Management of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights – an
independent federal agency that monitors and reports on
the status of civil rights – could benefit from improved
strategic planning and increased oversight, the Government
Accountability Office has said.
It said the commission has not updated or revised its
strategic plan since 1997, as required by the Government
Performance and Results Act of 1993, and that it has a
weak basis on which to develop annual goals and evaluate
performance.
The latest performance plan and report, “contain weaknesses
that limit the agency’s ability to effectively manage its
operations and communicate its performance,” according to
GAO-05-77.
The report said the performance plan does not address
strategies or resources needed to achieve stated goals
and lacks budget information for programs, as well as
performance indicators for certain annual goals.
In recent years, the Office of Management and Budget and
the Office of Personnel Management have provided oversight
for the commission’s budgetary and human capital
operations, with a focus on the commission budget
requests and GPRA plans and reports, said GAO.
It said that while the commission implemented certain
recommendations made by OPM related to human capital
management systems in the 1990s, “it has not implemented
five of six broader, systemic recommendations made in 1999
for improvement to its human capital management systems.”
