That is why Congress passed legislation in 1993 that gave agencies seven years advance notice to change how they do business. Today, however, many federal agencies still appear years away from realizing the vision of the Government Performance and Results Act. The reasons are many, said agency officials and experts.
Some agencies are resistant to new ways of doing business.
Some are hobbled by inadequate methods of tracking their performance. Others are challenged to measure their progress in achieving goals that are intangible and difficult to quantify. One purpose of the 1993 law is to focus the attention of government managers more on achieving results. The law requires agencies to measure their programs performance and the impact those programs have on the country. When agencies reported for the first time in March on their programs results and how those results stacked up to goals they set for themselves, some were successful.