PART hits the Web

Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART)

Starting April 1, transmitting Program Assessment Rating Tool workbooks to the Office of Management and Budget should become easier for agencies following the online debut of a PART submission Web site, an OMB official said today.

The site, PARTWeb, will make it easier for agency and OMB officials to complete PART assessments, said Robert Shea, OMB's counsel to the deputy director for management.

Use of the Web site will become mandatory in September, Shea said.

Officials annually target a number of agency programs for PART evaluations, which OMB officials use to assess program effectiveness and make budget funding decisions.

Under the current system, agency officials send their initial PART spreadsheets to OMB as hard copies or e-mail attachments. OMB returns edited workbooks to the agencies. "That goes back and forth until we arrive at a final, agreed-on PART assessment," Shea said.

PARTWeb will allow officials to make changes directly into a workbook. “It’ll be clear who’s doing the editing or the changes to answers,” Shea added.

OMB officials can use the new site to see how agencies implement their recommendations, Shea said. Now, those recommendations are published in a separate document from the PART spreadsheet. With PARTWeb, “this will all be in the same database, and it’ll all be there on the Internet,” he added.

Agency first PART drafts are due to OMB by April 15.