Managing for Results: Agency Progress in Linking Performance Plans With Budgets and Financial Statements
Abstract
Both GPRA and the CFO Act are key components of a statutory framework that the Congress put in place during the 1990s to promote a new focus on results and improved management.4 Among their complementary purposes, both acts seek to improve congressional decision-making by providing information on the relative effectiveness and efficiency of federal programs and spending, and to help federal managers improve service delivery by providing them with information about program results, cost, and service quality. Among its major purposes, GPRA aims for a closer and clearer linkage between requested resources and expected results. The general concept of linking performance information with budget requests is commonly known as performance budgeting.5 GPRA establishes a basic foundation for performance budgeting by requiring that an agency's annual performance plan cover each program activity in the President's budget request for that agency. GPRA does not specify any level of detail or required components needed to achieve this coverage. Further, the act recognizes that agencies' program activity structures are often inconsistent across budget accounts for the purposes of the act and thus gives agencies the flexibility to consolidate, aggregate, or disaggregate program activities, so long as no major function or operation of the agency is omitted or minimized.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA398620
Entities
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office