Agencies raise their grades on OMB score card

Three agencies earn the highest scores, and others show improvement, according to the current report on agencies' progress.

Agencies scored the highest ranking on 80 percent of their progress measures in the latest President's Management Agenda score card, a slight increase from the previous report, which recorded more than 75 percent green.


The Office of Management and Budget uses a traffic-light system for the scores. Green means the agency is meeting all of its goals on that particular measure. Red signifies real trouble, and yellow highlights partial progress, with some lapses.


The current score card measures the quarter that ended June 30.  OMB grades 26 federal departments and agencies on their current status and progress in five major initiatives, and it releases the results four times a year. On the first scorecard in 2002, only one agency earned a green, and that was only for one initiative.


On the current report, the Labor Department, Social Security Administration and Environmental Protection Agency earned green scores for both status and progress in all five initiatives.


"Agencies continue to work toward greater effectiveness," said Clay Johnson, deputy director of management of OMB. "They are doing what they said they would do, as evidenced by the high number of green progress scores."


The five initiatives are: Human Capital Management, Competitive Sourcing, Financial Performance, E-Government and Performance Improvement.