Department of Energy Recognized for Exemplary Performance on the Implementation of the President's Management Agenda

3/5/2004

From: Corry Schiermeyer, 202-586-5806; Jacqueline Johnson, 202-586-5806; both of the Department of Energy

WASHINGTON, March 5 -- The Department of Energy (DOE) was recognized at the 2004 Government Performance Summit today for its accomplishments in making significant management improvements over the past three years. The "Excellence in Management" award for exemplary performance on the implementation of the President's Management Agenda was presented to Deputy Secretary of Energy Kyle McSlarrow, who delivered the keynote address on the second day of the summit.

"The President's vision for ensuring that the federal government is efficiently run and results-oriented has made management improvement a top priority," McSlarrow said. "As a result of President Bush's and Secretary Abraham's leadership, we are achieving results and progressing toward our goal of making the Department of Energy performance-driven."

When the Office of Management and Budget released its first President's Management Agenda (PMA) scorecard, the department was listed as "red" for all five PMA initiatives. Those initiatives include: the strategic management of human capital; competitive sourcing; improved financial management; expanded e-government; and budget and performance integration. In the most recent scorecard, DOE is the first department whose rating has improved to "yellow" across the board.

In January 2004, the Office of Management and Budget ranked DOE first among cabinet-level agencies in the most recent scorecard to assess implementation of the President's Management Agenda (PMA).

Departmental accomplishments include:

-- Human capital -- restructured performance management system to link achievement with mission accomplishment and developed comprehensive workforce and succession management plans; also launched project management certification programs to ensure that employees that manage multi-million dollar projects have the skills they need to manage projects on cost, on schedule and within performance targets.

-- Competitive sourcing -- completed three A-76 studies, resulting in savings of about $34 million over five-year period; two competitions were won by DOE's in-house team, including recent competition to deliver financial services.

-- Financial management -- received unqualified audit for five consecutive years, with no material weaknesses; met an accelerated due date for financial statements.

-- e-Government -- established enterprise architecture and have made major strides to standardize information technology infrastructure; have developed solid business cases for most information technology systems and are instituting quarterly reviews of major systems projects to ensure that they are on schedule and cost, and are meeting performance targets; have also launched initiative to build an integrated business management system, with the first modules (data warehouse and finance/accounting) becoming operational by end of the year.

-- Performance-based budgeting -- issued a new strategic plan; based the DOE section of the President's FY '05 budget request on our strategic plan and displayed how each dollar spent supports our goals in the areas of national and energy security, world- class scientific research and environmental management; and also integrated the Annual Performance Plan which includes performance measures for departmental programs and operations in the FY '05 budget proposal.

Issued in 2001, the President's Management Agenda seeks to improve the management and performance of the federal government by making it more citizen-centered, results-oriented, and market- based. The PMA includes five government-wide initiatives. Departments and agencies are issued quarterly scores by the Office of Management and Budget on their progress in meeting PMA goals. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham is fully committed to make management improvement a hallmark of his administration using the President's Management Agenda as the foundation for making improvements.