Agencies' management grades continue to improve

New provisions on job competitions at federal agencies included in the recently passed fiscal 2004 omnibus measure are not likely to slow agencies' steady march out of the red zone on the job competition portion of President Bush's quarterly management scorecard, an administration official said Thursday.

In the first quarter of fiscal 2004, three agencies jumped up a notch on the competitive sourcing section of the Office of Management and Budget's traffic-light-style scorecard, where a green light marks the highest level of success. The Homeland Security Department, NASA and the Small Business Administration moved from red to yellow ratings, bringing the total number of agencies earning yellow marks for job competition efforts to 14.

Less than a year ago, all of the 26 major agencies evaluated by OMB received red lights for their efforts to put federal jobs up for competition with the private sector. Despite heated debates on Capitol Hill and federal employee union attempts to slow competitive sourcing, agencies will likely continue their substantial progress on the initiative, said Clay Johnson, OMB's deputy director for management.

The final omnibus enacted on Jan. 23 alters some of OMB's rules for running job competitions. For instance, the bill establishes multiple standards for conducting streamlined job competitions with 10 to 65 positions at stake.

Agencies covered by the Transportation-Treasury section of the bill have different rules than those receiving funds from the other six appropriations measures wrapped into the omnibus. The Interior and Defense fiscal 2004 appropriations bills signed in the late fall create another set of rules for streamlined competitions.

While OMB has not yet had a chance to review all the details of the budget laws, there do not appear to be any major roadblocks to competitive sourcing, Johnson said. In fact, the reporting requirements in the laws will help the administration's efforts to collect more statistics on competitive sourcing, Johnson said.

OMB expects to finish gathering data by May that illustrates how the initiative has benefited taxpayers. The competitions help agencies run more efficiently, and work often remains in-house, Johnson said. The administration initiated its data collection effort before lawmakers instituted the reporting requirements.

Agencies have yet to post any green ratings in competitive sourcing, but they have not had much of a chance, Johnson said. Under OMB's latest competitive sourcing standards, agencies must develop long-range "green" job competition plans to move up the last notch on the scorecard. But until late December, OMB had not distributed guidelines outlining expectations for green plans.

OMB's quarterly scorecard tracks agencies' success at implementing each of the five areas outlined in the president's management agenda. Overall, the ratings released Thursday show that agencies got off to a good start in the first quarter of fiscal 2004, Johnson said. Agencies are taking "ownership of the president's management agenda to make lasting management improvements," he said.

The latest scorecard contained eight green lights, 54 yellow lights and 68 red lights. OMB's first scorecard, released in February 2002, showed only one green light, 19 yellow lights and 110 red lights.

The Office of Personnel Management and Energy Department were the only two agencies that managed to receive yellow or green lights in every category, and should serve as examples to the other 24 agencies, Johnson said. Energy received five yellow lights, while OPM earned four yellows and moved up to a green on the e-government section.

OPM is the second of the 26 agencies evaluated to receive a green in e-government. The personnel agency manages five of 24 Web sites designed to give the public greater access to public services. OPM set itself apart from other agencies by developing a comprehensive cybersecurity system, said Karen Evans, OMB's technology chief.

Several agencies also improved in human capital management. The Health and Human Services Department and General Services Administration moved from a red to a yellow, while NASA progressed to a green light.

The Education and State departments improved their financial management scores, with Education taking a double leap to green and State moving to yellow. Agencies should make additional strides during the coming months, Johnson said. In his 2005 budget request to be released on Monday, President Bush will ask agencies to pay more attention to reducing erroneous payments, Johnson said.

Bush's 2005 funding request also will reflect agencies' efforts to integrate budgets and performance, Johnson said. Poorly performing programs will not necessarily receive budget cuts, but the administration will hold agencies accountable for demonstrating that they have spent their money wisely, he said. The State Department, NASA and OPM improved in the area of budget and performance integration on OMB's latest scorecard.