Priority Management Objectives

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Priority Management ObjectivesOMB Home PRIORITY MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVES
February 2, 1998

The following text is excerpted from Section IV of the Budget of the United States Government, FY 1999, "Improving Performance Through Better Management." It describes the Administration's plans to focus on 22 priority management objectives in 1998 and 1999. The presentation in the budget describes each objective; the following table adds more detailed information on performance measures or commitments for these objectives.

The Administration plans to "provide management leadership to ensure the faithful execution of the enacted budget, programs, regulations, and policies," and to "work within and across agencies to identify solutions to mission critical problems."⁽¹⁾ For 1999, the Administration will focus on 22 key management objectives (see table below). Agency managers have the primary responsibility to achieve these performance goals; they must actively and effectively carry out both inter-agency and agency-specific initiatives. OMB will help agencies develop specific measures⁽²⁾ and implement detailed action plans to ensure that they make progress toward meeting these commitments.

1. See OMB's Strategic Plan, at www.whitehouse.gov/OMB/organization/stratplan.html
2. Performance measures will be updated periodically as a result of progress, and to reflect greater specificity.

Inter-agency Objectives

Title or Agency Management Objective Performance Measure/Commitment

Year 2000
Manage the year 2000 computer problem in a timely and cost-effective manner to ensure that no critical Federal programs fail as a result of this problem. Begin work on all date exchanges by 3/98.
Complete renovation of all mission-critical systems by 9/98.
Goal is for 50% of mission-critical systems to be year 2000 compliant by 5/98; 75% by 11/98; and 100% by 3/99.

GPRA Implement the Government Performance and Results Act in a timely and compliant manner to improve agency program performance. Conduct OMB review of selected cross-cutting areas in preparation for including these in the FY 2000 government-wide plan (5/98-7/98).
Issue revised guidance on preparation and submission of revised strategic plans and the annual performance plans for FY 2000 (6/98).
Designate performance budgeting pilots for FY 1999-2000 (6/98).
Prepare lessons learned from the final FY 1999 performance plans, including assessment of Congress' use of these plans, and usefulness and informational value of the plans (7/98).
Issue guidance to agencies on submitting requests for waivers of administrative requirements to provide managerial flexibility (8/98).
Issue guidance on preparation and submission of the agency program performance reports for FY 1999, including possible integration of these reports with the annual performance plans and/or accountability reports under GMRA (10/98).
Identify major, GPRA-related, budget account restructuring for the FY 2000 budget (10/98).
Review revised annual FY 1999 performance plans and initial FY 2000 performance plans to assure improvements and appropriate changes are made (8/98-10/98).
Review and make determinations on approving managerial flexibility.

Financial management
Present performance and cost information in a timely, informative and accurate way, consistent with Federal accounting standards. Assure the integrity of Federal financial information by completing audits and gaining unqualified opinions for all Chief Financial Officer Act agencies and on the Federal Government as a whole. Agency Statements
Obtain timely financial statements with unqualified opinions from 21 of the 24 CFO agencies for 1999.
Issue Accountability Reports for 21 of the 24 CFO agencies for 1999.
Government-wide Statements
Issue first-ever Government-wide audited financial statements for 1997.
Obtain an unqualified audit opinion on the 1999 Government-wide statements.

Information technology
Improve the use of information technology (IT) and decrease the number of troubled investments in technology. In 1/98, the Chief Information Officers Council published a Government-wide IT plan to define an interoperable Federal information architecture, ensure security practices that protect government services, lead the Federal year 2000 conversion effort, establish sound capital planning and investment practices, improve the skills of the Federal workforce, and build relationships and outreach program with Federal organizations, industry, Congress, and the public. Recommendations in each of these areas will be implemented throughout 1998 and 1999. The plan, including its recommendations, is available at www.cio.fed.gov.

Selected inter-agency systems
Improve the use of information technology and eliminate unnecessary duplication by developing a Simplified Tax and Wage Reporting System (STAWRS) and the International Trade Data System (ITDS).

STAWRS will allow small businesses to file tax information electronically with the IRS instead of providing duplicate information to Federal, State, and local governments. ITDS will connect existing agency systems so that importers, exporters, and others involved in international trade will benefit from "one-stop shopping" for information collection and retrieval.
STAWRS
By 3/98, complete Harmonized Wage Code database and send to all states for comment.
By 6/98, STAWRS staff analyze States' comments.
By 9/98, publish a model Harmonized Wage Code and apply it to at least one state employment tax code.
ITDS
By 5/98, incorporate draft consolidated data elements into the North American Automation Prototype (NATAP).
By 2/99, submit final ITDS Design.
By 9/99, complete operational pilots for the NATAP.

Acquisition reform
Provide greater customer satisfaction through acquisition reform in terms of price, timeliness, quality, and productivity; increase use of performance-based service contracting (PBSC). Lower prices 15-20 percent, on average, by converting 1,000 contracts valued at $20 billion to performance-based over several years. In 1999, given current assumptions, agencies project that they will convert at least 700 contracts, worth $9 billion, to PBSC.

Loan portfolio management
Improve loan portfolio management by encouraging the use of electronic loan origination, loan underwriting, and reporting on the status of major loan portfolios that will provide faster and more economical loan processing. Provide proven electronic access for loan applicants, lenders and servicers (including monthly servicing reports on the status of loans) for student loans (ED), single family housing loans (USDA, HUD, VA) and business loans (SBA) by 9/99.

Debt collection
Improve debt collection for major receivable accounts by effectively using the tools provided by the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 (referral to private collection agencies, referral to Treasury for offset, and asset sales). Reduce delinquencies by 10 percent and increase collections by $95 million by 1/99.

International credit programs
Improve agency loan management servicing, portfolio tracking and credit budgeting policies and procedures. More accurate financial records, which use consistent accounting standards, will result in improved repayment practices and increased collections. (The Agency for International Development, Overseas Private Investment Corporation, Export Import Bank, Defense Security Assistance Agency, Defense Export Loan Guarantee Program, and Agriculture have about $130 billion in outstanding loans and guarantees to foreign obligors.) Identify agency specific problem areas in loan management servicing, portfolio tracking, and credit budgeting policies and procedures by 6/98.
Develop corrective action plans and measures to gauge achievement by 9/98.

Statistical programs
Strengthen the quality, utility, accessibility and cost-effectiveness of Federal statistical programs. Implement designated proposals to improve economic and social statistics. These proposals are detailed in Chapter 11 of Analytical Perspectives, FY 1999 Budget.
Introduce Statistical Confidentiality Act in Congress in 1998.
Double (from 14 as of 1/98) the number of Federal agencies whose data series can be readily located and retrieved via www.fedstats.gov (1998 and ongoing)
Implement additional collaborative arrangements for producing national statistics.

Regulation
Maximize the social benefits of regulation while minimizing the costs and burdens of regulation. Develop a database of benefits and costs of economically significant rules using consistent assumptions and better estimating techniques to refine agency estimates of incremental costs and benefits. Initial results available 9/98; to be updated thereafter.

Agency-Specific Objectives

Title or Agency Management Objective Performance Measure/Commitment

Defense
Develop a plan with specific milestones to obtain an unqualified audit opinion on Defense's financial statement. Commit to a plan by 4/98 for improving DoD accounting and payment systems and processing that at a minimum includes these initiatives:
Finance and Accounting Systems
Implement by 9/98 a corporate database that will begin the integration of the financial applications.
Continue from the present to 2002 to resolve the interface and integration requirements and complete the incorporation of appropriate systems enhancements, including data standardization.
Begin in 10/02 the first complete fiscal year under a new accounting systems architecture.
Feeder Systems
Promulgate by 3/98 guidance to specific requirements for recording and maintaining financial data in nonfinancial feeder systems.
Implement by 9/00 changes resulting from Service reviews of inventory accounting processes.
Complete by 9/01 field testing and integration of a Defense-wide property accountability system.

Defense
Increase outsourcing and privatization of military department infrastructure functions closely related to commercial enterprises, and of Defense Logistics Agency, Defense Finance and Accounting Service, and Defense Health Program functions. Service and Agency Initiatives
Review beginning in 1998 all civilian and military positions and reduce the number exempt from competition by tightening the definition of "inherently governmental."
Compete in 1999 41,000 positions in areas such as logistics support, systems design and maintenance, training courses, base support, and property maintenance. Compete from 1997 to 2001, approximately 226,700 positions (43,200 Army, 80,700 Navy, 5,100 Marine Corps, 67,100 Air Force, and 21,000 Defense-wide).
Reduce DLA distribution depots from 30 to 18 by 2001, closing approximately four depots per year. In addition, compete up to nine of the remaining depots and all 68 of its Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service Offices.
Compete 10 percent of the military and 20 percent of the civilian positions of the Defense Health Program from 1998 to 2000.
Family Housing Privatization
Implement by 2000 the 20 projects approved as a part of the 1998 President's Budget, privatizing the operation and maintenance of 30,000 housing units around the country.
Utility Privatization
Privatize by 2000 an additional 45 utility systems (DOD has already privatized 25 utility systems) at selected bases, and study a remaining 600 systems (including electricity, water, sewage, and natural gas) to determine which ones are economical to privatize.

Education
Modernize the management of student aid benefit delivery by reforming contracting, system development, and program oversight practices. Increase electronic filing of student aid applications to 2.5 million by the end of 1999.
Establish by 12/99, with the financial aid community mutually agreed upon industry-wide standards for electronic data exchanges for administering student financial aid.
Pilot the use of a multi-year promissory note in 1999.
Increase reliance on ED's web site as a source of information on Federal student aid and programmatic requirements, so that by 12/99, hard copies of this information will be reduced by at least a third.

Energy
Use prudent contracting and business management approaches that emphasize results, accountability, and competition; improve timeliness; minimize costs; and ensure customer satisfaction. Convert all management and operating (M&O) contracts to performance-based management contracts by 2000.
Award 50 percent of support services contracts as performance based by the end of 2000.
Award 50 percent of all M&O contracts competitively in 1999.
Increase use of and reliance on contractor past performance data in source evaluations/selections.

Housing and Urban Development
Implement HUD's 2020 Management Reform Plan to: (a) restore public trust by achieving and demonstrating competence in implementing HUD's programs, and (b) restructure the way HUD operates to empower people and communities. Implementation of HUD's management reform plan began in June 1997 and will extend to 2002. HUD will periodically measure changes in its performance to assess the impact of reform. Complete by 9/98 most internal reorganizations, reassignments of staff and restructuring of offices.
Use customer surveys (Mayors, public housing residents, project-based housing owners) to measure changes in organizational performance (baseline measures established by 9/98).
Use periodic surveys/employee panels to measure changes in organizational culture, toward the objectives in HUD's 2020 Management Reform Plan (baseline measures established by 9/98).
Use annual or more frequent assessments of the physical and other conditions of HUD's housing assistance programs to rate HUD intermediaries (baseline measures established by 7/98).
Use strengthened enforcement to improve physical and other conditions of HUD's assisted housing.
Verify assisted tenant's incomes with IRS by 12/98 to assure program eligibility and prevent excess rental subsidy payments.
HUD removed from GAO High Risk List by 3/99.

Interior:
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Seek to settle disputed tribal trust fund balances, make comprehensive reforms to the operation of tribal and individual Indian trust asset and trust funds management, and implement a recently introduced legislative proposal to consolidate ownership of highly fractionated Indian lands. Settlement
Submit and seek enactment in 1998, proposed legislation to settle disputed tribal trust fund balances.
Prepare and present settlement offers in 1999 to all 310 tribal account holders with disputed balances. Settlements will be funded from the Claims, Judgments, and Relief Acts fund.
Management Reform
Clean up and review all Individual Indian (IIM) account records, implement a new IIM accounting system, and begin phasing in a modern trust asset management system in 1998.
Land Consolidation
Provide funding to a limited number of tribes to augment their own initiatives to consolidate fractionated lands. This would also facilitate increased economic opportunity on these lands and reduce BIA's administrative burden. Performance goal for 1999 is for tribes to acquire 20,000 small fractional interests from willing-seller individuals.

Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
FAA Reform
Implement a personnel system that, without increasing costs, empowers managers to effectively hire, reward, promote, discipline, and remove employees, while at the same time protecting employee rights.

Implement a financial system that accurately relates services to costs that can be reflected in user charges.

Reduce developmental risk and total life-cycle cost of FAA major information technology investment/air traffic control modernization.
Continuous improvement in customer satisfaction. By 1/99, improve FAA managers' satisfaction with the new personnel system by 10 percent from current baseline of 31 percent.

By 9/30/98, implement a cost-accounting system that attributes at least 90 percent of FAA's direct and indirect costs to specific FAA products and services.
Ensure no more than 10 percent variance from cost and schedule baselines for each project.

Treasury: Financial Management Service (FMS)
Implement a number of changes at FMS to increase electronic payments, collections, and debt collection; and improve the accuracy and timeliness of Government-wide accounting and reporting. Payments
Increase the percentage of payments and associated information made electronically to 70.5 percent.
Achieve $33M in savings by reducing the number of paper check payments.
Increase forgery and non-receipt claims processed within 14 days to 90 percent.
Collections
Increase electronic collections as a percentage of total collections to 65 percent.
Increase percentage of corporate withholding taxes collected electronically to 94 percent.
Debt Collection
Increase by 5 percent over the prior year the total delinquent non-tax debt collected to $95M.
Increase the number of agencies referring debt servicing to FMS to 35 percent.
Government-wide Accounting
Increase the number of agency reports for the Consolidated Financial Statement (CFS) processed on time to 97 percent.

Treasury: Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
Position the IRS to move forward with the Modernization Blueprint and undertake an incremental modernization, including year 2000 conversion, resulting in centralized data bases that would stimulate significant improvements in customer service, compliance and financial reporting. Year 2000 Conversion
Replace 17,000 workstations by 10/98.
Replace and reduce from 67 to 12 mainframe computers by 12/98.
Replace communication system by 12/98.
Replace service center processing systems by 1/99.
Convert, test and certify code conversion of 121 mission critical systems by 9/99.
Modernization Blueprint
Award contract for Prime Systems Integration Services Contractor by 10/98.
Develop and roll-out nation-wide integrated telephone system with ability to screen 180 million customer calls by 1/00.
Develop and roll-out Internet expansion to allow taxpayers to verify on-line status of paper or electronic returns and status of refund by 1/01.

Veterans Affairs
Work to consolidate infrastructure (hospitals, regional offices, data centers) where service improvements and efficiencies can be achieved. Consolidate back-office administrative functions to improve service to veterans and reduce costs.
Develop final plan in 1998 to co-locate data centers.
In 1998, explore legislative options to encourage the disposition of unneeded and underutilized property.

Social Security Administration
Reduce the processing time for disability claims and appeals in the Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income programs at lower administrative cost with neutral impact on program costs. Maintain average processing time in 1999 for initial disability claims of 100 days and improve average processing time in 1999 for hearings on appeals to 284 days (compared with current 392 days). Future targets are under discussion.

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Inter-agency Objectives
Title or Agency	Management Objective	Performance Measure/Commitment
Year 2000	Manage the year 2000 computer problem in a timely and cost-effective manner to ensure that no critical Federal programs fail as a result of this problem.	Begin work on all date exchanges by 3/98. Complete renovation of all mission-critical systems by 9/98. Goal is for 50% of mission-critical systems to be year 2000 compliant by 5/98; 75% by 11/98; and 100% by 3/99.
GPRA	Implement the Government Performance and Results Act in a timely and compliant manner to improve agency program performance.	Conduct OMB review of selected cross-cutting areas in preparation for including these in the FY 2000 government-wide plan (5/98-7/98). Issue revised guidance on preparation and submission of revised strategic plans and the annual performance plans for FY 2000 (6/98). Designate performance budgeting pilots for FY 1999-2000 (6/98). Prepare lessons learned from the final FY 1999 performance plans, including assessment of Congress' use of these plans, and usefulness and informational value of the plans (7/98). Issue guidance to agencies on submitting requests for waivers of administrative requirements to provide managerial flexibility (8/98). Issue guidance on preparation and submission of the agency program performance reports for FY 1999, including possible integration of these reports with the annual performance plans and/or accountability reports under GMRA (10/98). Identify major, GPRA-related, budget account restructuring for the FY 2000 budget (10/98). Review revised annual FY 1999 performance plans and initial FY 2000 performance plans to assure improvements and appropriate changes are made (8/98-10/98). Review and make determinations on approving managerial flexibility.
Financial management	Present performance and cost information in a timely, informative and accurate way, consistent with Federal accounting standards. Assure the integrity of Federal financial information by completing audits and gaining unqualified opinions for all Chief Financial Officer Act agencies and on the Federal Government as a whole.	Agency Statements Obtain timely financial statements with unqualified opinions from 21 of the 24 CFO agencies for 1999. Issue Accountability Reports for 21 of the 24 CFO agencies for 1999. Government-wide Statements Issue first-ever Government-wide audited financial statements for 1997. Obtain an unqualified audit opinion on the 1999 Government-wide statements.
Information technology	Improve the use of information technology (IT) and decrease the number of troubled investments in technology.	In 1/98, the Chief Information Officers Council published a Government-wide IT plan to define an interoperable Federal information architecture, ensure security practices that protect government services, lead the Federal year 2000 conversion effort, establish sound capital planning and investment practices, improve the skills of the Federal workforce, and build relationships and outreach program with Federal organizations, industry, Congress, and the public. Recommendations in each of these areas will be implemented throughout 1998 and 1999. The plan, including its recommendations, is available at www.cio.fed.gov.
Selected inter-agency systems	Improve the use of information technology and eliminate unnecessary duplication by developing a Simplified Tax and Wage Reporting System (STAWRS) and the International Trade Data System (ITDS). STAWRS will allow small businesses to file tax information electronically with the IRS instead of providing duplicate information to Federal, State, and local governments. ITDS will connect existing agency systems so that importers, exporters, and others involved in international trade will benefit from "one-stop shopping" for information collection and retrieval.	STAWRS By 3/98, complete Harmonized Wage Code database and send to all states for comment. By 6/98, STAWRS staff analyze States' comments. By 9/98, publish a model Harmonized Wage Code and apply it to at least one state employment tax code. ITDS By 5/98, incorporate draft consolidated data elements into the North American Automation Prototype (NATAP). By 2/99, submit final ITDS Design. By 9/99, complete operational pilots for the NATAP.
Acquisition reform	Provide greater customer satisfaction through acquisition reform in terms of price, timeliness, quality, and productivity; increase use of performance-based service contracting (PBSC).	Lower prices 15-20 percent, on average, by converting 1,000 contracts valued at $20 billion to performance-based over several years. In 1999, given current assumptions, agencies project that they will convert at least 700 contracts, worth $9 billion, to PBSC.
Loan portfolio management	Improve loan portfolio management by encouraging the use of electronic loan origination, loan underwriting, and reporting on the status of major loan portfolios that will provide faster and more economical loan processing.	Provide proven electronic access for loan applicants, lenders and servicers (including monthly servicing reports on the status of loans) for student loans (ED), single family housing loans (USDA, HUD, VA) and business loans (SBA) by 9/99.
Debt collection	Improve debt collection for major receivable accounts by effectively using the tools provided by the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 (referral to private collection agencies, referral to Treasury for offset, and asset sales).	Reduce delinquencies by 10 percent and increase collections by $95 million by 1/99.
International credit programs	Improve agency loan management servicing, portfolio tracking and credit budgeting policies and procedures. More accurate financial records, which use consistent accounting standards, will result in improved repayment practices and increased collections. (The Agency for International Development, Overseas Private Investment Corporation, Export Import Bank, Defense Security Assistance Agency, Defense Export Loan Guarantee Program, and Agriculture have about $130 billion in outstanding loans and guarantees to foreign obligors.)	Identify agency specific problem areas in loan management servicing, portfolio tracking, and credit budgeting policies and procedures by 6/98. Develop corrective action plans and measures to gauge achievement by 9/98.
Statistical programs	Strengthen the quality, utility, accessibility and cost-effectiveness of Federal statistical programs.	Implement designated proposals to improve economic and social statistics. These proposals are detailed in Chapter 11 of Analytical Perspectives, FY 1999 Budget. Introduce Statistical Confidentiality Act in Congress in 1998. Double (from 14 as of 1/98) the number of Federal agencies whose data series can be readily located and retrieved via www.fedstats.gov (1998 and ongoing) Implement additional collaborative arrangements for producing national statistics.
Regulation	Maximize the social benefits of regulation while minimizing the costs and burdens of regulation.	Develop a database of benefits and costs of economically significant rules using consistent assumptions and better estimating techniques to refine agency estimates of incremental costs and benefits. Initial results available 9/98; to be updated thereafter.
Agency-Specific Objectives
Title or Agency	Management Objective	Performance Measure/Commitment
Defense	Develop a plan with specific milestones to obtain an unqualified audit opinion on Defense's financial statement.	Commit to a plan by 4/98 for improving DoD accounting and payment systems and processing that at a minimum includes these initiatives: Finance and Accounting Systems Implement by 9/98 a corporate database that will begin the integration of the financial applications. Continue from the present to 2002 to resolve the interface and integration requirements and complete the incorporation of appropriate systems enhancements, including data standardization. Begin in 10/02 the first complete fiscal year under a new accounting systems architecture. Feeder Systems Promulgate by 3/98 guidance to specific requirements for recording and maintaining financial data in nonfinancial feeder systems. Implement by 9/00 changes resulting from Service reviews of inventory accounting processes. Complete by 9/01 field testing and integration of a Defense-wide property accountability system.
Defense	Increase outsourcing and privatization of military department infrastructure functions closely related to commercial enterprises, and of Defense Logistics Agency, Defense Finance and Accounting Service, and Defense Health Program functions.	Service and Agency Initiatives Review beginning in 1998 all civilian and military positions and reduce the number exempt from competition by tightening the definition of "inherently governmental." Compete in 1999 41,000 positions in areas such as logistics support, systems design and maintenance, training courses, base support, and property maintenance. Compete from 1997 to 2001, approximately 226,700 positions (43,200 Army, 80,700 Navy, 5,100 Marine Corps, 67,100 Air Force, and 21,000 Defense-wide). Reduce DLA distribution depots from 30 to 18 by 2001, closing approximately four depots per year. In addition, compete up to nine of the remaining depots and all 68 of its Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service Offices. Compete 10 percent of the military and 20 percent of the civilian positions of the Defense Health Program from 1998 to 2000. Family Housing Privatization Implement by 2000 the 20 projects approved as a part of the 1998 President's Budget, privatizing the operation and maintenance of 30,000 housing units around the country. Utility Privatization Privatize by 2000 an additional 45 utility systems (DOD has already privatized 25 utility systems) at selected bases, and study a remaining 600 systems (including electricity, water, sewage, and natural gas) to determine which ones are economical to privatize.
Education	Modernize the management of student aid benefit delivery by reforming contracting, system development, and program oversight practices.	Increase electronic filing of student aid applications to 2.5 million by the end of 1999. Establish by 12/99, with the financial aid community mutually agreed upon industry-wide standards for electronic data exchanges for administering student financial aid. Pilot the use of a multi-year promissory note in 1999. Increase reliance on ED's web site as a source of information on Federal student aid and programmatic requirements, so that by 12/99, hard copies of this information will be reduced by at least a third.
Energy	Use prudent contracting and business management approaches that emphasize results, accountability, and competition; improve timeliness; minimize costs; and ensure customer satisfaction.	Convert all management and operating (M&O) contracts to performance-based management contracts by 2000. Award 50 percent of support services contracts as performance based by the end of 2000. Award 50 percent of all M&O contracts competitively in 1999. Increase use of and reliance on contractor past performance data in source evaluations/selections.
Housing and Urban Development	Implement HUD's 2020 Management Reform Plan to: (a) restore public trust by achieving and demonstrating competence in implementing HUD's programs, and (b) restructure the way HUD operates to empower people and communities. Implementation of HUD's management reform plan began in June 1997 and will extend to 2002. HUD will periodically measure changes in its performance to assess the impact of reform.	Complete by 9/98 most internal reorganizations, reassignments of staff and restructuring of offices. Use customer surveys (Mayors, public housing residents, project-based housing owners) to measure changes in organizational performance (baseline measures established by 9/98). Use periodic surveys/employee panels to measure changes in organizational culture, toward the objectives in HUD's 2020 Management Reform Plan (baseline measures established by 9/98). Use annual or more frequent assessments of the physical and other conditions of HUD's housing assistance programs to rate HUD intermediaries (baseline measures established by 7/98). Use strengthened enforcement to improve physical and other conditions of HUD's assisted housing. Verify assisted tenant's incomes with IRS by 12/98 to assure program eligibility and prevent excess rental subsidy payments. HUD removed from GAO High Risk List by 3/99.
Interior: Bureau of Indian Affairs	Seek to settle disputed tribal trust fund balances, make comprehensive reforms to the operation of tribal and individual Indian trust asset and trust funds management, and implement a recently introduced legislative proposal to consolidate ownership of highly fractionated Indian lands.	Settlement Submit and seek enactment in 1998, proposed legislation to settle disputed tribal trust fund balances. Prepare and present settlement offers in 1999 to all 310 tribal account holders with disputed balances. Settlements will be funded from the Claims, Judgments, and Relief Acts fund. Management Reform Clean up and review all Individual Indian (IIM) account records, implement a new IIM accounting system, and begin phasing in a modern trust asset management system in 1998. Land Consolidation Provide funding to a limited number of tribes to augment their own initiatives to consolidate fractionated lands. This would also facilitate increased economic opportunity on these lands and reduce BIA's administrative burden. Performance goal for 1999 is for tribes to acquire 20,000 small fractional interests from willing-seller individuals.
Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)	FAA Reform Implement a personnel system that, without increasing costs, empowers managers to effectively hire, reward, promote, discipline, and remove employees, while at the same time protecting employee rights. Implement a financial system that accurately relates services to costs that can be reflected in user charges. Reduce developmental risk and total life-cycle cost of FAA major information technology investment/air traffic control modernization.	Continuous improvement in customer satisfaction. By 1/99, improve FAA managers' satisfaction with the new personnel system by 10 percent from current baseline of 31 percent. By 9/30/98, implement a cost-accounting system that attributes at least 90 percent of FAA's direct and indirect costs to specific FAA products and services. Ensure no more than 10 percent variance from cost and schedule baselines for each project.
Treasury: Financial Management Service (FMS)	Implement a number of changes at FMS to increase electronic payments, collections, and debt collection; and improve the accuracy and timeliness of Government-wide accounting and reporting.	Payments Increase the percentage of payments and associated information made electronically to 70.5 percent. Achieve $33M in savings by reducing the number of paper check payments. Increase forgery and non-receipt claims processed within 14 days to 90 percent. Collections Increase electronic collections as a percentage of total collections to 65 percent. Increase percentage of corporate withholding taxes collected electronically to 94 percent. Debt Collection Increase by 5 percent over the prior year the total delinquent non-tax debt collected to $95M. Increase the number of agencies referring debt servicing to FMS to 35 percent. Government-wide Accounting Increase the number of agency reports for the Consolidated Financial Statement (CFS) processed on time to 97 percent.
Treasury: Internal Revenue Service (IRS)	Position the IRS to move forward with the Modernization Blueprint and undertake an incremental modernization, including year 2000 conversion, resulting in centralized data bases that would stimulate significant improvements in customer service, compliance and financial reporting.	Year 2000 Conversion Replace 17,000 workstations by 10/98. Replace and reduce from 67 to 12 mainframe computers by 12/98. Replace communication system by 12/98. Replace service center processing systems by 1/99. Convert, test and certify code conversion of 121 mission critical systems by 9/99. Modernization Blueprint Award contract for Prime Systems Integration Services Contractor by 10/98. Develop and roll-out nation-wide integrated telephone system with ability to screen 180 million customer calls by 1/00. Develop and roll-out Internet expansion to allow taxpayers to verify on-line status of paper or electronic returns and status of refund by 1/01.
Veterans Affairs	Work to consolidate infrastructure (hospitals, regional offices, data centers) where service improvements and efficiencies can be achieved.	Consolidate back-office administrative functions to improve service to veterans and reduce costs. Develop final plan in 1998 to co-locate data centers. In 1998, explore legislative options to encourage the disposition of unneeded and underutilized property.
Social Security Administration	Reduce the processing time for disability claims and appeals in the Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income programs at lower administrative cost with neutral impact on program costs.	Maintain average processing time in 1999 for initial disability claims of 100 days and improve average processing time in 1999 for hearings on appeals to 284 days (compared with current 392 days). Future targets are under discussion.