Summary: Under the Government Performance and Results Act, federal agencies are to develop strategic plans intended to be the starting point and underpinning for performance-based management in the government. GAO found that agencies' September 1997 plans generally appear to provide a workable foundation for Congress to use in fulfilling its appropriations, budget, authorization, and oversight responsibilities and for agencies to use in setting a general direction for their efforts. These plans represent a significant improvement over the draft plans GAO reviewed last summer. For example, GAO found that all but six of those draft plans were missing at least one element required by the Results Act, and about a third were missing at least two of the six required elements. In contrast, the September plans GAO reviewed contained at least some discussion of each element required by the Act, and, in many cases, those elements that had been included in the draft plans were now substantially improved. Nonetheless, agencies' strategic planning efforts are still very much a work in progress, and agencies face three difficult planning challenges: setting a strategic direction, coordinating crosscutting programs, and ensuring the ability to gather and use performance and cost data.
