Some agencies slip on PMA scorecard

Six agencies stumbled in the e-government portion of the latest President’s Management Agenda , with three of them dropping from the highest rating of green. For the quarter ended Sept. 30, agencies overall improved in six instances and fell in eight, the majority in the e-government category, according to the Office of Management and Budget. Scores dropped as implementation plans for agencies are kicking in, said Karen Evans, OMB’s administrator for e-government and IT. Agencies have to get the implementation done for the initiatives that apply. Some agencies have 100 milestones that they have to achieve in a quarter. If they miss a major milestone, their score drops.“This is where the rubber meets the road. It is really hard to be green,” Evans said today at an industry event held by market research firm Input Inc. of Reston, Va.The Interior, Justice and State departments, the Agency for International Development, the Environmental Protection Agency and NASA were agencies whose ratings slipped in e-government. Among the reasons for a decline in PMA ratings were that an agency: The Labor Department continued its on green ratings across the PMA board. It was the first agency to earn green in all five categories in the scorecard for the quarter ending June 30.Close behind Labor, the Transportation Department and the National Science Foundation each scored four out of five green ratings.The General Services Administration advanced to green in financial performance. Clay Johnson, OMB deputy director for management, praised agencies for their overall progress over the past year despite “significant leadership changes in most agencies and unexpected priorities like the response to Hurricane Katrina.”A green rating means an agency has met all the standards for success, a yellow rating means it has met some but not all, and a red rating means there are serious problems. In addition to e-government and financial performance, OMB grades each agency on its overall status and on its progress toward implementing competitive sourcing, human capital, and budget and performance integration agenda items.Agencies earned more greens, 12, in the human capital category than any other. On the other hand, agencies fared the worst with financial performance, with 17 reds..