Observations on the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Fiscal Year 1999 Performance Report and Fiscal Year 2001 Performance Plan

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) fiscal year (FY) 1999 performance report and FY 2001 performance plan required by the Government Performance and Results Act.

GAO noted that: (1) although HUD did not attain all of the specific goals set in its FY 1999 annual performance plan, it generally made progress toward them, according to its FY 1999 performance report; (2) under the outcome of increasing homeownership, HUD had not achieved its goal of increasing the homeownership rate to 67.5 percent, but saw the homeownership rate rise from 65.4 percent in FY 1996 to 66.9 percent in FY 1999; (3) HUD also reported that it met 6 of the 14 targets for the performance measures GAO identified as directly related to the homeownership outcome; (4) HUD met the targets for 7 of the 14 measures GAO identified as directly related to the outcome of increasing affordable, decent, and safe rental housing; (5) HUD clearly presented its results for all but one measure, reporting that it partially met its performance targets for two measures but did not achieve its planned performance for four others; (6) the report provided a reasonable explanation for not meeting the targets for these four measures, discussed the impact of external factors on performance, and noted that some of the targets would be changed as a result of HUD's FY 1999 performance; (7) HUD met its expected level of performance for all but one of the measures GAO identified as directly related to the outcome of improving community economic vitality and quality of life, and achieved mixed results for another measure; (8) the report clearly articulated the reasons for not achieving the target for one measure and for achieving mixed results for the other measure; (9) HUD's FY 1999 performance plan did not include a strategic goal directly related to the outcome of reducing fraud, waste, and error in HUD programs or on achieving HUD's management reforms; (10) however, the plan included a separate section on HUD's 2020 management reform efforts that listed goals and measures to resolve HUD's management deficiencies, some of which GAO identified as directly related to this outcome; (11) in its FY 2001 performance plan, HUD continued to refine its performance goals and measures, generally on the basis of its expected performance for FY 2000; (12) HUD also addressed three of the four key weaknesses that GAO identified in its FY 2000 performance plan; and (13) HUD improved its discussion of coordination strategies and clarified its discussion of validation and verification issues to explain why it will not independently verify data.