his fiscal 2009 budget proposal, President Bush takes his last opportunity to declare that his management reform efforts of the past seven years are actually working. Among the accomplishments he cites:

• More than 1,000 federal programs have been evaluated using the administration's Program Assessment Rating Tool.
• Almost 90 percent of those programs have established or clarified their performance goals.
• 82 percent of programs are achieving their goals.
• 55 percent of programs that were initially unable to demonstrate any results have improved on that rating.
• 81 percent of agencies have reduced "skills gaps" in mission-critical occupations.
• 78 percent of new federal employees are now hired within 45 days, up from 64 percent in 2006.
• For the third straight year, all agencies completed their annual financial statements with 45 days after the close of the fiscal year.
• Last year, 13 agencies got clean audit opinions on their financial statements. The administration is shooting for 21 agencies to meet that goal this year.