Results Act

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Transportation's (DOT) performance plan for fiscal year (FY) 2000, focusing on whether the plan provided information on: (1) the desired end results; (2) the results of programs and activities that are expected to lead to end outcomes; and (3) products and services that are typically based on the numbers of activities or products that result from internal effort.

GAO noted that: (1) GAO found that DOT's FY 2000 performance plan emphasizes outcome goals and measures that provide a clear picture of the intended results of the agency's programs; (2) the plan contains a significant number of end outcome goals and measures (41 percent and 42 percent, respectively) that directly measure accomplishment of the agency's strategic goals; (3) in addition, 48 percent of the plan's goals and 46 percent of its measures are intermediate outcomes that provide information on the results, effects, or consequences of programs and activities that are expected to lead to end outcomes; (4) although the plan contains general information on outputs, it contains relatively few output goals and measures (11 percent and 12 percent, respectively) that provide information on the level or quality of transportation-related products and services that will be produced or delivered to customers; and (5) according to DOT officials, output goals and measures relating to the agency's goals would be more appropriately contained in each of the Department's Administration- or program-level plans.