OMB Needs To Intensify Its Work Measurement Effort

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) directed federal agencies to use work measurement systems, when available, in preparing their fiscal year 1979 Zero Base Budget (ZBB) submissions. Without reliable work measurement systems, budget reviewers cannot review, evaluate, and set ZBB priorities from well-supported staffing requirements. Therefore, agencies may be employing too many or too few employees to support their missions. A review was conducted of five agencies which OMB designated as having the best ZBB submissions--the Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, the United States Information Agency, the International Revenue Service, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The agencies reviewed varied considerably in their use of work measurement systems to determine staffing requirements. The general attitude among these agencies was that the use of work measurement systems to support staffing requirements is not mandatory. They have not received any specific guidance from OMB identifying those areas which are susceptible to work measurement. Since they do not believe that establishment of work measurement systems would be cost effective, these agencies generally do not have any immediate plans to develop such systems.

Recommendations

Our 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.

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