Memoranda 96-18:
Performance Measurement
Pilot Projects for 1995
Contents
MEMORANDUM OMB-96-18 Performance Measurement
Pilot Projects for 1995
- This memorandum covers the submission of program performance reports
for FY 1995 by the designated performance measurement pilot project agencies
under the Government Performance and Results Act.
- An attachment to this memorandum has been prepared to assist your
staff in developing these reports. The attachment sets forth basic information
on the scope and general content of the program performance report. This
guidance is similar to that provided by OMB Memorandum 95-07 on the preparation
and submission of pilot project program performance reports for FY 1994. If you
have any further questions on the pilot project program performance reports,
please call your OMB Resource Management Office.
- By separate cover, we will be providing the pilot project agencies
with a copy of GAO's recently completed review of the FY 1994 program
performance reports.
- Your agency's continuing participation in these performance
measurement pilot projects is appreciated.
Attachment
Attachment SUBMISSION OF PILOT
PROJECT PROGRAM PERFORMANCE REPORTS FOR FY 1995
- Submission Date
- The FY 1995 program performance report should be sent to OMB by March
31, 1996. (GPRA does not require agencies to send the pilot project program
performance reports to the President or Congress.) The report may be submitted
either by the agency head, or by a senior official (one who is appointed by the
President and Senate-confirmed) having direct responsibility for the programs
and activities covered in the report.
- Report Content
- The basic content of an annual program performance report is defined
in Section 4(b) of the Government Performance and Results Act. For the
individual pilot projects, the FY 1995 report should contain the following
elements:
- (1)a comparison of the actual performance achieved with the
performance level(s) specified for each performance goal and performance
indicator in the annual performance plan;
- (2)if a performance goal was not met, an explanation of why the goal
was not met, along with either:
- (a)the plans and schedules for achieving the performance goal in the
future, or
- (b)a statement that the performance goal as established is
impractical or infeasible, and expressing the agency's intention to modify or
discontinue the goal.
- (3)the summary findings of any program evaluations completed during
fiscal year 1995 and materially bearing on the program(s), activities, or
organizational component covered by the pilot project;
- (4)a description of the contribution (if this was significant) made
by non-Federal parties (e.g., consultants, contractors, States, local
governments, grantees) in the preparation of the report. This contribution can
include the collection and reporting of performance data.
- Report Format
- No presentation format is prescribed. An agency with more than one
pilot project may choose to submit a consolidated report covering all its pilot
projects, or submit individual reports for each pilot.
- Missing or Preliminary Performance
Data
- If actual FY 1995 performance data are not yet available for a
performance goal or indicator, the report should note this, and indicate (by
quarter and year) when FY 1995 performance data will be available. Similarly,
if the FY 1995 performance data are preliminary, this should also be noted,
along with an indication of when final data will be available.
- Including Performance Data for FY
1994
- GPRA program performance reports are to include performance trend
data from previous years. For those pilot projects that prepared a FY 1994
performance plan and program performance report, the FY 1995 report should
include data on the actual performance achieved in FY 1994 for those
performance goals and indicators present in both the FY 1994 and 1995
performance plans.
- Threshold for Explaining
Non-Achievement
- Explanations for why goals were not met are a distinctive feature of
the program performance report, and a report will be judged as incomplete if
these explanations are not included.
- For the FY 1995 program performance reports, there is no hard and
fast rule as to when the non-achievement of a performance goal or indicator
warrants an explanation. Much depends on the preciseness with which a
performance target was set forth in the goal or indicator, previous year
performance trends, and the significance of the shortfall. Depending on the
program, a one percent deviation between actual and planned might be trivial or
critical.
- A test for when to provide an explanation could be as follows.
Include an explanation if:
- * the manager(s) of the pilot project program, activity, or component
shortfall were sufficiently concerned about actual performance levels to alert
or inform senior agency officials about such and the implications thereof on
overall program accomplishment; or
- * the managers took or are taking substantive action(s) to address
the shortfall in performance; or
- * performance levels for future years are being adjusted downward to
reflect actual FY 1995 performance levels.
- If an agency wishes to defer providing an explanation where the
performance data is preliminary, and (based on the experience of previous
years) subject to significant correction, it may do so. The deferral should be
noted in the report along with the future schedule for submitting an
explanation, if such is still required. In these instances, agencies should
submit the explanation whenever the final data becomes available, and not delay
until the submission of a subsequent year's program performance report.
- Use of an Annual Financial
Statement
- Agencies may choose to use their annual financial statement for FY
1995 as the program performance report for a pilot project. If a financial
statement is used, the statement must cover the programs, activities, or
components covered by the pilot project, and must include the specified content
described above.
- An agency using the FY 1995 financial statement as its program
performance report should note such either in a covering memorandum, or in a
separate letter to OMB.
- When a financial statement is being used as the program performance
report, the program performance information included within is subject to audit
requirements for the statement. OMB Bulletin 93-06, "Audit Requirements for
Federal Financial Statements," prescribes the limited procedures to be applied
to performance information included in the financial statement.
- Time-period Covered
- The program performance report should cover the entire fiscal year.
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