E-gov scores improve slightly on latest management score card

Three agencies earned improved ratings for electronic government in the administration's third quarter management score card, released Tuesday. But red and yellow marks continue to dominate that portion of the traffic-light-style assessment.

E-government scores have fluctuated widely this year. Eight agencies received improved grades on the score card for the first quarter of fiscal 2006, but nine agencies slipped in the second quarter assessment. Much of the variability can be traced to funding difficulties, as Congress has resisted the Office of Management and Budget's efforts to direct agency spending toward the governmentwide projects.

The Commerce, Education, and Housing and Urban Development departments produced rising e-government scores in the third quarter of fiscal 2006, while the Small Business Administration's score fell to red, for "unsatisfactory."

The Bush administration's quarterly score card addresses the five major areas of the President's Management Agenda, as well as several smaller program initiatives. In the area of human capital management, scores for the Agriculture and the Veterans Affairs departments rose to green, for "success." In competitive sourcing, the Environmental Protection Agency moved up to green and the Homeland Security Department fell to yellow, or "mixed results."

No agencies changed status in the financial management or budget-performance integration categories; 16 agencies currently have red ratings for financial performance, while the majority are yellow or green on integration.

In a statement accompanying the latest score card, OMB Deputy Director for Management Clay Johnson said, "We are progressively improving our ability to improve program and agency performance."

OMB highlighted that the number of agencies rated green for progress, which reflects how an agency is moving forward against its own timelines and deliverables, is at an all-time high since the first score card to track that in June 2002.

The administration also touted advancement in an initiative to improve agencies' management of their real property assets, where progress at five agencies wiped away all traces of red.

Real property management has been on the Government Accountability Office's list of high-risk activities since 2003. With this latest update, OMB said it has eliminated $2 billion in unneeded real property since 2004, and expects to reduce inventory by another $7 billion by 2009.

OMB also emphasized that all 10 agencies participating in its faith-based and community initiative now have green scores for progress, and only one agency, the SBA, has a red mark for status. "Now, seven of the 10 agencies that participate in this initiative have practices in place to ensure that faith-based and community organizations have the same access to federal grants as other organizations," OMB said.

In a June report (GAO-06-616), GAO noted that more monitoring was needed by participating agencies to ensure compliance with safeguards for the equal treatment of government entities, faith-based organizations and beneficiaries. The report also said program accountability could be improved.

Recognizing the progress that participating agencies have made in the PMA score card process, GAO reviewers said "it will be important for OMB to ensure that the initiative's strategic, long-term goals clearly articulate what OMB intends to measure so that it can assess whether agencies are achieving these goals and demonstrate whether agencies are using taxpayer dollars effectively."