ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

Combatting Fraud Using a Risk Assessment Framework

U.S. Government Accountability Office

In 2023, GAO surveyed 24 federal agencies against its Fraud Risk Framework and found a third didn’t have regular monitoring or evaluation activities, and half didn’t regularly make changes based on evaluation results. This technical appendix to GAO’s framework is designed to help managers evaluate and adapt their antifraud efforts.

Five Pillars of Effective Government

IBM Center for The Business of Government

This report synthesizes research and offers a framework for action in five areas where meaningful progress can have the greatest impact:

1. Multi-sector partnerships
2. Financial and operational effectiveness
3. Technology-enabled service and efficiency
4. Data-driven decision-making
5. A strong and modern government workforce

New Bill Introduced: Evidence-Based Grant Making Act

Results for America

Members of the bipartisan congressional “What Works” Caucus introduced the Evidence-Based Grantmaking Act, one of the strongest pieces of evidence-based policymaking legislation since the 2018 Evidence Act.

 Developing Comparable Measures of Organizational Performance

Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (open access)

In this article, George Krause and David Lewis introduce a new approach to measuring organizational performance, something conceptually distinct from, but correlated with, both organizational inputs and outcomes. This measurement approach focuses on how well the internal machinery of agencies is functioning. 

Resource of the Week:  Impact Genome Registry

The Impact Genome Registry, developed by Jason Saul, makes it possible for any social program in the world to register and report its results for free. The Registry uses universal Impact Standards for outcomes, program design, beneficiaries, context, and evidence quality to make impact reporting simple and intuitive. This enables more reliable data, benchmarking, independent verification, and reduced administrative burden for reporting entities.

Unintended Consequences of Performance Contracting

LinkedIn (Peter Ndaa)

When accountability systems are mistaken for performance systems, organisations learn how to comply, not how to improve.

Paradox of Public Performance Management

Medium (Joy Bonaguro)

“I don’t support the prevailing conventional wisdom that government wide (or even elector led) performance management programs are desirable. Instead, I want to make the case that it should be adopted in certain contexts meeting certain criteria.”

Resource of the Week:  State Chief Data Officer Tracker

Beeck Center for Social Impact, Georgetown University

 This is a first-of-its-kind resource that tracks the evolving role of CDOs in state governments and their efforts to advance data-informed decision-making and collaboration across agencies.

Accountability in Outsourced Public Service Delivery

Public Management Review (gated access)

This case study examines Australia’s aged care system to understand how the accountability architecture was shaped by outsourcing and explore the resulting implications for service outcomes. The study suggests the need for integrating outcome-based performance monitoring mechanisms of the state with those of outsourced service sites.

Digestible Financial Transparency

City of Ferris, TX

The City of Ferris is committed to providing clear and meaningful financial information not only by posting financial documents but also through summaries, visualizations, downloadable data and explanations of city processes.  The city is participating in the State of Transparency Star program, recognizing governments for going above and beyond in transparency efforts.

SSA’s New Wait Time Metrics

NextGov

The Social Security Administration claims improvements in phone service response time as it relied on a new “average speed of answer” metric. But a report by the Office of Inspector General found this metric is dramatically lower than the amount of time it actually takes to get ahold of an SSA employee by waiting on hold or requesting a callback – a metric SSA no longer reports publicly.

Resource of the Week:  San Diego Office of Evaluation, Performance, and Accountability

County of San Diego, CA

This office helps manage the county’s data portal and conducts research and evaluation projects such as the efficacy of guaranteed income as a prevention strategy in child welfare and the use of rent subsidies to prevent homelessness among older adults.

Stop Setting New Targets . . .

LinkedIn (Ayca Tumer Arikan)

As the new year approaches, many organizations rush into goal-setting mode. New targets, new initiatives, new priorities. Most planning is based on assumptions. But before deciding where to go next, we need to understand how performance actually behaves over time.

Independence of Efficiency Measures in Public Transit

State and Local Government Review (gated article)

Much of the public management literature focuses on public organizational efficiency as a singular construct, predominantly emphasizing cost minimization. But financial efficiency must be balanced with service quality and environmental sustainability. These three efficiency measures, however, do not necessarily correlate.

Resource of the Week:  Evidence Act Hub

Data Foundation

This digital repository and resource hub designed to preserve and organize strategic plans, reports, and toolkits related to federal data and evaluation activities required under the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act (Evidence Act). This living archive serves as a central venue for the evidence community to access critical resources that support federal transparency and capacity-building.