Government Performance and Results Act

This correspondence focuses on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Performance reports for fiscal years 1999, 2000, and 2001. Over the years, GAO identified several weaknesses in EPA's science programs. EPA partially addressed these weaknesses in its performance plan for fiscal year 2001. EPA's draft strategic plan generally complies with the Government Performance and Results Act, but GAO noted that several areas of the plan could be improved.

GAO noted that: (1) EPA generally links the science activities in its performance report for FY 1999, performance plans for fiscal years 2000 and 2001, and budget request for FY 2001; (2) EPA's performance plan for FY 2001 is generally linked to its science activities in its budget justification for that year; (3) as a result of EPA's decision to combine the performance plan with its budget justification, the agency now shows how much it is requesting for each strategic science objective and the objective's supporting performance goals; (4) EPA's performance plan for FY 2001 partially addressed the weaknesses previously identified by GAO; and (5) EPA's June 2000 draft strategic plan for fiscal years 2000-2005 generally complies with the GPRA requirements that such plans include a mission statement, long term strategic goals, strategies for achieving the strategic goals, linkage between long-term strategic goals and annual performance goals, and a description of the program evaluations used in establishing or revising performance goals.