Management agenda grades mixed

President's Management Agenda scorecard

Most federal agencies are improving their management agenda performance, but the Office of Management and Budget is still handing out many failing grades.

OMB's quarterly update to the President's Management Agenda scorecard — released last week, but dated March 31 — reveals that most agencies are hitting their short-term goals in the five agenda areas: strategic workforce management, expanded use of e-government, increased competitive bidding of government services, improved financial performance and linking performance to budgets.

Agencies are given a red, yellow or green score for progress toward short-term goals set in conjunction with OMB. If enough progress is made toward those goals, an agency can raise its status grade, reflecting progress towards the governmentwide goals set in the agenda. That occurred at the departments of Commerce and Education, where both raised their status grades in the area of human capital management.

However, eight agencies received red progress scores in one area or another, including OMB itself for budget and performance integration.

Agencies are making the most progress in e-government, with 20 green grades and no reds. Workforce management is second, with 20 greens and two reds.

Competitive sourcing is still the most difficult area for agencies to improve upon. Six received red progress scores — including the General Services Administration and the Office of Personnel Management — and so far no agency has moved up from red on the status scores.

Nevertheless, 12 agencies are making enough progress to be given green scores in competitive sourcing, including the departments of Defense, Energy, Interior and Transportation.