Several players have important roles in implementing the CAP goals, as required by GPRAMA: OMB. OMB provides guidance to agencies and CAP goal teams in Circular A-11 on how to implement GPRAMA, including implementing and reporting on the CAP goals. Beginning in March 2014, OMB and the PIC also developed more detailed guidance, which they have updated periodically, to help ensure CAP goal teams are complying with GPRAMA requirements, including developing CAP goal implementation plans, identifying contributors, and reporting quarterly progress toward their goals on the public website, Performance.gov. PIC. The PIC is chaired by OMB’s Deputy Director for Management and is composed of agency Performance Improvement Officers, other agency performance staff, and senior OMB staff to facilitate the exchange of useful practices to strengthen agency performance management, such as through cross-agency working groups. The PIC is supported by an Executive Director and a team of 8 full-time staff, that conduct implementation planning and coordination on crosscutting performance areas, including working with OMB, other government-wide management councils, and agencies on the CAP goals. CAP Goal Leaders. CAP goal leaders are responsible for coordinating efforts to implement each goal. As shown in figure 1 above, the current CAP goals have at least two goal leaders—one from the Executive Office of the President and the other from a key responsible agency. OMB directs CAP goal leaders to engage officials from contributing agencies by leveraging existing interagency working groups, committees, and councils. GPRAMA has a number of requirements for reporting on CAP goals (see text box). These reporting requirements are designed to ensure that relevant performance information is used to improve performance and results of the goals, that OMB and CAP goal leaders actively lead efforts to engage all relevant participants in collaborative performance improvement initiatives, and hold them accountable for progress on identified goals and milestones. GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 Requirements for Reporting on Cross-Agency Priority Goal Progress Make available on the website Performance.gov: 1. A brief description of each of the federal government priority goals required by section 1120(a) of this title. 2. An identification of the lead government official for each federal government performance goal. 3. An identification of the agencies, organizations, program activities, regulations, tax expenditures, policies, and other activities that contribute to each federal government performance goal. 4. Plans to address major management challenges that are government-wide or crosscutting in nature, and describe plans to address such challenges, including relevant performance goals, performance indicators, and milestones. 5. Performance goals to define the planned level of performance for each goal for the year in which the plan is submitted and the next fiscal year for each of the federal priority goals. 6. Common federal government performance indicators. 7. Quarterly targets for each common performance indicator.assessing the overall progress toward each federal government performance goal. 11. How performance indicators with quarterly targets are being used in measuring or assessing whether relevant agencies, organizations, program activities, regulations, tax expenditures, policies, and other activities are contributing as planned. 12. Results achieved during the most recent quarter. 13. Overall trend data compared to the planned level of performance. OMB established the first set of CAP goals for a 2-year interim period in February 2012. We issued reports in 2012 and 2014, evaluating implementation challenges faced during the interim CAP goal period. In May 2012, we reported that the interim CAP goals did not leverage all relevant parties, and therefore important opportunities for achieving these goals may have been missed. OMB responded by identifying and including additional relevant departments, agencies, and programs for the interim CAP goals. In June 2014, we identified a number of reporting and accountability gaps with the interim CAP goals. Specifically, we found that some goals did not report on progress towards a planned level of performance because the goals lacked either a quantitative target or the data needed to track progress. We also found that quarterly progress updates published on Performance.gov listed planned activities and milestones contributing to each goal, but some did not include relevant information, including time frames for the completion of specific actions and the status of ongoing efforts. We concluded that the incomplete information in the updates provided a limited basis for ensuring accountability for the achievement of targets and milestones. As a result, we made seven recommendations to OMB and the PIC to improve the reporting of performance information for CAP goals and quarterly progress reviews. OMB responded to these recommendations by updating its guidance to CAP goal teams to address the reporting and accountability gaps we identified. We closed these recommendations as implemented based on OMB’s updated guidance to CAP goal teams, our assessment of the quarterly progress updates, and interviews with CAP goal teams. In March 2014, OMB issued the current set of CAP goals, which GPRAMA requires to be updated, at a minimum, every 4 years. As shown in figure 2, the current set of 15 CAP goals includes 7 related to crosscutting mission areas and 8 related to management. OMB reported that it worked to select CAP goals that represent high-priority issue areas with outcomes that could be enhanced through improved cross-agency implementation. OMB will issue the next set of 4-year CAP goals in February 2018 along with the President’s fiscal year 2019 budget. OMB staff told us that they expect the last progress update posted on Performance.gov for this set of CAP goals will reflect progress from the second quarter of fiscal year 2018, which ends in March 2018. Each quarterly progress update for this set of CAP goals is available on Performance.gov. As we reported in September 2015, OMB improved CAP goal reporting and accountability by addressing recommendations we made in June 2014. Specifically, OMB developed updated guidance and a new reporting template for CAP goal teams that provide a consistent reporting format across all goal teams, and helps goal teams meet GPRAMA reporting requirements. According to OMB staff managing the CAP goals, this revised reporting structure and template is intended to promote engagement from goal leaders, facilitate performance monitoring, ensure transparency of the CAP goal initiative, and provide a framework for CAP goal teams to articulate cross-agency goals using milestones and measures. The template outlines information that GPRAMA requires goal teams to report on Performance.gov, such as goal leaders; contributing agencies, organizations, and programs; performance measures and targets; key milestones; and plans to address government-wide management challenges. The updated guidance directs CAP goal teams to include additional performance information—not required by GPRAMA—in their quarterly progress updates, such as the status of milestones, associated time frames for their completion, performance indicators (or measures) under development, and an organizational chart depicting the goal’s governance team. According to the seven CAP goal teams we spoke with and OMB staff, the quarterly progress updates provide useful information for goal leaders to track progress over time and to make timely management decisions that affect goal implementation. PIC guidance states that the update should provide succinct, high-level information that is understandable to all involved in implementation (i.e., program staff to senior leaders). OMB staff managing the CAP goals told us that the quarterly progress updates summarize the progress made on each CAP goal. They added that, at this point in the goal period, reviewing the milestone status for each CAP goal is the best way to determine whether goals are at risk or sufficient progress is being made quarterly. For example, the Lab-to-Market CAP goal leader in the Department of Energy told us that the progress updates enables the goal team to track progress on activities that support and expand technology between the national laboratories and the private sector. The goal leader also told us the quarterly reports are useful to implementation teams because they reinforce the need to coordinate across agency lines, and drive discussion about what can be done to achieve goals and milestones. OMB and the PIC have also implemented strategies to build agency capacity to work across agency lines. For example: Assigned agency goal leader. For the current set of CAP goals, OMB changed the CAP goal governance structure to include agency co-leads for each CAP goal, in addition to entities within the Executive Office of the President, such as OMB, that were already serving as goal leaders (see figure 2 above). According to OMB staff, this new governance structure reflects agency leadership and expertise in CAP goal subject areas, more effectively leverages agency resources for crosscutting efforts, and promotes greater coordination across multiple agencies. For example, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education CAP goal team staff from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) told us that they found contributing agencies to be more receptive to directives and efforts for implementing the CAP goal because they come jointly from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and are not solely based on OSTP’s policy perspective. They also told us that NSF’s leadership of CAP goal activities and its ability to secure agency buy-in, among other things, makes it an effective CAP goal leader. Provide ongoing guidance and assistance to CAP goal teams. The seven CAP goal teams we spoke with told us that OMB and the PIC staff are available regularly to provide them with ongoing support, such as assisting with the regular collection of performance data, leading seminars to develop useful milestones and priority actions, and improving teams’ ability to track and report progress. The PIC plans to continue to assist teams with tracking their progress and ensuring accountability across the goals, including supporting the quality and completeness of the regular quarterly progress updates through Performance.gov. For example, in August 2014, PIC staff met with the STEM Education CAP goal team to assist it in developing milestones and performance measures and to define actionable next steps. The STEM Education CAP goal leader from NSF told us the assistance provided by the PIC helped the goal team improve its implementation plan and develop relevant performance measures. Holding senior-level reviews.