The Results Act

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the U.S. Export-Import Bank's (Eximbank) draft fiscal years 2001-2006 strategic plan, focusing on the: (1) improvements made to the February 1999 draft strategic plan; and (2) areas where Eximbank's draft strategic plan could better meet the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 and related guidance.

GAO noted that: (1) Eximbank has made improvements in its latest draft fiscal years 2001-2006 strategic plan over its February 1999 draft plan that GAO reviewed this past summer; (2) specifically, the revised plan: (a) more fully addresses Eximbank's purpose in aiding the financing and promotion of exports; (b) removes routine operational objectives, such as developing a recruiting process; (c) provides greater details on program evaluation plans; and (d) presents information in a more concise, user-friendly format; (3) however, Eximbank could further improve its draft strategic plan to make it more useful to congressional and other decisionmakers; (4) the plan could more fully explain the strategic goals' expected results and better discuss the strategic goals' relationship to the annual performance goals; (5) the plan could better describe the means and strategies to be used to achieve strategic goals and the planned coordination of activities and programs that cut across other federal agency efforts; and (6) other areas of the plan could be improved, including: (a) adding language to more completely address the portion of Eximbank's mission statement that focuses on promoting and maintaining U.S. jobs; and (b) clarifying how some external factors in the strategic plan relate to achieving Eximbank's goals.