GRANTS MANAGEMENT: Enhancing Performance Accountability Provisions Could Lead to Better Results
Abstract
Maximizing the extent to which grants achieve their long-term performance goals is critical to successfully addressing the challenges of the 21st century. While performance accountability mechanisms are fairly new to federal grants, they have been used in contracts for some time and lessons learned have begun to inform federal grant design. Given this, GAO was asked to examine (1) challenges to performance accountability in federal grants, (2) mechanisms being used to improve grant performance, and (3) strategies the federal government can use to encourage the use of these mechanisms. GAO performed a content analysis of relevant literature and interviewed experts. To illustrate the mechanisms and strategies found in the literature, GAO used examples from the literature and selected additional case illustrations- two federal grant programs (vocational education and child support enforcement) and two nonfederal contracts- for further study. GAO recommends that the Director of OMB work with agencies and Congress to encourage the use of performance accountability mechanisms in grant design and implementation by promoting the practices in this report and encouraging knowledge transfer among agencies and grantees. OMB generally agreed with our findings and recommendation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- AD1178975
Entities
People
- Anne M Morillon
- Bernice Steinhardt
- Chelsa Gurkin
- David Bobruff
- Jackie Nowicki
- Katie Hamer
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office