President's Management Agenda: Review of OMB's Improved Financial Performance Scorecard Process

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The President's Management Agenda (PMA) focuses attention on ensuring resources entrusted to the federal government are well managed and used wisely. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) developed standards to measure success and a PMA scorecard that gives a "green", "yellow" or "red score" by agency. Green indicates success, yellow indicates mixed results, and red indicates unsatisfactory results. For the Improved Financial Performance Initiative, GAO was asked to (1) study and evaluate OMB's process and criteria for awarding a green score for current status and progress and (2) provide examples of how agency managers use financial data to better manage on a day-to-day basis. To fulfill these objectives, GAO interviewed OMB and agency officials and examined OMB and agency documentation relevant to OMB's scoring process.