Agencies still struggle with management agenda

The Energy Department’s work on its e-government projects earned the department the biggest jump in that category in the latest President’s Management Agenda grades, handed out by the Office of Management and Budget last week.Energy improved to yellow from red in overall e-government to join nine others that garnered yellow or green scores for their e-government work. OMB gave 26 agencies red, yellow or green scores for their efforts to meet the goals of five agenda items: human capital, competitive sourcing, financial management, e-government and budget and performance. Green means an agency has met all standards; yellow means it has met some criteria; and red means it has serious problems. OMB also graded agencies’ progress in meeting the goals.The final scorecard for fiscal 2002 showed mixed progress on e-government for many agencies. Six agencies, including Energy, the General Services Administration, NASA and the Health and Human Services, State and Treasury departments, dropped a grade on progress compared to their midyear reports. State received the worst mark, dropping to red on progress from yellow.The National Science Foundation again received the only green on e-government. In fact, the foundation received the only two greens for current status among all five agenda items. It also earned a green score for financial management.The scorecard for the first quarter of 2003 will be printed in the president’s 2004 budget submission to Congress.“After planning improvements, we have entered that important stage of implementation where our success or failure will be evident not just by looking at our status on the scorecard, but also by what concrete steps we have taken to improve management in the executive branch,” said Mark Everson, OMB’s deputy director for management.The latest scorecard can be found at .