Portal to help agencies ace management agenda

PwC Consulting launched a Web portal April 10 to help federal agencies get passing grades on the President Bush's Management Agenda.

The portal, "President's Management Agenda, A Resource Center to Help You Go for the Green," provides information on the agenda's priorities, links to federal reports and documents, case studies and best practices of federal agencies and related articles.

The new Web site, located at www.pwcconsulting.com/pma, "can help agencies better understand what success might look like in addressing the President's Management Agenda and ways they might get there," said Nancy Staisey, PwC Consulting partner. PwC Consulting is the management consulting business of PricewaterhouseCoopers of New York.

The agenda outlines five major priorities:

*Strategic management of human capital;

*Competitive sourcing;

*Improved financial performance;

*Expanded electronic government; and

*Budget and performance integration.

OMB reports twice yearly to the president on the progress of 26 departments and major agencies on the management agenda and uses a three-tiered grading system: "green" for passing, "yellow" for mixed results and "red" for failing.

The Web site seeks to present information to help agencies improve performance and get green marks. In the future, agency managers will be able to review case studies of agencies that receive green marks on their scorecards.

The first OMB report card was issued in February along with the president's proposed fiscal 2003 budget. Only the National Science Foundation received a green mark on one of the five management priorities, financial performance.

The next scorecard will be presented to the president in June.