Agency Scorecard, Department of Veterans Affairs

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

Although VA has made someOne in every six federal non-Defense employees works for VA. These employees perform functions as varied as cemetery operations, benefits claims processing, and direct health care. VA’s overall performance on the President’s Management Agenda has been one marked by steady improvement. progress in addressing its financial performance shortcomings, it has made little progress elsewhere. The Department is working to develop a satisfactory plan to achieve the President's goals for competitive sourcing, E-Government, and human resources. The scorecard below shows VA’s 2001 status on the President's management initiatives.

Initiative	Status	Progress
Human Capital — VA delivered a workforce restructuring plan, as well as a workforce planning recruitment and marketing plan. VA also launched a new recruitment web-site. These will assist VA in addressing identified human capital shortages.	•	•
Competitive Sourcing — VA completed a plan to compete 52,000 jobs over the next five years, such as laundry, food and sanitation services. This will result in an estimated savings of as much as $3 billion over 5 years.	•	•
Financial Performance — VA initiated the first of two building phases for its new financial management system. In addition, it plans to resolve four of the six material weaknesses reported in its 2001 audit.	•	•
Enhanced E-Government — VA has made a good business case for all information technology efforts, addressed concerns with its Enterprise Architecture, and expanded its participation in E-Gov initiatives.	•	•
Budget/Performance Integration — VA submitted its 2004 budget on time, and completed a comprehensive budget restructuring. VA needs to improve its ability to make long-term budget projections of its entitlement programs and their relationship to discretionary administrative needs.	•	•
Department of Defense (DoD)/ VA Sharing — This is a high priority for DoD and VA, and both recently created a joint Executive Council to coordinate information technology, human resources, business practices, facilities, and equipment sharing.	•	•

arrows indicate change in status since baseline evaluation on September 30, 2001.

Program Assessments

Veterans' needs are always on the forefront of VA's management decisions, as it strives to perfect service, access, and quality benefits. Three of VA's major programs were evaluated and it has demonstrated good management practices in all of them. Medical care and disability compensation were rated "results not demonstrated" mainly because neither have a clear mission nor a process to ensure that services and benefits support the mission. The burial program's mission is well defined. However, the program received a moderately effective rating because it needs to prefect stratetic planning.

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