Performance Improvement Order Gets Mixed Reaction

Is the latest Executive Order a way to ensure measurable improvements to agency programs, or a means of extending the current administration’s influence into the next President’s term of office?

On November 13, 2007, President Bush signed Executive Order 13450: Improving Government Program Performance (EO 13450). “Agencies shall apply taxpayer resources efficiently in a manner that maximizes the effectiveness of Government programs in serving the American people,” the order states.

Political observers have taken sides as to whether the initiative truly is a good-faith effort to make agencies more accountable for their performance.

Under EO 13450, the head of each affected agency would “assist the President, through the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (Director), in making recommendations to the Congress, including budget and appropriations recommendations that are justified based on objective performance information and accurate estimates of the full costs of achieving [approved] annual and long-term goals.” Each agency would name a “Performance Improvement Officer” to supervise performance management objectives and develop strategic plans, annual performance plans, and annual performance reports.

EO 13450 also establishes a “Performance Improvement Council” within OMB. This council would coordinate and monitor a continuous review by heads of agencies of the performance and management of all Federal programs. The review would asses “the clarity of purpose, quality of strategic and performance planning and goals, management excellence, and results achieved for each agency's programs, with the results of these assessments and the evidence on which they are based made available to the public on or through the Internet.”

Reactions to the order spanned the gamut from conspiracy theory to yawns of disinterest. In a blog on the Web site of OMB Watch, Adam Hughes wrote that EO 13450 “looks like a pretty thinly-veiled attempt to integrate the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) process into more aspects of the agencies' management and budgeting mechanisms.” OMB Watch has been publicly critical about the failings of PART as a performance measurement solution. Hughes also bristled at the creation of Performance Improvement Officers at each agency. In so doing, he wrote, “the executive order expands the ability of OMB to hand down political and policy pronouncements directly to agency staff responsible for running programs.

“Don't like the way an agency is running a particular program? Tell the Performance Improvement Officer to let it be known that a program operated in such a way will receive poor marks on their next performance evaluation. Upset about a congressionally mandated policy? Tell agencies they will be marked down in their performance evaluations for following it,” Hughes commented. Other observers were far less alarmed. Washington Post columnist Stephen Barr, in an article following the signing of EO 13450, quoted New York University Professor Paul Light, an expert in public service. Light said he did not think Bush's order "will have any impact on either the budget or agency performance. That will have to wait for the next administration.

“It has the feel of wasted motion," Light was quoted as saying. Still others were willing to take the order at its face value. Barr’s article quoted Max Stier, president of the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, who supported the need for agencies to be more rigorous in monitoring their performance. According to Barr, Stier maintained that the executive order should help agencies collect better information on their operations. "It's not that we lack data in the government, it's that we lack useful data," Stier was quoted as saying. Barr also quoted Clay Johnson III, deputy director for management at the OMB. Johnson’s remarks were intended to demonstrate continuity of service during the transition of administrations. His comments, however, also added credence to the notion that the next President will inherit initiatives established during the Bush administration. "There should be no dropped batons going from this administration to the next administration," Johnson was quoted as saying. "The next administration will come in knowing what every department is committed to do. It will help ensure there is continuous attention to these goals."

For the White House release on Executive Order 13450, visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/11/20071113-9.html

For the blog posting from OMB Watch, visit http://www.ombwatch.org/article/blogs/entry/4252/2

For Stephen Barr’s column in The Washington Post, visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/14/AR2007111402274_pf.html