Sourcing scores rise for agencies

President's Management Agenda scorecard

For the first time, agencies showed significant improvement in the competitive sourcing piece of the President's Management Agenda, but the Office of Management and Budget is still giving many agencies low scores.

In the competitive sourcing part of OMB's quarterly update to the management agenda score card, 11 agencies got yellow scores. Eight of them previously scored red, so this week's release indicates an increase in bidding of government services. Competitive sourcing has been one of the most difficult areas for agencies to improve on, and many have been stuck in the red for that category for more than a year.

Agencies get red, yellow or green scores for progress toward short-term goals set with OMB. If enough progress is made toward those goals, an agency can raise its grade, reflecting progress toward the governmentwide goals set in the agenda.

Among the agencies that were once in the red in competitive sourcing were the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Interior, Justice and Transportation, and the General Services Administration. The departments of Defense and Education and the Office of Personnel Management also scored yellow in the last round, completed in June.

Agencies continue to receive more red scores in implementation progress in competitive sourcing than in any other area. Four agencies received failing grades and eight received yellow scores, which is consistent with the last round of scoring.

The latest score card indicates progress in five areas: strategic workforce management; expanded use of e-government; increased competitive bidding of government services; improved financial performance and linking performance to budgets.

Agencies showed the most improvement this round in strategic management of the workforce, with only one agency receiving a failing grade. The areas of financial management and e-government also showed improvement, with no failing grades, but each still had about a half-dozen yellow progress scores.