Education, HUD get back to green in e-gov on OMB scorecard

Two agencies—the Education and Housing and Urban Development departments—raised their e-government scores on the President’s Management Agenda scorecard to green, making up for downgrades last quarter, in the latest issued today by the Office of Management and Budget.A total of five agencies received green scores for their work under the e-government initiative—one of five areas agencies are graded on each quarter under the PMA. Along with Education and HUD, the agencies that received green scores were the Department of Labor, the National Science Foundation and the Social Security Administration.Nine agencies received red scores, and 12 earned yellow grades for e-government in this report card.Additionally, the Commerce Department moved to yellow from red in the fiscal 2006 third quarter scorecard, lowering the total red scores to nine and increasing the total yellow grades to 12.The scorecard tracks agency compliance with PMA requirements for improving government management. Aside from e-government, the PMA scores agency progress in meeting goals for human capital, competitive sourcing, financial, and budget performance and integration. A green rating means an agency has met all the standards for success, a yellow rating means it has met some standards but not all, and a red rating means there are serious problems. In the midyear report issued in March, nine agencies slipped on their e-government grades, partly due to Congress not approving the transfer of funds for e-government initiatives, OMB officials said. But seven of the agencies—the departments of Defense, Justice and Transportation; the Environmental Protection Agency; NASA; the Office of Personnel Management; and the Small Business Administration—saw their scores this quarter either remain the same or drop. SBA was the only agency to see their grade move to red from yellow.Karen Evans, OMB’s administrator for e-government and IT, said the e-government and Lines of Business Consolidation initiatives continue to “build on past successes and make progress.”In a letter that accompanies the scorecard report, Evans pointed to a number of projects as examples of that success, including the Labor’s GovBenefits.gov and the Homeland Security Department’s Safecom and IT security. Under IT security, she said agencies have certified and accredited 87 percent of all systems. This is an increase from 83 percent last quarter.Overall, OMB reports agencies received 49 greens, 47 yellow and 34 red scores on status for the five PMA areas. “Federal employees’ attention to the PMA is stronger today, after five years, than at any previous period of time,” said Clay Johnson, OMB’s deputy director for management. “Federal employees are held accountable for their agencies’ developing and adopting the management disciplines targeted by the President’s Management Agenda.”Financial performance remains the area with the most red scores, 16, while human capital had no reds and 15 greens.