Forest Service
Little Progress on Performance Accountability Likely Unless Management Addresses Key Challenges Gao ID: GAO-03-503 May 1, 2003Historically, the Forest Service has not been able to provide Congress or the public with a clear understanding of what the Forest Service's 30,000 employees accomplish with the approximately $5 billion the agency receives every year. Since 1990, GAO has reported 7 times on performance accountability weaknesses at the Forest Service, including its inability to systematically link planning, budgeting, and results reporting. This report reviews the recent progress the Forest Service has made in resolving previously identified performance accountability problems and identifies key challenges the Forest Service must overcome to resolve these problems.
The Forest Service has made little real progress in resolving its long-standing performance accountability problems and, based on the status of its current efforts, remains years away from implementing a credible performance accountability system. Since June 2000, when we last reported on performance accountability at the Forest Service, the agency has continued to study the issue but has made little real progress. For example, in March 2002, the agency initiated a study of how several other federal agencies implemented their performance accountability systems and, by September 2002, had devised a draft plan for implementing a system of its own. However, broad support within the agency for implementing this plan could not be achieved, and an executive steering team was recently established to restudy the issue. While the agency continues to study and restudy the issue, opportunities to establish key linkages among components of a performance accountability system have been missed. For example, in April 2000, the agency began considering a new budget system and, in August 2001, a new work-plan system--two critical components that should be part of a performance accountability system. However, the Forest Service has yet to develop clear linkages between these new systems and its strategic goals and performance results. Without these linkages, the agency will be unable to report in an integrated, results-oriented way on what activities it completed, how much they cost, and what they accomplished--key elements of an effective performance accountability system. While we recognize that developing a performance accountability system is a complex, time-consuming process, other federal agencies with land management responsibilities have developed and implemented performance accountability systems and believe that their systems have produced multiple benefits. The Forest Service faces three key challenges that it must meet if it is to make more progress. First, the agency needs to establish clear lines of authority and responsibility for developing and implementing a performance accountability system. Currently, various senior executives have responsibilities for components of performance accountability; however, no one has overall responsibility and authority for ensuring these components are developed and properly linked. Second, the Forest Service needs to address its culture of consensus decision-making, which has made it difficult for the Forest Service to agree on how to develop and implement an integrated performance accountability system. Third, top agency leadership needs to give sufficient emphasis and priority to establishing a performance accountability system. The agency is currently giving greater emphasis to other priorities, like financial accountability. GAO recognizes the importance of, and need for, addressing the Forest Service's long-standing financial accountability problems, but believes more can and should be done to address the agency's performance accountability problems so that both performance and financial accountability can work in concert to assess and, ultimately, to improve the agency's overall performance.
RecommendationsOur recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.
Director: Team: Phone:GAO-03-503, Forest Service: Little Progress on Performance Accountability Likely Unless Management Addresses Key Challenges
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Report to the Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health, Committee on
Resources, House of Representatives:
United States General Accounting Office:
GAO:
May 2003:
Forest Service:
Little Progress on Performance Accountability Likely Unless Management
Addresses Key Challenges:
GAO-03-503:
GAO Highlights:
Highlights of GAO-03-503, a report to the Subcommittee on Forests and
Forest Health, Committee on Resources, House of Representatives
Why GAO Did This Study:
Historically, the Forest Service has not been able to provide Congress
or the public with a clear understanding of what the Forest Service‘s
30,000 employees accomplish with the approximately $5 billion the
agency receives every year. Since 1990, GAO has reported 7 times on
performance accountability weaknesses at the Forest Service, including
its inability to systematically link planning, budgeting, and results
reporting. This report reviews the recent progress the Forest Service
has made in resolving previously identified performance accountability
problems and identifies key challenges the Forest Service must
overcome to resolve these problems.
What GAO Found:
The Forest Service has made little real progress in resolving its long-
standing performance accountability problems and, based on the status
of its current efforts, remains years away from implementing a
credible performance accountability system. Since June 2000, when we
last reported on performance accountability at the Forest Service, the
agency has continued to study the issue but has made little real
progress. For example, in March 2002, the agency initiated a study of
how several other federal agencies implemented their performance
accountability systems and, by September 2002, had devised a draft
plan for implementing a system of its own. However, broad support
within the agency for implementing this plan could not be achieved,
and an executive steering team was recently established to restudy the
issue. While the agency continues to study and restudy the issue,
opportunities to establish key linkages among components of a
performance accountability system have been missed. For example, in
April 2000, the agency began considering a new budget system and, in
August 2001, a new work-plan system”two critical components that
should be part of a performance accountability system. However, the
Forest Service has yet to develop clear linkages between these new
systems and its strategic goals and performance results. Without
these linkages, the agency will be unable to report in an integrated,
results-oriented way on what activities it completed, how much they
cost, and what they accomplished”key elements of an effective
performance accountability system. While we recognize that developing
a performance accountability system is a complex, time-consuming
process, other federal agencies with land management responsibilities
have developed and implemented performance accountability systems and
believe that their systems have produced multiple benefits.
The Forest Service faces three key challenges that it must meet if it
is to make more progress. First, the agency needs to establish clear
lines of authority and responsibility for developing and implementing
a performance accountability system. Currently, various senior
executives have responsibilities for components of performance
accountability; however, no one has overall responsibility and
authority for ensuring these components are developed and properly
linked. Second, the Forest Service needs to address its culture of
consensus decision-making, which has made it difficult for the Forest
Service to agree on how to develop and implement an integrated
performance accountability system. Third, top agency leadership needs
to give sufficient emphasis and priority to establishing a performance
accountability system. The agency is currently giving greater
emphasis to other priorities, like financial accountability. GAO
recognizes the importance of, and need for, addressing the Forest
Service‘s long-standing financial accountability problems, but
believes more can and should be done to address the agency‘s
performance accountability problems so that both performance and
financial accountability can work in concert to assess and,
ultimately, to improve the agency‘s overall performance.
What GAO Recommends:
The Secretary of Agriculture should direct that the Chief of the
Forest Service appoint a senior executive to develop a comprehensive
plan with milestones to ensure the timely implementation of an
effective performance accountability system. The Chief should also
report, beginning in 2004, on (1) the agency‘s progress in
implementing a performance accountability system in the agency‘s
annual performance plans and (2) its accomplishments in implementing
its performance accountability system in its annual performance report
to the Congress. In commenting on a draft of this report, the Forest
Service agreed with these recommendations.
Contents:
Letter:
Results in Brief:
Background:
Forest Service Has Made Little Progress in Resolving Known Performance
Accountability Problems, unlike Other Federal Land Management Agencies:
Forest Service's Inability to Address Organizational, Cultural, and
Leadership Challenges Continues to Impede Its Progress on Performance
Accountability:
Conclusions:
Recommendations for Executive Action:
Agency Comments:
Scope and Methodology:
Appendix I: Forest Service's Progress on GAO-Reported
Performance Accountability Problems:
Appendix II: Detailed Forest Service Organizational Chart:
Appendix III: Comments from the Forest Service:
Appendix IV: GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments:
Related GAO Products:
Figures:
Figure 1: Forest Service's Organizational Structure:
Figure 2: The Linkage among Components in GPRA Legislative Framework:
Abbreviations:
BLM: Bureau of Land Management:
BFES: Budget Formulation and Execution System:
GPRA: Government Performance and Results Act:
NRCS: Natural Resources and Conservation Service:
OMB: Office of Management and Budget:
PART: Program Assessment Rating Tool:
USDA: Department of Agriculture:
6United States General Accounting Office:
Washington, DC 20548:
May 1, 2003:
The Honorable Scott McInnis
Chairman
The Honorable Jay Inslee
Ranking Minority Member
Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health
Committee on Resources
House of Representatives:
For 10 years, Congress and the administration have focused on making
federal agencies more accountable for what they accomplish with the
dollars they receive. To this end, the Congress mandated in legislation
that federal agencies undertake a number of major management reforms
that, together, constitute a statutory framework for linking plans,
budgets, and results.[Footnote 1] Over this period, GAO has reviewed
agencies' efforts to achieve the accountability for financial
management and performance envisioned by this framework. Since 1999, in
a series of reports identifying agencies with major management
challenges and at high risk of waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement,
GAO has consistently reported serious financial and performance
accountability weaknesses at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's
(USDA's) Forest Service. As a result of these weaknesses, the Forest
Service has not been able to provide Congress and the public with a
clear understanding of what its 30,000 employees accomplish with the
approximately $5 billion it receives every year.
The Forest Service has an enormous stewardship responsibility: to
maintain the health, productivity, and diversity of the nation's
forests and grasslands for current and future generations of Americans.
The agency manages 192 million acres of land, including a national
forest system that comprises 155 national forests, 20 national
grasslands, and 17 recreation areas. On these lands, the Forest
Service, among other things, supports recreation; sells timber;
provides rangeland for grazing; maintains and protects watersheds,
wilderness, fish and wildlife; and works with other federal agencies to
prevent and suppress wildfires. In addition, the Forest Service
provides financial and program support for state and private forests
and undertakes research activities. The Forest Service, headed by a
Chief, conducts these activities through three levels of field
management---9 regional offices, 123 forest offices, and about 600
district offices. The managers of these field offices have considerable
discretion in interpreting and applying the agency's policies and
directions. The Chief of the Forest Service reports to the Under
Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment.
In our previous reports, dating back to 1991, we noted that the
agency's lack of performance accountability in recent years occurred,
at least in part, because it had not developed a performance
accountability system that links its budget and organizational
structures, planning processes, and resource allocations with its
strategic goals, objectives, and performance measures. We also reported
that the agency had difficulty in developing good performance measures
and monitoring progress, both of which are critical to ensuring
accountability. Furthermore, while the agency had made numerous
commitments in recent years to provide the Congress and the public with
a better understanding of what it accomplishes with appropriated funds,
it did not appear to be fully committed to establishing the key
linkages, measures, monitoring, and coordination needed for
accountability. We reported that the Forest Service has studied options
to address performance accountability but has done little else. In
addition, we determined that the Forest Service has found it difficult
to develop a performance accountability system because responsibilities
for accountability have been fragmented among organizational components
and because the agency's culture allows field managers significant
independence in deciding whether to implement headquarters' guidance.
You asked us to (1) review the progress the Forest Service is making in
resolving known performance accountability problems and (2) identify
key challenges impeding the Forest Service's ability to resolve its
performance accountability problems. This report updates our reviews of
the Forest Service since we last testified before your Subcommittee in
June 2000.[Footnote 2]
Results in Brief:
The Forest Service has made little progress in resolving its long-
standing performance accountability problems and, based on the status
of its current efforts, remains years away from establishing a credible
performance accountability system. Nearly 2 years after we testified on
the agency's performance accountability problems in June 2000, the
Forest Service once again began to study its options. In March 2002, it
initiated a study of other federal agencies' performance accountability
systems to learn how to develop, evaluate, and implement a performance
accountability system, and by September 2002, the Forest Service had
formulated a draft plan for implementing one of its own. However, the
draft plan never received broad support within the agency, and the
agency established an executive steering team to restudy the issue.
However, this team was not appointed until December 2002, nearly 2½
years since we last testified on this issue and more than 11 years
after we first reported on it. While the agency continues to study and
restudy the issue, opportunities to establish key linkages among
components of a performance accountability system have been missed. For
example, the Forest Service is developing two systems that should be
integral to a performance accountability system--budget and work-plan
systems. However, the Forest Service has not developed clear linkages
between these new systems and its strategic goals and performance
results. Without these linkages, the agency will not be able to report
in an integrated, results-oriented way on what activities it completed,
how much they cost, and what they accomplished--key elements of any
effective performance accountability system. While we recognize that
developing a performance accountability system is a complex, time-
consuming process, we found that other federal agencies with land
management responsibilities have developed and implemented performance
accountability systems and believe that their systems have produced
multiple benefits.
The Forest Service faces three key challenges that it must meet if it
is to implement a credible performance accountability system: (1)
establishing clear authority and responsibility within the current
organizational structure, (2) making and implementing decisions in an
agency culture that relies heavily on consensus, and (3) establishing
sufficient leadership emphasis and making performance accountability a
higher priority. With respect to the first challenge, several senior
executives have been assigned responsibilities for components of
performance accountability. However, none of these executives has
overall responsibility and authority for ensuring these components are
properly linked, and effective coordination continues to be difficult
within the Forest Service's existing organizational structure. Second,
the Forest Service's culture of making major decisions by agencywide
consensus serves as a major impediment to more concerted action on this
front. Currently, the Forest Service cannot agree on an integrated
approach to creating a performance accountability system, and without
this agreement the agency's progress is essentially stalemated.
Finally, top agency leadership has not given sufficient emphasis and
priority to establishing a performance accountability system. According
to the Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and
Environment and the Chief of the Forest Service, the agency is focusing
its efforts on achieving financial accountability before addressing its
performance accountability needs. While we recognize the importance of,
and the need for, addressing the Forest Service's long-standing
financial accountability problems, we believe that more can and should
be done to also address its performance accountability problems so that
both performance and financial accountability can work in concert to
assess and, ultimately, to improve the agency's overall performance.
GAO is recommending a series of steps to ensure that the Forest Service
makes substantive progress towards developing and implementing a
performance accountability system. The Forest Service commented on a
draft of this report and agreed with our findings and recommendations.
Background:
The Forest Service is organized into six areas, each headed by a deputy
chief, who reports directly to the Chief of the Forest Service. These
deputy chiefs are responsible for the National Forest System; State and
Private Forestry; Research and Development; Budget and Finance;
Programs, Legislation and Communications; and Business Operations, as
shown in figure 1.
Figure 1: Forest Service's Organizational Structure:
[See PDF for image]
[End of figure]
Other Federal Agencies Have Land Management Responsibilities:
The Forest Service is one of four federal agencies that manage public
lands. The other three are the National Park Service, the Bureau of
Land Management (BLM), and the Fish and Wildlife Service, within the
Department of the Interior (Interior). The Natural Resources and
Conservation Service (NRCS), within USDA, provides land management
assistance to the owners of private lands. The Forest Service and the
three agencies within Interior manage 95 percent of all federal lands,
while NRCS is primarily responsible for conserving and protecting
natural resources on private lands, which constitute about 75 percent
of all acreage in the contiguous United States. NRCS has a budget of
approximately $1 billion and 11,500 employees. BLM is responsible for
administering more public lands than any other federal agency, with a
budget of approximately $1.7 billion and 10,900 employees. Although
somewhat smaller than the Forest Service, NRCS and BLM have important
land management responsibilities.
Statutory and Administrative Framework for Performance Accountability:
Over the past decade, Congress and the executive branch have sought to
improve federal management by focusing more on results. The Congress
enacted several laws to create a statutory framework for results-
oriented management. The Government Performance and Results Act of 1993
(GPRA) is a key element of this statutory framework. GPRA requires
agencies to develop strategic plans that have outcome-related goals and
objectives. Agencies must also develop annual performance plans that
establish goals for program activities and that create performance
measures to assess program outcomes and to provide a basis for linking
program results with established goals. The strategic plan must
describe how the annual performance goals relate to the strategic
plan's goals and objectives. Finally, GPRA requires agencies to report
annually on their results--that is, the extent to which their annual
performance goals have been met. Figure 2 illustrates the relationship
of the different components of this legislative framework.
Figure 2: The Linkage among Components in GPRA Legislative Framework:
[See PDF for image]
[End of figure]
Implementation of the legislative framework is evolving. Currently, for
example, improving the integration of budget and performance is a high-
priority initiative in the President's Management Agenda.[Footnote 3]
The Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Program Assessment Rating
Tool (PART) is central to this initiative. This diagnostic tool is
intended to provide a consistent approach to reviewing program design,
planning, and goal development as well as program management and
results. OMB has begun using PART to assess 20 percent of programs
annually, beginning with the fiscal year 2004 President's budget
request to the Congress.
Prior GAO Reports Document Long-Standing Performance Accountability
Problems:
GAO has documented the Forest Service's struggles with achieving
performance accountability for over a decade. (See Related GAO
Products.) GAO concluded that the agency's lack of performance
accountability occurred, at least in part, because it had not developed
a performance accountability system that linked its budget and
organizational structures, planning processes, and resource
allocations with its strategic goals, objectives, and performance
measures.
Adequate performance measures are key to linking components of a
performance accountability system. However, as we reported, the Forest
Service had not established objective and verifiable performance
measures. Nor had it established specific and quantifiable objectives
that link its strategic goals with its annual performance measures. We
reported that the agency had difficulty establishing these linkages
because the authority for these components was fragmented among three
different deputy chiefs, with no method for resolving differences on
how to best link these components. This lack of coordination at
headquarters undermined performance accountability.
Finally, we reported that the agency's leadership had failed to
credibly emphasize performance management at either the headquarters or
field levels. We reported that in 1991 the Chief of the Forest Service
had formed a task force to review performance accountability. The task
force found that the agency had consistently promised to take
corrective actions recommended by GAO and USDA's Inspector General, but
had most often failed to do so and that there was "compelling" evidence
of a need for increased accountability. As a result, the task force
recommended that the Forest Service (1) institutionalize accountability
in managers' performance contracts, (2) accelerate cultural change in
the agency, and (3) monitor and track accountability through indicators
or benchmarks.[Footnote 4] The agency's leadership team adopted these
concepts and distributed them agencywide. However, as we reported in
1997, agency leadership did not follow up with actions to implement
these concepts and, as a result, the task force's recommendations were
never carried out.
Forest Service Has Made Little Progress in Resolving Known Performance
Accountability Problems, unlike Other Federal Land Management Agencies:
The Forest Service has made little progress in resolving previously
identified performance accountability problems and remains years away
from implementing a credible performance accountability system. Rather
than developing and implementing a functioning performance
accountability system like other federal land management agencies, the
Forest Service, for the most part, continues to study its options, as
it has for the last 11 years. The agency is developing or has
implemented two systems that should be important components of a
performance accountability system--a budget formulation and execution
system and a work-planning system--but neither was originally designed
to be part of a performance accountability system, nor has the Forest
Service developed the clear linkages needed between these new systems
and its strategic goal-setting and results-reporting functions.
The Forest Service Continues to Study Performance Accountability:
To understand how other agencies have established clear linkages among
key components of a performance accountability system, the Forest
Service initiated a benchmarking study of other agencies' performance
accountability systems in March 2002, including USDA's NRCS and
Interior's BLM and National Park Service.[Footnote 5] This study
reports on lessons learned for successfully developing, evaluating, and
implementing a performance accountability system. In particular, a good
performance accountability system, among other things, should include:
* senior leadership commitment to performance accountability;
* clear delineation of organizational responsibilities for performance
measurement, budget integration, performance evaluation, and
reporting;
* close coordination of performance accountability activities;
* national performance measures;
* linkages from the strategic plan to annual performance measures to
budget activities; and:
* the ability to track total costs and tie those costs to desired
outcomes.
Not until July 2002 did the Chief of the Forest Service emphasize his
intention to "get started" on studying how performance accountability
could be implemented at the Forest Service. In September 2002, in
response to the Chief's direction, the strategic planning and budget
staffs completed a draft plan for an agencywide performance
accountability system that incorporated the lessons learned from their
benchmarking study. The Forest Service's Draft Performance
Accountability System Implementation Plan provides a conceptual
framework and time frames for developing a performance accountability
system. It is designed to develop the critical links among performance
accountability components: the strategic plan, annual performance plan,
project planning, budget, and annual reporting of results. The plan
also explains how existing Forest Service databases, such as those for
formulating the budget and the annual work plans, could be used to
provide the information needed for performance accountability. Although
the Chief endorsed the concept of performance accountability outlined
in the plan, it did not receive broad support throughout the agency. As
a result, the Chief decided to further assess performance
accountability options through an executive steering team, rather than
adopt the system envisioned in the draft implementation plan.
The executive steering team, chaired by the Deputy Chief for Programs,
Legislation, and Communications, comprises nine senior executives in
key agency positions.[Footnote 6] This team is to study the Forest
Service's own processes and systems and further consider options
available for implementing a Forest Service performance accountability
system and to report to the Chief by June 2003 on the viability of
these options. However, this team was not appointed until December
2002, nearly 2½ years after we last testified on this issue and more 11
years after we first reported on it. As a result, the Forest Service
has made little progress since 1991, when it first formed a task force
to review performance accountability.
Forest Service Has Developed Two Systems That Should Be Part of a
Performance Accountability System, but It Has Not Established Clear
Linkages between These Systems and Its Strategic Goals and Performance
Results:
The Forest Service began considering new budget and work-planning
systems in April 2000 and August 2001, respectively, long before the
Chief emphasized his intention to "get started" on performance
accountability in July 2002. These new systems should be integral parts
of a performance accountability system, but the Forest Service has not
developed clear linkages between these new systems' main outputs--
budgets and work activities--and its strategic goals and performance
results. Without these linkages, the agency will not be able to report
in an integrated, results-oriented way on what activities it completed,
how much they cost, and what they accomplished--key elements of any
effective performance accountability system.
In June 2000, the House Committee on Appropriations reported it was
concerned that the agency devoted too much of its funding to
headquarters initiatives and special projects, to the detriment of
conservation and public service activities the Committee believed to be
important. As a result, the Committee directed the Forest Service to
better link its budget formulation and allocation systems to the actual
work planned for the nation's forests.
The Forest Service developed such a system--the Budget Formulation and
Execution System (BFES)--and in March 2001 began using it to formulate
its fiscal year 2003 budget. The agency viewed BFES as an answer to the
Committee's concerns, but not necessarily part of any effort to achieve
performance accountability. The Forest Service designed BFES to allow
field units to have more input into the budget formulation process, to
plan activities and their associated funding throughout the annual
budget development process, and to serve as a basis for subsequent
field unit allocations. If BFES accomplishes these goals, according to
senior officials in the budget office, it could allow field units to
estimate their ability to carry out program activities in light of the
agency's strategic goals, headquarters priorities, and local
priorities. Furthermore, according to these officials, BFES's potential
to establish such linkages could make it integral to the agency's
recent attempt to develop a performance accountability system. However,
as of May 2003--more than 3 years after the Forest Service began work
on BFES and 2 years after its first use--only a portion of the agency's
budget is included in the system.
Despite the expectations for BFES to link the agency's strategic goals
with headquarters and local priorities, the Forest Service has not
established clear linkages between its strategic goals and field units'
local priorities, which makes it harder for the Forest Service to
achieve performance accountability. In particular, budget instructions
for fiscal years 2003 and 2004 attempted to guide field units on how to
make these linkages. According to these instructions, as field units
planned their activities and associated funding, they were to weigh the
agency's strategic goals in making budgetary trade-offs between
competing local priorities. In fiscal year 2003, field units found it
impossible to deal effectively with the large number of priorities--50-
-headquarters identified. For fiscal year 2004, the agency's guidance
did not provide a formal process to document such linkages. Field
managers used their "professional judgment" to draw these linkages.
Consequently, for both fiscal years 2003 and 2004, field units used
BFES estimates to set local priorities based on incremental adjustments
to their previous year's funding. Such a process does not meet the
criteria for performance accountability because it is not clearly based
on the strategic plan and associated outcomes. However, according to
senior budget officials, the BFES approach to budget formulation for
these years represents an improvement over the Forest Service's
previous process, a more arbitrary practice based almost entirely on
the previous year's funding.
Although the Forest Service's budget formulation effort for fiscal year
2005 is an improvement over the budget formulation process for the
prior 2 fiscal years, it once again falls short of establishing clear
linkages between the agency's strategic goals and field unit
priorities. In December 2002, the National Leadership Team--60 senior
executives in the agency--reviewed a set of draft management
objectives[Footnote 7] developed by the planning staff and tentatively
approved 11 of them for field units to consider in developing their
fiscal year 2005 budget submissions. Field units have been instructed
to use these management objectives in integrating local forest plan
priorities with agency objectives. Agency officials reported this
initial step was intended to have field staff become "comfortable" in
seeing budget and strategic goals together and to begin linking
performance goals to the budget. However, staff in the planning office
as well as some senior executives questioned the extent to which the
fiscal year 2005 management objectives mirrored strategic goals,
primarily because National Leadership Team members did not have
sufficient time to carefully review the draft management objectives.
The Forest Service decided to replace its work-planning system in
August 2001, when conversion to new computer hardware caused the
existing work-planning system to lose some of its usefulness. The
agency sought a national work-planning system to, among other things,
help field units plan and manage work activities at the project level.
According to agency officials, the new work-planning system--called
WorkPlan--will be completed and implemented in two phases. The first
phase is scheduled to be completed by May 1, 2003, but it will include
only a planning component. WorkPlan should be available to field units
in time to help them develop their fiscal year 2004 work plans. The
agency expects to complete the second phase in October 2003, which is
to add tracking completed activities and reporting accomplishments to
WorkPlan's capabilities. According to the draft performance
accountability system implementation plan, WorkPlan may eventually link
field units' work activities to Forest Service planning, budgeting, and
results reporting functions. These linkages, if established, could
assist program managers in, among other things, reporting
accomplishments and their related expenditures and integrating these
functions with the Forest Service's strategic goals--key functions in a
performance accountability system.
However, it is not clear whether the agency will be able to establish
the necessary linkages that would enable WorkPlan to meet these
expectations. For example, it is unclear how accurately the Forest
Service will be able to report on the actual costs of individual work
activities. Currently, the agency's financial information system
reports actual expenditures only at the budget line item level, while
WorkPlan is being designed to provide the planned costs of individual
work activities at the project level. The Forest Service is planning to
develop linkages to bridge this discrepancy between levels of reporting
and thus to provide estimates of project activities' actual costs.
Forest Service officials believe that such estimates could provide
sufficient detail and clarity to adequately address performance
accountability concerns. However, until such linkages are, in fact,
established and evaluated, it is uncertain that the agency will ever be
able to accurately report the actual cost of project activities.
WorkPlan's future ability to report accomplishments depends heavily on
the Forest Service making significantly more progress on developing
outcome performance measures for all of its goals and objectives. While
we understand the difficulty in developing meaningful performance
measures, the Forest Service is in the process of developing such
measures only for its wildfire program. For example, in Forest
Service's fiscal year 2005 draft Performance Management Plan, the
measure for reducing hazardous fuels is expressed in terms of how much
the risk of catastrophic fire has been reduced, an outcome-based
performance measure. However, officials from the wildfire, wildlife and
fish, engineering, and water and air programs told us that relating
work activities, such as those that will likely be reported in
WorkPlan, to achieving results requires systematic monitoring of the
changing conditions in the forests over time in order to validate the
effects of these different work activities. These program officials
told us that with the exception of the wildfire program, currently they
do not have plans to undertake this systematic monitoring for their
other programs.
Other Federal Land Management Agencies Have Implemented Performance
Accountability Systems:
Other federal agencies with land management responsibilities have made
more progress in developing and implementing performance accountability
systems. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have developed Web-based performance
accountability systems that link planning, budgeting, and results. Both
agencies continue to improve their systems and processes, and the
Department of the Interior plans to implement BLM's system
departmentwide as part of Interior's vision for effective program
management.
According to NRCS and BLM officials, the primary factor driving the
development and implementation of their performance accountability
systems was a strong desire to report accurately on what they had
accomplished with the dollars they received. Furthermore, strong
leadership commitment enabled the agencies to develop and begin
implementing their systems with existing resources within a few years-
-4 years for NRCS and 3 years for BLM. Finally, several other factors
also contributed to the agencies' success: taking the risk of investing
time and resources into developing a performance accountability system,
using the strategic plan to guide their efforts, and having an
implementation plan with time frames for completing steps throughout
the development and implementation phases.
Both NRCS and BLM believe that their accountability systems have
produced multiple benefits. Specifically, managers can make more
informed decisions on resource allocation because the systems align
actual costs with program work. For example, BLM officials report they
can track actual costs to projects and tasks. In addition, their budget
can show how these tasks and associated costs link with the agency's
strategic plan. NRCS officials can also report on the actual costs of
the agency's programs as well as how workload and time frames will
change as resources change. Both agencies also told us that their Web-
based systems enable them to know what they are accomplishing with the
money they spend at any given moment. As a result, BLM officials report
that they can reallocate dollars as priorities shift because it is easy
to determine where dollars are available. At both agencies, transparent
data promoted competition among units in the agency to improve
performance because performance data can be viewed by anyone in the
agency.
Forest Service's Inability to Address Organizational, Cultural, and
Leadership Challenges Continues to Impede Its Progress on Performance
Accountability:
Three key challenges continue to keep the Forest Service from resolving
its performance accountability problems: (1) establishing clear
authority and responsibility within the current organizational
structure, (2) making and implementing decisions in an agency culture
that relies on consensus, and (3) establishing sufficient leadership
emphasis and making performance accountability a higher priority.
Organizationally, several senior executives have been assigned
responsibilities for components of performance accountability, but none
of them has overall responsibility and authority for ensuring that
these components are properly linked or that the agency achieves
performance accountability. For example, the Deputy Chief for Programs,
Legislation, and Communications is in charge of the strategic planning
component, while the Deputy Chief for Budget and Finance is responsible
for the budget and finance components. The agency will find it
difficult to make progress in achieving performance accountability if
the decisions and activities of the separate staffs responsible for the
various accountability system components are not effectively
coordinated. However, effective coordination continues to be a
challenge within the Forest Service's existing organizational
structure. The fact that the agency's efforts since our last report
have not resulted in an approved performance accountability plan
underscores the importance of addressing the issue of fragmentation and
the need for more effective coordination.
Culturally, the Forest Service makes and implements major decisions by
obtaining consensus throughout all levels of the agency--headquarters,
regions, and local units. At times, this approach slows the agency's
ability to make progress on important issues. According to senior
Forest Service officials, the agency has a collaborative leadership
management style--senior managers from all levels moving forward
together--so that progress depends on a collective acceptance of any
new proposal. These officials added that progress on new proposals
could slow or even stop if consensus cannot be achieved in the
developmental process. The Forest Service has been unable to develop
and implement a performance accountability system, largely because it
cannot agree on an integrated approach. The executive steering team's
current effort to study available options for a performance
accountability system is an indication that the draft plan for
implementing such a system does not have broad support throughout the
agency. According to one deputy chief, the executive steering team must
build support throughout the agency in order to make progress toward
implementing a performance accountability system.
Finally, agency leadership has not given the emphasis and priority to
performance accountability that is needed to overcome the Forest
Service's organizational and cultural challenges. Currently, the Chief
and the Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and
Environment, who both have held their positions for less than 2 years,
are emphasizing other priorities. The Chief is focusing on achieving
financial accountability, while the Under Secretary counts performance
accountability as his third priority, behind improvements to the
agency's decision-making process and financial accountability.
Furthermore, the Under Secretary stated that, without progress on the
first two priorities, performance accountability would be meaningless.
Both the Chief and the Under Secretary acknowledge that the emphasis on
performance accountability has lagged behind other priorities. However,
the Chief told us that he intends to review GAO and USDA Inspector
General's recommendations to see whether the agency had taken actions
as promised and also intends to include accountability for results in
agency managers' contracts.
Conclusions:
Our analysis of the Forest Service's actions with respect to
performance accountability shows that the agency is essentially in the
same position it was more than a decade ago--studying how it might
achieve performance accountability. By establishing another task force
to again "review options" for implementing a performance accountability
system, the agency has delayed any real action on this important front.
Moreover, the Chief's intentions--to review GAO and Inspector General
reports to see if the agency had taken promised actions and to consider
incorporating performance accountability into the managers' contracts-
-are not new. The 1994 task force performed the same review and made
the same recommendation on making performance accountability part of
senior managers' contracts.
We understand that the Forest Service has important competing
priorities--improving financial and performance accountability as well
as its decision-making process--but we do not believe that these
priorities need to be addressed sequentially. To the contrary, progress
on these priorities is interdependent and can be and should be achieved
concurrently so that both may be used to assess the overall performance
of the agency. Accountability requires not only accurately informing
Congress and the public on expenditures but also reporting the results
of these expenditures. Without senior leadership's placing sufficient
emphasis, however, we believe that the Forest Service will continue to
take only small, slow steps, if any, toward achieving performance
accountability.
If the future is to be different than the past, the challenges we
identified have to be addressed aggressively. The Chief and the senior
leadership have to decide to make performance accountability a reality,
not a subject of continued study. To achieve more progress, the Forest
Service will need to assign overall authority and responsibility for a
performance accountability system to one official and then hold that
person accountable for the effort. It is also crucial for Congress to
monitor the Forest Service's progress in developing a performance
accountability system. Unlike other land management agencies that have
developed and implemented performance accountability systems within the
last 3 years, the Forest Service has yet to come to this commitment on
its own.
Recommendations for Executive Action:
To ensure progress in achieving performance accountability, we
recommend that the Secretary of Agriculture direct the Chief of the
Forest Service to appoint a senior executive with decision-making
authority and responsibility for developing a comprehensive plan, with
milestones, to ensure the timely implementation of an effective
performance accountability system. This executive should be held
accountable for:
* ensuring that the Forest Service's performance accountability system
clearly links the key components needed to manage for results--plans,
performance measures, budgets, work activities, expenditures, and
accomplishments;
* meeting specific milestones for implementing the system; and:
* ensuring full implementation of the performance accountability system
throughout all levels of the agency.
The Secretary of Agriculture should also direct the Chief of the Forest
Service to report, beginning in 2004, on the agency's (1) progress in
implementing a performance accountability system and the additional
milestones to be accomplished in the agency's annual performance plans
and (2) accomplishments in implementing its performance accountability
system in its annual performance report to the Congress.
Agency Comments:
We provided a draft of this report to USDA for its review and comment.
In response, the Forest Service stated that it agrees with the report's
findings and recommendations. Specifically, the Forest Service stated
that it would propose a comprehensive plan by May 30, 2003, to ensure
the timely implementation of an effective performance accountability
system.
The Forest Service's written comments are presented in appendix III.
Scope and Methodology:
To assess the progress the Forest Service has made in addressing
previously identified performance accountability problems and key
challenges impeding its ability to resolve these problems, we
interviewed the Chief of the Forest Service, members of the executive
steering team, and officials in various offices, including the Office
of Budget and Program Analysis, the Office of Strategic Planning and
Resource Assessment, and selected field offices. The Office of
Strategic Planning and Resource Assessment and the Office of Budget and
Program Analysis are responsible for designing and implementing the
agency's performance accountability system. The Office of Budget and
Program Analysis and selected field offices are responsible for the
budget formulation and execution system, and work-planning system. We
also reviewed reports, planning documents, USDA OIG audits, and other
documents on past performance accountability problems in the Forest
Service and on the status of the development and implementation of the
agency's efforts to improve its planning, budgeting, performance
measurement, and accomplishment reporting processes. Additionally, we
interviewed officials at NRCS and BLM about their efforts to develop
and implement Web-based accountability systems and reviewed related
documents. Finally, we reviewed recent OMB directives related to agency
performance management and budgeting and their recent PART analysis of
two Forest Service programs.
We conducted our review from August 2002 through March 2003 in
accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.
As agreed with your offices, unless you publicly announce its contents
earlier, we plan no further distribution of this report for 30 days
after the date of this letter. At that time, copies of this report will
be sent to the:
congressional committees with jurisdiction over the Forest Service and
its activities; the Honorable Ann Veneman, Secretary of Agriculture;
and the Honorable Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr., Director, Office of
Management and Budget. This report will also be available at no charge
on GAO's home page at http://www.gao.gov.
If you have any questions about this report, please contact me at (202)
512-3841. Key contributors to this report are listed in appendix V.
Barry T. Hill
Director, Natural Resources and Environment:
Signed by Barry T. Hill:
[End of section]
Appendix I: Forest Service's Progress on GAO-Reported Performance
Accountability Problems:
GAO's reported performance accountability problems at the Forest
Service: Forest Service budgets and allocates appropriated funds on the
basis of historic funding levels; Date(s) reported: June 29, 2000;
October 13, 1999; Forest Service's progress as of April 1, 2003: Forest
Service's Budget Formulation and Execution System partially addresses
this problem; Related key: challenges: Leadership; Organization.
GAO's reported performance accountability problems at the Forest
Service: Forest Service also budgets and allocates funds on the basis
of its programs, many of which are not linked to the agency's strategic
plan or how work is actually done in the national forests; Date(s)
reported: June 29, 2000; February 16, 2000; April 26, 1994; Forest
Service's progress as of April 1, 2003: Forest Service attempted to
link budget formulation and the agency's strategic plan with the FY05
budget instructions. Forest Service is developing a national work-
planning system for national forests to plan work; Related key:
challenges: Leadership; Organization.
GAO's reported performance accountability problems at the Forest
Service: Forest Service intends for forest plans to serve as the basis
of future budgets, but it is unclear how national forests will blend
agencywide goals with local priorities; Date(s) reported: June 29,
2000; October 13, 1999; Forest Service's progress as of April 1, 2003:
No progress has been made to link forest plans to budgets. The Forest
Service attempted to blend agency-wide goals with local priorities for
its fiscal year 2005 budget; Related key: challenges: Leadership;
Organization.
GAO's reported performance accountability problems at the Forest
Service: Forest Service relies on performance measures that are not
always clearly linked to strategic goals and objectives because they do
not always assess outputs, service levels, and outcomes the agency
intends to achieve; Date(s) reported: June 29, 2000; February 16,
2000; October 13, 1999; Forest Service's progress as of April 1, 2003:
Forest Service is developing performance measures it believes better
link to the agency's strategic goals. However, the performance measures
still need improvement; Related key: challenges: Culture; Leadership.
GAO's reported performance accountability problems at the Forest
Service: Forest Service is working to refine its performance measures
so they better reflect strategic goals, but the agency has not
determined how long it will take to gather and analyze the needed
data; Date(s) reported: February 16, 2000; Forest Service's progress
as of April 1, 2003: No progress in this area; Related key:
challenges: Culture; Leadership.
GAO's reported performance accountability problems at the Forest
Service: Forest Service's line managers cannot be held accountable for
achieving strategic goals and objectives because of poor performance
measures; Date(s) reported: October 13, 1999; March 26, 1998; April
26, 1994; Forest Service's progress as of April 1, 2003: No progress in
this area; Related key: challenges: Culture; Leadership; Organization.
GAO's reported performance accountability problems at the Forest
Service: Even when performance accountability improvements are adopted
by Forest Service management, implementation is often left to field
units which often leaves uneven and mixed results; Date(s) reported:
March 26, 1998; Forest Service's progress as of April 1, 2003: No
progress in this area; Related key: challenges: Culture; Leadership;
Organization.
GAO's reported performance accountability problems at the Forest
Service: Agreement does not exist within the Forest Service on its
long-term strategic goals. This is the result of broader disagreement
over the agency's priorities under its multiple-use and sustained-yield
mandate; Date(s) reported: April 29, 1997; Forest Service's progress
as of April 1, 2003: The National Leadership Team is discussing long-
term goals for the Forest Service's Strategic and Performance
Management Plans; Related key: challenges: Culture; Leadership.
[End of table]
[End of section]
Appendix II: Detailed Forest Service Organizational Chart:
[See PDF for image]
[End of figure]
[End of section]
Appendix III: Comments from the Forest Service:
United States Forest Service
Department of Agriculture
Washington Office
14th & Independence SW:
P.O. Box 96090:
Washington, DC 20090-6090:
File Code: 1310/1930:
Date: APR 22 2003:
Mr. Barry T. Hill:
Director, Natural Resources and Environment U.S. General Accounting
Office:
441 G Street, N. W. Washington, DC 20548:
Dear Mr. Hill:
Thank you for the opportunity to review and comment on the draft
General Accounting Office (GAO) Report GAO-03-503, "Forest Service:
Little Progress on Performance Accountability Likely Unless Management
Addresses Key Challenges.":
We agree with the findings of the report and propose to consult with
the Secretary of Agriculture to aggressively implement the GAO's
recommendations. Specifically, the agency will propose a comprehensive
plan by May 30, 2003, with milestones, due dates, and assigned
accountability to ensure the timely implementation of an effective
performance accountability system with the functionality envisioned in
the Recommendations for Executive Action section of the GAO Report.
Sincerely,
Dale N. Bosworth
Signed for Dale N. Bosworth:
cc: Hank Kashdan, Paul Brouha, Sandy T Coleman, Susan Dreiband, William
Bradshaw, Susan Yontsshepard:
[End of section]
Appendix IV: GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments:
GAO Contacts:
Andrea Wamstad Brown, (202) 512-3319
Eugene W. Wisnoski (202) 512-6545
:
Acknowledgments:
In addition to those named above Chester M. Joy, Carol Herrnstadt
Shulman, and Kelli Ann Walther made key contributions to this report.
:
[End of section]
Related GAO Products:
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Wildland Fire Management: Reducing the Threat of Wildland Fires
Requires Sustained and Coordinated Effort. GAO-02-843T. Washington,
D.C.: June 13, 2002.
Wildland Fire Management: Improved Planning Will Help Agencies Better
Identify Fire-Fighting Preparedness Needs. GAO-02-158. Washington,
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The National Fire Plan: Federal Agencies Are Not Organized to
Effectively and Efficiently Implement the Plan. GAO-01-1022T.
Washington, D.C.: July 31, 2001.
Major Management Challenges and Program Risks: Department of
Agriculture. GAO-01-242. Washington, D.C.: January 2001.
Forest Service: Actions Needed for the Agency to Become More
Accountable for Its Performance. GAO/T-RCED-00-236. Washington, D.C.:
June 29, 2000.
Natural Resources Conservation Service: Additional Actions Needed to
Strengthen Program and Financial Accountability. GAO/RCED-00-83.
Washington, D.C.: April 7, 2000.
Forest Service: Status of Efforts to Improve Accountability. GAO/T-
RCED/AIMD-00-93. Washington, D.C.: February 16, 2000.
Forest Service: A Framework for Improving Accountability. GAO/RCED/
AIMD-00-2. Washington, D.C.: October 13, 1999.
Western National Forests: A Cohesive Strategy is Needed to Address
Catastrophic Wildfire Threats. GAO/RCED-99-65. Washington, D.C.: April
2, 1999.
Major Management Challenges and Program Risks: Department of
Agriculture. OCG-99-2. Washington, D.C.: January 1, 1999.
Managing for Results: The Statutory Framework for Performance-Based
Management and Accountability. GGD/AIMD-98-52. Washington,
D.C.: January 28, 1998.
Forest Service Decision-Making: A Framework for Improving Performance.
GAO/RCED-97-71. Washington, D.C.: April 29, 1997.
Forest Service: Status of Efforts to Achieve Cost Efficiency. GAO/RCED-
94-185FS. Washington, D.C.: April 26, 1994.
Performance Measurement: An Important Tool in Managing for Results. T-
GGD-92-35. Washington, D.C.: May 5, 1992.
Wilderness Management: Accountability for Forest Service Funds Needs
Improvement. GAO/RCED-92-33. Washington, D.C.: November 4, 1991.
FOOTNOTES
[1] The Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, as well as
certain other laws, comprise this statutory framework. In particular,
the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 was designed to bring more
effective general and financial management practices to federal
agencies; the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 was intended to ensure
that information technology is managed to improve the performance of
agencies; and the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 requires agencies to
establish goals for improving agency operations through the effective
use of information technology. The framework also includes the Federal
Managers Financial Integrity Act and the Inspector General Act.
[2] U.S. General Accounting Office, Forest Service: Actions Needed for
the Agency to Become More Accountable for Its Performance, GAO/
T-RCED-00-236 (Washington, D.C.: June 29, 2000).
[3] The President's Management Agenda seeks to improve the management
and performance of the federal government by focusing on 14 targeted
areas--5 governmentwide goals and 9 program initiatives.
[4] Forest Service, Individual and Organizational Accountability in the
Forest Service: Successful Management of Work Agreements, (Washington,
D.C.: Forest Service, 1994).
[5] Forest Service, Budget and Performance Integration: Benchmarking of
Other Organizational Approaches--Initial Report, (Washington, D.C.:
Forest Service, 2002). Two other agencies studied were the U.S. Coast
Guard and the U.S. Air Force.
[6] Deputy Chief for Programs, Legislation, and Communications (Chair);
Deputy Chief for Business Operations; Chief Financial Officer; Deputy
Chief for the National Forest System; Chief Information Officer;
Regional Forester (region 10); Station Director, Pacific Northwest;
Deputy Regional Forester for State and Private Forestry (region 8); and
Director of Strategic Planning and Resource Assessment, serves as the
non-voting executive secretary to the team.
[7] Management objectives define intermediate outcomes toward strategic
goals. They are tangible objectives against which progress toward
strategic goals can be measured.
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