Management grades show greatest improvement yet

During the third-quarter of fiscal 2004, federal agencies took the largest leap forward yet on the Bush administration's traffic-light-style score card marking accomplishments in five areas of management reform.

The score card, released every three months by the Office of Management and Budget to rate 26 major agencies' accomplishments in the five areas of President Bush's management agenda, boasted 27 improved marks for the quarter ended June 30. Last quarter, the card contained 11 higher scores, and cards dating back further showed no more than 20 upgrades.

The latest round of improvements comes as OMB is assessing how agencies have fared since last year on management goals that are part of the "Where We'd Be Proud To Be" exercise. In that endeavor, OMB Deputy Director Clay Johnson asked agency management chiefs to list the accomplishments they felt they could achieve in each area of the agenda by July 1, the third anniversary of five initiatives.

"Proud To Be" goals included getting 80 percent of e-government projects up and running and assessing the performance of 60 percent of federal programs. OMB is evaluating how close agencies have come to meeting the goals, and Johnson plans to give President Bush an update reflecting progress at the three-year mark of the management agenda.

"Agencies were aggressive in setting their Proud To Be goals and working to achieve them," said OMB spokesman Chad Kolton. "Many achieved them and should be justifiably proud of their success."

The third-quarter fiscal 2004 score card shows substantial gains overall. It contains 27 green lights, 54 yellows and 49 reds, a marked contrast from the OMB's first score card, released in February 2002. That report card showed 110 red lights, 19 yellows and only one green light.

A green light is the highest rating and indicates "success." A yellow light denotes "mixed results" and a red marks an "unsatisfactory" performance.

Agencies showed the most improvement in human capital management over the third-quarter of fiscal 2004, with nine moving up a notch on the score card. The Office of Personnel Management, the Social Security Administration, and Energy, State and Transportation departments moved to green lights. The Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, and Veterans Affairs departments improved to yellow.

The budget and performance integration section of the score card boasted seven changes, with the Labor and Transportation departments, Small Business Administration and SSA becoming green and Agriculture, Education, and Health and Human Services moving to yellow.

In electronic government, five agencies improved, with the Environmental Protection Agency, Transportation Department and Small Business Administration moving up a notch to green and the Interior and Justice departments improving to yellow.

Competitive sourcing showed five upgrades as well, with the Defense and Transportation departments progressing to green lights and the EPA, Labor Department and SSA improving to yellow lights.

Agencies still lagged in financial management, with only one-the Energy Department--moving to a green light, bringing the total number of greens in that category to five.