ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

Performance Newsletter: Inaugural Issue!

Commonwealth Secretariat

“Performance Matters” is published by the Commonwealth Secretariat, serving as a central resource for knowledge management across the 56 Commonwealth nations. It was officially launched at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa in October 2024. The primary audience for this newsletter consists of public policy makers throughout the Commonwealth who are engaged in designing and implementing world-class government performance management systems in their respective countries.

Final Biden-Harris President’s Management Agenda Update

U.S. Office of Management and Budget

OMB has released its final quarterly updates to the Biden-Harris President’s Management Agenda (PMA). While this will be the last set of regular quarterly public updates to this PMA, PMA teams will continue to work on achieving their final milestones through January 2025.

What About Performance?

PATimes (Michael Ford)

The perfect place to set performance indicators and goals in a public organization is the budget. The budget can transmit the how, why and how well of every government program to internal (staff) and external (the public) audiences. Without a focus on performance secondary objectives, be they political or cultural, will take precedent.

Democracy Depends on Government That Works for Everyone

Chicago Sun Times (Michele Jolin)

Government must prove that it can solve problems and deliver results for all Americans nimbly, repeatedly, and without drama. It certainly has before, from eliminating polio, to building an interstate highway system, to helping generations of Americans retire with Social Security.

Revolutionizing Public Auditing

GTSC Homeland Security Today

The field of public auditing could undergo a significant transformation as new technologies emerge to reshape how audits are conducted and presented. These innovations are not only increasing transparency but also driving competition, as traditional auditing firms face challenges from non-traditional players. Below, we explore five potential trends poised to redefine the landscape of government audits. 

School Performance and Support Framework

Virginia Department of Education

Virginia’s new accountability system, the School Performance and Support Framework, builds trust among schools, parents, and communities through transparent, easy-to-understand reporting on a school’s performance. 

Resource of the Week: Performance Reader’s Guide, Part 2

Barrett & Greene

New suggestions of books, reports, articles and presentations about performance management come from David Ammons, Maria Aristigueta, Marc Holzer, Michael Jacobson, Andrew Kleine, Aroon P. Manoharan and Robert Shea.

How Useful is New York City’s “Report Card?”

Barrett & Greene

New York City’s annual Mayor’s Management Report Roundtable on the so-called “input” and “output” measures – the fiscal and manpower resources — of what it was putting into its agencies. An effort proposed in 2012 to focus somewhat more on the results of what the city was doing, and less so on inputs and outputs. Little came out of that effort. Instead, it has expanded with hundreds of new indicators and 20 new goals.

New Target: Tripling Dollars Kept from Fraudsters

Federal News Network

The Treasury Department kept and recovered billions of dollars from fraudsters this year, and is setting more ambitious goals to prevent improper payment in the coming years. Treasury avoided $4 billion in fraud and improper payments in fiscal 2024. Using data analytics, it expects to prevent $12 billion in improper payments annually by 2029.

Guide for Cultivating Healthy High-Performing Agencies

National Academy for Public Administration

The Office of Management and Budget and the General Services Administration asked the Academy to identify effective strategies for strengthening organizational health and performance in the current world of work. This report is a how-to guide for federal managers on ways and resources to improve organizational health and performance.

Resource of the Week: A Reader’s Guide to Government Performance Management

Barrett & Greene

Here’s the beginning of a reading list for people who are either new in this discipline or who are old-timers and want to know still more. Please add your favorites!!