The Results Act

Observations on the Postal Service's Preliminary Annual Performance Plan Gao ID: GGD-98-144 July 10, 1998

The U.S. Postal Service's preliminary annual performance plan, which was prepared in response to the Government Performance and Results Act, provides a partial picture of the Postal Service's intended performance for fiscal year 1999. Although the plan generally has performance goals and related measures that are quantifiable and results-oriented, the plan could be more helpful if it (1) articulated current performance levels, or baselines, from which to gauge progress and (2) more clearly linked program activities in the Postal Service's budget to performance goals. In addition, the plan could better link particular strategies and resources to performance goals, which would provide a better understanding of how the Postal Service intends to achieve its goals. The plan does a good job of discussing how the Postal Service plans to measure and review results and recognizes the role of management and some stakeholders, such as the Inspector General, in reviewing and evaluating programs. The plan is relatively silent, however, on how the Postal Service plans to verify and validate the data that will be used to measure results.

GAO noted that: (1) the Postal Service's preliminary performance plan provides a partial picture of the Service's intended performance for FY 1999; (2) although the preliminary plan generally has performance goals and related measures that are quantifiable and results-oriented, the plan could be more helpful if it: (a) articulated current performance levels, or baselines, from which to gauge progress; and (b) more clearly linked program activities in the Postal Service's budget to performance goals; (3) in addition, the plan could better link particular strategies and resources to performance goals; (4) without clear linkages in these areas, it may be difficult for stakeholders reviewing the plan to understand how the Postal Service intends to achieve its goals; (5) the plan does a good job of discussing how the Postal Service plans to measure and review results and recognizes the role of management and some stakeholders, such as the Inspector General, in reviewing and evaluating programs; and (6) however, the plan is relatively silent on how the Postal Service plans to verify and validate the data that will be used to measure results to provide confidence that its performance information will be credible.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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