ABSTRACT
The federal government has been on a decade-long journey to improve its performance and accountability by measuring how well its programs work, and to link performance measures to allocation of budgetary resources (Joyce 1999). For example, the goal of the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) was to refocus government agency efforts on results as opposed to inputs and standard operating procedures. After the first decade, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that it was clear that GPRA created a steady supply of performance information, but its assessment found no strong demand for this information by policymakers or program managers.
