Yet program evaluation is charged with considering for evaluation all the programs and activities of government. Regulatory programs were all to be evaluated over seven years, but about 53 percent actually were. The program evaluation capability established by the federal government in the early 1980s is still in place, but its strength is declining.
Fewer resources tend to produce fewer studies.
9.2 Program evaluation is located in departments and is the responsibility of the deputy heads. Priority has been given to meeting the needs of departmental managers. As a result, evaluations examine smaller program units or lower-budget activities and focus on operational performance. They are less likely to challenge the existence of a program or to evaluate its cost-effectiveness. The government's use of program evaluation studies often is difficult to demonstrate.