OPM links President’s Quality Award to Bush management agenda

Federal agencies hoping to snare the president's top prize for quality management must now meet criteria outlined in the Bush administration's management agenda, according to the Office of Personnel Management. Beginning with the 2002 applications for the President's Quality Award, participants must demonstrate results in the five categories included in the president's management agenda, OPM spokeswoman Sharon Wells said Friday. The agenda, unveiled last summer, directs agencies to achieve results in five areas: human capital management, competitive sourcing, financial management, e-government and performance-based budgeting. The new criteria and program guidelines will be available sometime this month, according to a notice on OPM's Web site. OPM does not know when the 2002 applications will be due, or when this year's winners will be announced, but will know "fairly soon," Wells said. The President's Quality Award program, administered by OPM since 1988, honors federal organizations with exemplary records in quality management and customer service. Prior to the new changes, the program was based on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, which is presented annually to high-performing private sector businesses. Award criteria are modified slightly each year. "Each year the program establishes performance excellence criteria based on characteristics found among the most excellent performance organizations in the world today," according to the information on the 2001 awards published by OPM. A panel of government and private sector quality management specialists choose the winners in a rigorous three-phase process that includes a written application review, an on-site visit and a final evaluation. Last March, the Bush administration considered canceling the 2001 awards and eliminating the program altogether. But OPM officials made a last-minute decision to continue the awards after finding out how much time agencies had already devoted to their 2001 applications. OPM said at the time that it would review the criteria for the 2002 awards and consider "new approaches to recognize quality achievements, particularly those that focus on new uses of technology, consistent with the Bush administration's management priorities."

Last year's application included criteria similar to the new requirements. For example, applicants were judged on financial performance, customer satisfaction and human resources management. The Grand Junction Veterans Affairs Medical Center won the president's top prize for quality management in 2001, a first for the Veterans Affairs Department. The facility was praised for creating a patient care system focused on prevention and healthy living and for improving patient safety and claims processing.