Scorecard: E-gov progress shifts little

Even after two years of evaluations by the Office of Management and Budget, agencies still cannot meet the administration's goals for e-government.

OMB released the latest President's Management Agenda scorecard for January through March and only two agencies improved their scores since the last ratings in December. The State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development moved to yellow from red, while the other 24 agency scores remained the same?two greens, 11 yellows and 11 reds.

OMB gives agencies scores of green, yellow or red for their efforts to meet the goals of the five agenda items, which are budget and performance integration, competitive sourcing, e-government, financial performance and human capital management.

Green means an agency has met all the standards for success; yellow means it has met some but not all; and red means there are serious problems. OMB grades each agency on its overall status and on its progress toward implementing the agenda items.

Overall, agencies improved with three green scores in competitive sourcing and one in human capital. Agencies received 61 red scores, 57 yellow and 12 green, making it the first time the scorecard is not predominantly red. NASA, the National Science Foundation and the Office of Personnel Management are the only agencies to have more than one green score.

"Because we are results oriented we have programs large and small with clear definitions of success, detailed action plans for getting there, and a clear understanding of who is being held accountable for the results," said Clay Johnson, OMB's deputy director for management. "We also have programs rated 'results not demonstrated,' which we are committed to making successful, because that is what results oriented organizations do."

Agency progress toward green in e-government took some hits. The Housing and Urban Development Department dropped to red in progress from yellow, and the Veterans Affairs Department dropped to yellow from green. The Justice Department did improve to green from yellow in progress, however.