At the request of Congress, we have previously studied a number of leading public sector organizations that were successful in pursuing management reform initiatives and becoming more results-oriented.These included selected state governments as well as foreign governments, such as Australia and the United Kingdom. We found that despite obvious and important differences in histories, culture, and political systems, each of the organizations commonly took three key steps as they sought to become more results-oriented and make fundamental improvements in performance. These were to (1) define clear missions and desired outcomes, (2) measure performance to gauge progress, and (3) use performance information to manage programs and support policy decisionmaking. Figure 1 below illustrates the various planning documents that the District has for managing the city, including an annual plan and report to Congress, various scorecards on selected goals that are on the District’s Internet site, and proposed neighborhood action plans. November 1999 and a Neighborhood Action Forum in January 2000. The Mayor plans to hold additional Neighborhood Action Forums and use the results to develop Neighborhood Action Plans. 2. Agency strategic plans have been established for 15 of the 45 District agencies under the Mayor’s jurisdiction. Although these agency strategic plans are presented in different formats, common elements include mission statements and key agency goals and measures. 3. The Mayor has signed performance contracts with the Directors of 21 city agencies. Under these contracts, the Directors are to be held accountable for achieving selected performance goals and are required to report their progress in meeting these goals on a monthly basis. The first step used by leading organizations—defining clear missions and desired outcomes—corresponds to the requirement in GPRA for federal agencies to develop strategic plans containing mission statements and outcome-related strategic goals. The District has clearly made progress in this regard. The citywide strategic plan contains largely outcome-related goals and measures that relate to the District’s five strategic priorities. For example, under the building and sustaining healthy neighborhoods priority, the strategic plan contains nine performance goals, including the goal to enhance the appearance and security of neighborhoods citywide. This goal contains 10 action items with intended results identified, including an initiative to abate 1,500 nuisance properties. In addition, responsibility for each goal is assigned to a lead agency or agencies. Also, the District has taken some steps to align its activities, core processes, and resources. For example, the Mayor has placed a clear emphasis on performance management in his administration. As I noted, one example is the signing of performance contracts with the Directors of 21 city agencies. The performance contracts are important for underscoring the personal accountability the District Government’s top leadership has for sound management and contributing to results. The Mayor also created four Deputy Mayor positions to assign responsibility for managing four critical functional areas within the government: Government Operations; Public Safety and Justice; Children, Youth and Families; and Economic Development. ensure that the strategic plan is as useful and informative as it could be. In developing its citywide strategic plan, the District held two meetings with citizens, which gave District residents the opportunity to propose priorities and to articulate a vision for the city. However, it was not clear from reading the strategic plan that the District involved other key stakeholders, specifically Congress, in the development of the plan. As you know, Mr. Chairman, GPRA requires federal executive branch agencies to consult with Congress when preparing their strategic plans. Consulting with Congress on its strategic plan could also benefit the District because of the appropriations and oversight role Congress plays and would be consistent with one of the District’s action items to maintain communications with Congress. In addition, the District’s strategic plan contains a vision statement and five strategic priorities. However, linking the vision statement to the strategic priorities with a comprehensive mission statement could help further clarify the direction the District wants to take. In our examination of high-performing organizations here in the United States and around the world, we have found that a clearly defined mission statement is one of the key elements of an effective performance management system. A mission statement is important because it brings an organization into focus and concisely tells why it exists, what it does, and how it does it. Finally, as the District continues its efforts to establish a clearly defined strategic direction for the city, it can enhance the usefulness of the plan by more fully articulating the strategies the city plans to use to achieve results. In some cases, it was not clear what strategies the Mayor’s office was going to use to achieve action items relating to the strategic plan’s performance goals. For example, the goal to enhance the appearance and security of neighborhoods citywide contained an action item of ensuring that 75 percent of youth attend school on a regular basis. However, the strategic plan did not give any indication how this measure would be achieved. Similarly, the goal that all residents have opportunities for lifelong learning contained an action item of increasing access to the Internet, but there was no discussion of how this would be achieved. The second key step that we found leading organizations commonly took—measuring performance to gauge progress toward goals—- corresponds to the GPRA requirement for federal agencies to develop annual performance plans and goals and performance measures to gauge progress. The District has made substantial progress in establishing performance measures for most of its goals. As it develops measures for the remaining goals and gains experience in using the data from the measures it has established, the experiences of high-performing organizations suggests that the District will identify ample opportunities to improve and refine its goals and measures. Specifically, we found that the fiscal year 2000 performance plan contained 447 measures, of which 36 (or 8 percent) had no indicators or performance targets that could be used to determine if the goals were achieved. When the Mayor updated this original plan several months later, there were 30 (or 7 percent) out of 417 measures without indicators to measure performance. You asked us to examine 31 goals drawn from the 417 in the Mayor’s updated performance plan for fiscal year 2000. These goals were not meant to be a representative sample of all the District’s goals. Of these 31, 29 were to be completed not later than September 30, 2000. As shown in the attachment to my statement, the District reported that as of August 31, 2000—1 month before scheduled completion—it had met 12 of these 29 goals, and it had not met 12 goals. An example of a goal that was met was from the Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which reported that it exceeded its goal of serving 35 percent of D.C. Public School students through the Arts in Education program, stating that 55 percent of students have been served by this program through August 2000. An example of a goal that was not met was from the Office of Banking and Financial Institutions (OBFI), which reported that it did not meet its goal of obtaining baseline data by June 2000 on capital and credit available by Ward. OBFI stated that it was not able to obtain this data from banks in the District due to proprietary issues these banks would face, and it was considering redefining the goal for future years. The District did not provide performance information for one goal, and for four goals it was unclear from the information provided whether the goal had been met. For example, the Department of Employment Services (DOES) had a goal of contacting 600 employers and entering them into the DOES database. However, the data provided by DOES to report progress on this goal showed information on the number of job orders and job openings in the system and the number of individuals placed. It was not clear from the information provided whether DOES accomplished its goal. annual performance reports with information on the extent to which the agency has met its annual performance goals. If policymakers in the District and in Congress are to use the information in the District’s annual performance report to make decisions, then that information must be credible. Credible performance information is essential for accurately assessing agencies’ progress towards the achievement of their goals and pinpointing specific solutions to performance shortfalls. Agencies also need reliable information during their planning efforts to set realistic goals. In some cases, producing credible performance data is relatively straightforward. For example, a District goal to open three new health centers would not normally need a systematic process to gather data that shows if the goal was met. Far more common, however, are goals and performance measures that would seem to depend upon the existence of a systematic process to efficiently and routinely gather the requisite performance data. In that regard, we found that the District has not yet implemented a system to provide assurance that the performance information it generates is sufficiently credible for decisionmaking. The District’s performance report for fiscal year 1999 stated that the performance data was “unaudited.” An official in the Mayor’s office said that this meant the performance data had not been independently verified. He also said that the Mayor’s office has asked the Inspector General to begin audits of the data. The 31 goals selected for our detailed review underscore the challenges confronting the District. In response to our request for evidence that a system existed to ensure that the performance data were sufficiently reliable for measuring progress toward goals, the District did not provide such evidence for 7 of the12 goals that the District reported had been met and for 11 of the 14 goals that the District reported had not been met. As a result, key decisionmakers cannot be certain that the seven goals reported to have been met were in fact met. For example, the Department of Public Works (DPW) did not provide a description of any system or procedures in place for ensuring the credibility of performance data for measuring progress on its goal of permanently repairing 90 percent of utility cuts within 45 days of utility work completion. As part of becoming more results-oriented, leading organizations work to ensure that their annual performance goals and measures “link up” to the organization's mission and long-term strategic goals as well as “link down” to organizational components with specific duties and responsibilities.