Managing for Results

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the quality of the 24 Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act agencies' fiscal year (FY) 2000 performance plans and financial data.

GAO noted that: (1) most of the FY 2000 performance plans provided only limited confidence that performance information would be credible; (2) like the FY 1999 performance plans, most of the FY 2000 plans lacked information on the procedures that the agencies would use to verify and validate performance information; (3) in general, the FY 2000 plans failed to include discussions of strategies to address known data limitations; (4) regarding the quality of financial data, the long-standing inability of many federal agencies to accurately record and report financial management data on both a year-end and ongoing basis for decisionmaking and oversight purposes continues to be a serious weakness; and (5) without reliable data on costs, decisionmakers cannot effectively evaluate programs' financial performance or control and reduce costs.