Improving performance accountability provisions in federal grants could improve results, GAO has said in a report analyzing how performance accountability mechanisms have been successfully used in managing contracts and applying those lessons to grants management.
Accountability provisions can be financial as in the case of bonus payments, or non-financial, and be employed by various actors and at different stages – and mechanisms need to be specifically tailored, GAO said following a content analysis of relevant literature and interviewing experts.
However, five key strategies appear to help design and implement such provisions effectively, according to GAO-06-1046.
It recommended ensuring that mechanisms are of sufficient value to motivate desired behaviors, periodically renegotiating and revising mechanisms and measures, ensuring appropriate measurement selection, ensuring grantor and grantee technical capacity, and allowing for a phased implementation.
GAO also said that collaboration, oversight and feedback are critical to the successful implementation of performance accountability mechanisms, and that a results-focused design can enable and facilitate the use of accountability provisions.
