Inspectors General

The Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 established strategic plans as the starting point and basic underpinning within a broader framework of performance-based management and accountability. Although the legislation requires each agency to develop a strategic plan covering its major functions and operations, the Results Act does not specifically required inspectors general (IG) to have separate strategic plans. GAO surveyed the 48 IGs whose agencies are required to prepare a strategic plan in accordance with the Results Act. GAO asked (1) which IGs now prepare strategic plans; (2) the extent to which IG strategic plans were consistent with Results Act requirements; (3) what additional information IGs included in their strategic plans; (4) the extent to which IGs used their respective agencies' strategic plans to develop their own plans; (5) the extent to which IGs have been involved in developing their agencies' strategic plans; (6) the extent to which a strategic plan prepared consistent with the requirements of the Results Act would be useful to Congress, the Office of Management and Budget, and the IG; and (7) the IGs' views on statutorily requiring them to prepare strategic plans.

GAO noted that: (1) the 48 IGs that it surveyed indicated that they were all engaged in strategic planning efforts; (2) thirty-nine IGs reported that they had completed strategic plans, with the remaining 9 stating that they planned to complete their plans during 1998; (3) most IGs were of the opinion that the requirements contained in the Results Act provided an appropriate framework for preparing IG strategic plans; (4) further, the IGs responded that their plans address many of the elements that the Results Act requires for agency plans; (5) however, fewer IG plans addressed such elements as the relationship between general goals and annual performance goals and identification of external factors that could affect achievement of goals; (6) in addition, the plans addressed key management issues to varying degrees; (7) the IGs GAO surveyed generally indicated that these management issues, if not included in their strategic plans, were covered in other planning documents such as annual audit plans; (8) most IGs also indicated that they considered the agency's Results Act strategic plan at least to some extent in preparing their own plan; (9) in addition, more than half of all the IGs reported that they had at least some involvement in preparing the agency's strategic plan; (10) a majority believed that a strategic plan that satisfies the requirements of the Results Act would be useful to Congress, OMB, and the IG in assessing IG performance and operations; (11) the IGs were about evenly divided on the need for a statutory requirement on strategic planning; (12) overall, about 29 percent agreed, 33 percent disagreed, 27 percent agreed as much as disagreed, and the remaining 10 percent had no opinion; and (13) of the IGs that cited a reason for their disagreement, the most frequent comment made was that such a mandate was unnecessary because IGs recognize the importance of strategic planning as a basic part of good management and are already engaged in planning efforts.