workforce sustainability and population ageing

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Box 2.6. The SAI of the United States – linking performance to decision-making in Congress and the Executive (continued)

The GPRAMA puts the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) – a centre of government institution – in a leading role of disseminating and integrating a results and performance based approach to public administration.By requiring agencies to consult with Congress when establishing or adjusting government-wide and agency goals, the GPRAMA provides Congress with more opportunities to be involved in performance planning at the agency level. Members of Congress, congressional committees, and staff can use these opportunities to assess whether existing agency strategies are the most efficient and effective ways for agencies to meet their goals.

Mandated with reviewing the implementation and use of the GPRAMA, the GAO fields requests from Congress to support the application of the GPRAMA. GAO produces reports and recommendations targeted to both the executive and to Congress. Many of GAO’s innovative activities in this area, some of which are highlighted in various guides, briefings and indexes, came at the specific request of Congress.

Scope and methodology

The GAO’s work in this area spans all of government. The scope and methodology of individual activities are provided for in corresponding reports. All activities related to the assessments of the GPRAMA can be found at the weblink below, where recommendations and their status are tracked.

Criteria

Country laws and regulations; government wide indicators (in the case of the United States, these are the cross-agency priority goals); public sector entities’ objectives/indicators; foreign laws and regulations (used to identify good practice for possible application to the United States); standards and guidance from international organisations (used to identify good practice for possible application to the United States).

Resources

GAO has approximately ten full-time staff working on assessments of the GPRAMA per year. However, given that many other GAO activities touch on related aspects, the actual resources dedicated is difficult to estimate.

Benefits and outcomes

Approximately 60% of GAO reports include recommendations, of which 79% are implemented within four years. More information about the benefits of GAO’s work can be found here: www.gao.gov/about/perfaccountreport.html.

General lessons learned

GAO’s activity in assessing the GPRAMA has highlighted the biggest challenge and opportunity facing performance audit, which is evolving from looking at a single “unit of analysis” (e.g. one programme). Traditionally, SAIs started with an individual programme and then applied the typical “logic model” by looking at the inputs, process, and outputs, and then making judgments about the efficiency and effectiveness of the programme, often commenting on the degree to which outcomes are being achieved. The value in this approach means that it will remain a core part of the SAI portfolio.

In order for SAIs to understand cross-cutting arrangements, they need to systematically begin by selecting an outcome as the unit of analysis and then work back to the various programmes that are intended to contribute to achieving that outcome. Once SAIs are able to adopt the outcome as the unit, new analytic opportunities and findings emerge related to possible overlap, duplication and fragmentation among programmes in a given policy area. These findings would not typically emerge if a single programme was the unit for analysis.

SUPREME AUDIT INSTITUTIONS AND GOOD GOVERNANCE: OVERSIGHT, INSIGHT AND FORESIGHT © OECD 2016