# Presentation: 222529

## Integrated Accountability System – New Accountability Tools

- Ken Tootle, Integrated Accountability System Coordinator, Operations Management and Oversight Division
- Professional NRCS Black Employees Conference
- December, 2005

## Objectives

- Accountability background
- New Field Office Tools and their integration – TK, PRS, Protracts, CSG’s
- PRS-Toolkit reporting errors
- CIS, POINTS, SCIMS, EAUTH,  Executive Dashboard
- Answer questions

## Accountability Process

- Identify needs--resource based
- Set goals and priorities
- Establish workload
- Formulate and request budget
- Allocate budget
- Plan and implement
- Measure and report
- Improved operations

## Field Operations to Performance Outcomes

- Customer Contact

- Technical Assistance                Provided

- WebTCAS, Toolkit, Protracts, PRS

- PHYSICAL EFFECT exported from CRA, Conservation System Guides

- OUTPUTS (Ex. Tons of sediment Planned to be reduced)

- PERFORMANCE MEASURES
- (Ex. Reduced soil erosion on  ___ acres of working lands)

- OUTCOMES (Ex. By 2007, reduce sedimentation to avoid $___ of on-site and
- off-site damages.)

- NRI-CEAP utilizes information to refine outcome models

**Notes:**
First of all, let me introduce the Natural Resources Conservation Service to those unfamiliar with it or its mission. Established in 1935 as the Soil Conservation Service, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (or NRCS) has the responsibility within the U.S. Department of Agriculture for providing leadership in a partnership effort to help people conserve, maintain, and improve our natural resources and environment.

So how does that relate to the communication of progress, success, and the PMA, performance, and accountability?

Accountability – a critical issue with large impact on the future of the Conservation and the nation. We’re hearing a lot these days about homeland security. For NRCS and its conservation partnership, homeland security is something that we have been working on for the past 65 years – making this nation secure by ensuring Americans have productive soil and clean water, and a natural environment that has made our country the envy of the world.

It is imperative that we are accountable for conservation and that we are able to articulate this accountability and our successes towards meeting specific objectives to our stakeholders, internal and external.

## IAS Objectives

- Integrate Budget and Performance Measurement.
- Reduce time and effort required and simplify field requirements for progress and performance reporting.
- Avoid duplicate data entry and entry time in multiple systems.
- Provide the operational basis for outcomes, aligned with the President’s Management Agenda.

**Notes:**
The objective of integrating for accountability is to minimize the workload for the field to enter accountability data, while collecting all necessary data to ensure continued program funding

## IAS Vision 

- Integrated accountability system
- Web-based, user-friendly
- Standard reports, available to public and employees
- Customized analyses for leadership
- Data warehouse with linked databases
- Access defined by position to ensure security
- Collects only key critical information
- Data entered only once
- What-if scenarios

## Accountability Priorities

- Improving accountability & credibility
- Reducing data collection burden
- Providing instant access to information
- Measuring results and outcomes

## Basic Accountability Questions

- What work needs to be done and where?
- How much time and how many dollars will it take?
- Do we have the necessary resources and are they in the right place and have the right skills?
- What environmental benefits were achieved?

**Notes:**
Accountability is now.  
Managers will be able to obtain accurate, real-time data and put resources where they are most needed.

## Accountability – Why?

- 	The Bush administration is determined to put teeth behind the 1993 Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), said Sean O’Keefe, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget.
- 	“I believe we [the Bush administration] are doing our part to make GPRA implementation a success,” O’Keefe said Tuesday during a House Government Reform subcommittee hearing. **“First and most critically is the President’s very clear signal that he wants his administration and our government to be results-oriented.”**** **
- 		*June 20, 2001  GOVEXEC.COM (Government Executive)*

**Notes:**
The Bush Administration is determined to make GPRA a success.

## Slide 11

**Notes:**
In the words of President Bush, “What matters in the end is completion. Performance. Results.”

## What is OMB PART?

- Program assessment Rating Tool
- A Set of Questions that Evaluates Program Performance in Four Critical Areas:
- Program Purpose and Design
- Strategic Planning
- Program Management
- Program Results and Accountability
- A Tool to Assess Performance Using Evidence
- Provides a Consistent Approach to Evaluating Programs Across Government

## What is PART?

- A Rating Tool to Evaluate the Effectiveness and Efficiency of All Federal Programs
- Utilized in the Budget Evaluation for Each Budget Year
- Completed by Agency Program Staff and OMB Examiners using Guidance

## PART Sections and Weighting

- Program Purpose and Design:		20%
- Strategic Planning:				10%
- Program Management:			20%
- Program Results / Accountability:	50%

## PART Results: CTA

- Program Purpose and Design:		80%
- Strategic Planning:				63%
- Program Management:			100%
- Program Results / Accountability:	34%
**Weighted Final Score:****	****	****59%**
- OMB Note: “Results Not Demonstrated”

## Recognition

- Performance management think tanks
- The Performance Institute
- Advanced Learning Institute
- The Government Results Center
- USDA Secretary’s Honor Awards, July     2002
- American Society for Public Administration, Center for Accountability and Performance, May 2003
- Government Computer News (1/27/04)
- _[http://www.gcn.com/23_2/mgmt_edition/24667-1.html](http://www.gcn.com/23_2/mgmt_edition/24667-1.html)_

**Notes:**
Early in its development, GAO recognized the potential of the accountability system.

Since then, the system has been recognized on repeated occasions as an outstanding accountability system by:
The Performance Institute and Advanced Learning Institute,
The Secretary of Agriculture, through the Secretary’s Honor Awards, in 2002, and
 Recently, by the American Society for Public Administration, Center for Accountability and Performance.

We are very proud of our system, as you can tell. This is a good point to recognize the hard work and commitment that it took from all of our partners to make this system successful. Accountability in any agency takes a real commitment from the agency head down to the employee on the front lines, assisting and working collaboratively with our partners to get conservation on the ground.

## Field Office Business Tools

## Performance Results System (PRS)

- Goal is to create an Integrated and Highly Aligned Business Process
- Major Change during FY05 was to integrate PRS and CST
- Major change during FY06 is to integrate PRS and Protracts
- Current integration path is to fully integrate the “happy path”

## The Happy Path for Integrated field business processes – a way to reduce time requirements for customer assistance

- Customer Contact

- Planning Technical Assistance                Provided

- Do your planning using Customer Service Toolkit and report planning progress from CST or PRS

- Assistance provided for applying a practice using program cost sharing

- Use Protracts for contracting and report progress from Protracts or PRS

- Physical Effect and resource concern information is harvested from CSG application and computed from CEAP

**Notes:**
So how does that relate to the communication of progress, success, and the PMA, performance, and accountability?

Accountability – a critical issue with large impact on the future of the Conservation and the nation. We’re hearing a lot these days about homeland security. For NRCS and its conservation partnership, homeland security is something that we have been working on for the past 65 years – making this nation secure by ensuring Americans have productive soil and clean water, and a natural environment that has made our country the envy of the world.

It is imperative that we are accountable for conservation and that we are able to articulate this accountability and our successes towards meeting specific objectives to our stakeholders, internal and external.

## Slide 20

## Check Out customer data from National Conservation Planning Database

## After Check Out select customer of interest

## Customer’s contact information

## Feature to enter assistance and follow-up notes on the customer

## Customer’s tract, field, and land use information

## Practice Schedule

## Reporting from Toolkit

## Click “Report After Check In”

## Data Errors in PRS data

- Data errors have been introduced through Toolkit
- Most data errors will be fixed with the release of CST Service Pack 2
- Users must correct any data errors before their data will show up in PRS reports

## Slide 30

| PRS Data Errors |   |   |   |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|   | FY05 | FY05 | FY06 |
| Error Condition | 9/26/2005 | 9/30/2005 | 12/8/2005 |
| Invalid Lat Long | 19 | 15 | 7 |
| Land unit has an invalid land use | 57 | 24 | 35 |
| Practice has multiple programs | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Applied date is not fy2005 or null | 2768 | 1228 | 400 |
| plan approval date is not fy2005 or null | 1325 | 987 | 365 |
| lat longitude is null | 1724 | 970 | 698 |
| incomplete location derived from lat long | 430 | 221 | 261 |
| invalid land unit | 50 | 43 | 6 |
| land unit does not have csg | 653 | 293 | 430 |
| practice does not have program | 2629 | 747 | 1497 |
| invalid practice | 78 | 183 | 1 |
| Total | 9733 | 4711 | 3700 |

## Slide 31

| Data Errors in PRS - 12/8/2005 |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Percent of Total for the Nation |  |  |
| State | # | % |
| Virginia | 797 | 21.5% |
| Wisconsin | 409 | 11.1% |
| Missouri | 365 | 9.9% |
| Minnesota | 269 | 7.3% |
| Iowa | 230 | 6.2% |
| New York | 162 | 4.4% |
| Maryland | 159 | 4.3% |
| Illinois | 153 | 4.1% |
| Nebraska | 115 | 3.1% |

## Warehouse Update date

## New Tools in PRS

## Data Warehouse Errors

## PRS Newsflashes – Note Data Errors in PRS dated 9-20-05

## PRS Newsflash on Data Errors – Note the attached table

## PRS data errors

## PRS Data errors

## Toolkit Tech Notes

## Toolkit Technical Notes on CST Created Data Errors in PRS

## Missing Program Codes

**Toolkit Notice From Kathy Green on 12-9-05**
- The PRS error reports for FY 2006 show an increasing number of practice records without a program designation. The count is 1,587 as of December 9. These errors are due to a known problem in Toolkit that is fixed and being tested for the Toolkit SP-2 release.
- In the meantime, Toolkit users can check for any missing program codes in PRS, then use Toolkit to enter the correct program codes for those practice records.
- We are re-sending the attached **Toolkit Tech Note 009** which describes the problem related to saving changes made in the Practice Schedule. **To prevent these errors the user should only use the Save button at the bottom of the Practice Schedule to save any changes.**
- Please distribute the attached Tech note 009 so that users will be informed on how to prevent/correct practices that are missing a program code. This should reduce the number of practices without a designated program in the PRS error reports.
- Contact ToolkitSupport@ftc.usda.gov if you require further assistance.

## (use this save button)

**(****use this save button)**

- Do not use this button to save and do not use the Tools  Save Folder in the Toolkit Main Menu.

**do not use the Tools ******** Save Folder in the Toolkit Main Menu. **

## Invalid Lat Long

## Invalid Lat Long –PRS Summary Tab

## Applied date is not FY2005 or is null

## Applied date is not FY2005 or is null

## Plan approval date is not FY2005 or is null

## Plan approval date is not FY2005 or is null

## PRS Future Improvements

- PRS 2006 Available October 1, 2006
- Improvements For FY2006 will include:
- Reporting from Protracts – March, 2006

## Protracts Integration with the National Conservation Planning DB

- Reduces duplicate data entry for field users of the Customer Service Toolkit (Toolkit) and the Performance Results System (PRS). Users will be able to:
- Report progress for practices that are certified for completion in ProTracts and linked to conservation plans in the NCP.
- Update conservation plans when contract modifications are approved in ProTracts.
- Upload planned practices to ProTracts for contract development without having to develop contract items in Toolkit.

## Reporting a practice from Protracts

- A practice must successfully pass all PRS business rules
- A ProTracts contract must be linked to at least one NCP conservation plan.
- A ProTracts contract item must be linked to at least one NCP practice.
- A contract item must be **completed** and **certified**.
- A partially completed contract item may be reported from ProTracts only when the last component is certified for completion.
- Reporting applied practices from ProTracts is optional.

## Updating of CST plans from Protracts

- A conservation plan may be updated when these conditions are true:
- The modification is approved.
- The contract is linked to at least one NCP conservation plan.
- The modified contract item is linked to at least one conservation practice.
- The conservation plan is not in use by a Toolkit or PRS user.

## Reporting a practice from Protracts

_**Tract  Land Unit Code Practice**__**	**__**	**__**Units  Applied    Applied Date   Reported**_
- 12345	  1          314    Brush Management	Ac       100.0        10/21/2005         R 2005

## Changes to CST plans from Protracts

- A conservation plan may be updated for the following types of modifications:
- Add a practice.
- Delete a practice.
- Cancel or terminate a contract.
- Substitute a practice.
- Remove a land unit from a contract item.
- Add a land unit to a contract item.
- A contract is modified to change the planned year.
- A contract is modified to change the planned amount.
- A contract is modified to change the narrative.

## Changes to CST plans from Protracts

- These types of modifications will not update the NCP:
- Land transfer modifications. The impact of land transfers on the conservation plan will be considered at the time when reconstitutions are implemented in Toolkit.
- Making any type of change to contract item components.
- Deleting participants.
- Adding participants.
- Extending the contract expiration date.

## PRS Future Improvements

- PRS 2006 Available October 1, 2006
- Improvements For FY2006 will include:
- Reporting from Protracts – March, 2006
- State and Local Programs available
- Additional quality assurance reports and features
- PRS2007 – Practice based performance measures
- Physical Impacts from modeling
- NO CSG based performance measures

## PRS Performance Measures definitions

## PRS Performance Measures using Conservation System Guide data

- Non-Federal Lands Managed for the Protection and Enhancement of Habitat for Species with Declining Populations
- Non-Federal Lands Treated for which Wildlife Habitat is the Primary or Secondary Resource Concern
- Irrigation Efficiency Improved
- Reduction in the Acreage of Cropland Soils Damaged by Erosion
- Soil Erosion Reduced

- Reduction in the Acreage of Cropland Soils Damaged by Erosion
- Soil Erosion Reduced

## Performance measure progress computations 

## PRS 2007

- Effects Data Refined - Impacts data are refined through CEAP and models are verified and enhanced.
- PRS vision – eliminate all workload for the field office in entering performance data.  In the future we will be able to snapshot the NCPDB and compare changes to know field accomplishments.

## Results of Linkages

- Allows field employees to focus on customer
- Managers have improved data for priority setting
- Monitoring improved
- Less time on accountability and more time on science and technology

## Slide 63

**Notes:**
This is a preliminary splash page for points

## POINTS

**POINTS**

## POINTS  -Program applications needed

- Agricultural Management Assistance (AMA),
- Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP),
- Farmland Protection Program (FPP),
- Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP),
- Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP),
- Conservation Reserve Program (CRP),
- Watersheds (PL566, PL534, Planning and Dam Rehab),
- Resource Conservation and Development Program(RC&D),
- National Dams Inventory (DAMS),
- Forestry Incentives Program (FIP),
- Great Plains Conservation Program (GPCP),
- Soil Survey (SOIL),
- Snow Survey (SNOW)
- Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program (CRBSCP),
- Plant Material Centers Data
- Conservation Technical Assistance

## POINTS

## A Tool to Build Programs 

- A Tool to Build Programs
- and Data Entry Screens

## Adding State and Local Programs

## Creating Customized Entry Screens

## MY.NRCS – Home of the CIS

**MY.NRCS – Home of the CIS**

**Select the CIS tab**

## What is the Conservation Information System?

**What is the Conservation Information System?**

- A tool that provides direct on-line access to relevant information in a useful and navigable format.
- Timely, accurate, and navigable.
- Allows managers at all levels in the conservation partnership to easily access data for management, analysis, and planning.

**Notes:**
The CIS is our version of an Executive Information System.  Similar systems exist at several Fortune 500 companies.  It is a web-based system that gives real-time, on-line access to relevant management information in a format, useful to managers at all levels of our agency.  The purpose of the CIS is to provide the best estimate of the cost of programs and activities by location across the country and to relate these costs to location specific performance accomplishments.  These costs are based on the location worked.  

## Conservation Information System

## CIS

- CIS will migrate to a visual data (charts, graphs, etc.)
- CIS will provide data analysis capabilities
- CIS will include other key management information (contracts, Program summaries, etc)
- CIS will use Information Builders technology

## SCIMS

## SCIMS 

- SCIMS will provide RSNOD reports and other customer reports
- SCIMS may be replaced with USDA customer database

## Executive Dashboard

## Thank you!