The Department’s Implementation of the Government Performance and Results Act Modernization Act

Overall, we found that the Department had generally implemented the GPRA Modernization Act as required, but it could improve its disclosures related to congressional input and data verification and validation. Specifically, the Department did not identify on Performance.gov how congressional views were incorporated into the establishment of its agency priority goals. Also, although the Department established processes for ensuring the accuracy and reliability of data used to measure progress towards its agency priority goals, it had not accurately or adequately disclosed relevant information in its Annual Performance Plan or Annual Performance Report as required. As a result, the public may have less confidence that Congress and the Department are in agreement on the immediate priorities of the agency and that the data presented in performance reports is credible, and the public may be unaware of any limitations of the data that would provide important context for understanding it. The Department generally concurred with our findings and provided information on progress made related to our recommendations.