Grades on management score card fall
Human capital and e-government ratings take a hit, but OMB notes that many agencies still are showing progress.
Many federal agencies have taken a step backward on the Bush administration's five major management initiatives, according to quarterly grades released on Thursday by the Office of Management and Budget. There were 14 downgrades on the status section of OMB's management score card for the third quarter of 2008, which ended June 30. And there were only six instances in which grades improved.
The problems were limited to two areas of the President's Management Agenda: human capital and electronic government.
Eight agencies' e-government scores declined on the traffic-light-style system, with seven dropping to red, signifying unsatisfactory performance. Only two agencies improved their grades in that area.
Meanwhile, six of the 26 agencies that are evaluated by OMB had their human capital score drop a notch, generally from green to yellow; one agency moved up a level.
The e-government scores were affected by some agencies' inability to demonstrate certain actions to move their programs off OMB's Management Watch List, said Clay Johnson, OMB's deputy director for management. The watch list contains projects that have weaknesses in their business cases.
The Office of Personnel Management re-evaluated each agency's human capital programs from scratch, accounting for the fluctuation in scores in that category, Johnson said.
"The score cards aren't about compliance or getting to a score -- it's about results that agencies are producing," Johnson said. "So, a dip in a score shouldn't always be viewed in the negative, but as a way to [make] progress and improve effectiveness."
OMB did recognize slight upticks in the scores on commercial services management -- previously called competitive sourcing -- and in the category of performance improvement. Scores did not change in the financial management category.
The Environmental Protection Agency, Social Security Administration and Labor Department each earned perfect scores of green in all five categories. The Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs departments had the worst scores, with three categories in the red.
As in most quarters, the scores were generally much higher on a separate chart that mapped the progress agencies had shown in implementing the goals of the PMA.
"Agencies continue to work toward greater effectiveness," Johnson said. "They are doing what they said they would do, as evidenced by the high number of green progress scores. They have also identified their management improvement goals for 2009 and beyond, indicating where they would be proud to improve even further."
The overall regression in status scores came on the heels of improvements in the past two evaluations.
On the second quarter score card, OMB credited agencies with seven improvements and five declines. And, on the first quarter score card, agencies moved up 12 times compared to only three declines.