GovernmentExecutive.com

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.

COMMENTS

• Speaking of morale, one of the Colonels around here said he thought morale as not very high. I corrected him. Colonel, morale is not low, we don't have any. That should give George a new green light. Sounds like his other color-coded farce. In November, I am giving him and all of his buds a red light. I am going to vote. GovExec.com reader Posted July 21, 2004 7:23 AM
• Let's give ourselves a great big pat on the back and group hug. The President's arbitrary management scorecard shows many more green lights. I've been a federal employee for going on 2 decades and this the worst morale I've ever seen. Employees are disenfranchised from the decision-making in their workplace and in many cases don't even care because the morale is so poor. So let's give a rip roaring shout of "yeah" for all the green lights showing up on OMB's scorecards. And let OPM continue its delusion that everything is great in the federal civil service. When this administration forces pay for performance down the throat of the civil service we'll see what happens. Let every light turn green- what's the point when so many employees hate working for the government? Unlike the bean counters giving the green lights, I actually walk around the federal block and speak with employees and managers- the morale is not on the charts any longer. HR Specialist GovExec.com reader Posted July 20, 2004 8:58 AM