OPM retools management awards program
Changes are designed to align the President's Quality Awards to the Bush administration’s five management goals.
The Office of Personnel Management has revamped a prestigious management awards program to try to ensure that top honors go to agencies excelling at President Bush's government reform goals.
OPM has modified the award categories and judging criteria in an effort to better align the 2004 President's Quality Awards to the five areas of the Bush administration's management agenda: personnel reform, competitive sourcing, financial management, electronic government and performance budgeting.
This year, the personnel agency will hand out awards in three categories, and will not allow agencies to compete unless they achieve passable grades on the White House's quarterly management scorecard.
The 2004 awards will honor agencies demonstrating: "specific innovative and exemplary practices," achievements in one of the five management agenda categories, and excellence in overall agency management, including effective integration of management systems. In the past, OPM hasn't split the awards into categories.
To apply for the exemplary practice award, agencies must first earn at least a yellow light, indicating "mixed results," on the relevant area of the management scorecard. Agencies that aren't graded by OMB on a quarterly basis still can apply for awards in this category.
The awards for achievements in an area of the five-part reform agenda are open only to agencies boasting a green light, representing "success," in the applicable area.
Agencies wishing to compete for honors in overall management must first attain green lights in at least two of the five scorecard categories. A red light ("unsatisfactory" performance) on any section of the scorecard automatically disqualifies an agency from the applying for the overall award.
The 2004 awards will reflect accomplishments from January 2001 to June 2004.
Thanks to modifications made over the past two years, the annual President's Quality Awards program has already fostered "healthy and growing competition among agencies," said OPM Director Kay Coles James in a memorandum announcing the changes.
The 2004 changes will ensure that "the awards recognize agencies and employees for their achievements in creating integrated systems and practices which better support the achievement of their respective agency missions," James stated.
Last year the Environmental Protection Agency and National Science Foundation won awards for excellence in financial management and e-government, respectively. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, NASA and Social Security Administration earned honorable mention. In 2002, Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Neb., the Federal Aviation Administration Logistics Center in Oklahoma City, Okla., and the National Imagery and Mapping Agency in Bethesda, Md., received top honors.
OPM started the President's Quality Awards program, also known as the Presidential Award for Management Excellence, 16 years ago, and originally modeled the program after the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, presented each year to high-performing private sector businesses. The federal awards program later diverged from that model.
Agencies must submit applications for the 2004 awards by Oct. 1, and OPM will announce winners at a Dec. 14 ceremony. Visit the OPM Web site for further instructions and a more detailed description of the selection criteria.