Certificate of Excellence in Service Efforts and Accomplishments SEA Reporting Program

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Certificate of Excellence in Service Efforts and
Accomplishments (SEA) Reporting Program

• Improving Performance Reporting
• Jeff Hart, National President
• Association of Government Accountants
• SER PDC, Lexington, KY
• April1, 2007

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• The AGA Certificate of Excellence in SEA
  Reporting Program
• Overview of GASBs SEA Research and the Suggested
  Criteria

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• The Service Efforts and Accomplishments Program
• Encourages regular issuance of high-quality SEA
  reports
• Helps state and local governments effectively
  communicate performance to the public
• Share my theme for this year, and how SEA fits in

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• Accountability requires governments to answer to
  the citizenryto justify the raising of public
  resources and the purposes for which they are
  used. Governmental accountability is based on
  the belief that the citizenry has a right to
  know, a right to receive openly declared facts
  that may lead to public debate by the citizens
  and their elected representatives . . .

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Managing for Results
STRATEGIC PLANNING
PROGRAM/ ACTIVITY PLANNING
REPORT RESULTS
Accountability Cultural and Structural Changes
BUDGET FOR RESULTS
EVALUATE RESULTS
MEASURE FOR RESULTS
MANAGE WORK PROCESSES
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Managing for Results

• STRATEGIC
• PLANNING
• Develop Entity Mission
• Conduct Needs Assessment
• Develop Entity Goals
• Identify Entity Outcomes
• Develop Policy Direction

• PROGRAM/
• ACTIVITY
• PLANNING
• Conduct Needs Assessment
• Identify Programs
• Develop Program Goals
• Identify Activities
• Develop Activity Objectives
• Develop Activity Targets
• Set Priorities

• REPORT RESULTS
• Prepare Accountability Report
• Communicate Results
• Obtain Stakeholder Feedback
• Revise Plans

• EVALUATE
• RESULTS
• Recognize Standards
• Determine Efficiency
• Determine Effectiveness
• Factors Affecting Results
• Determine Secondary Impacts
• Determine Service Level Gaps
• Reengineer Processes
• Revise Targets and Budgets
• Performance Audits
• Program Evaluations

Accountability Cultural and Structural Changes

• BUDGET FOR
• RESULTS
• Allocate Resources
• Present by Program
• Integrate Goals and Measures
• Develop Database
• Align Systems

• MANAGE WORK
• PROCESSES
• Develop Plans and Schedules
• Convert Inputs to Outputs
• Determine Costs (ABC)
• Record Measurement Data
• Provide Internal Reports
• Validate Data

• MEASURE FOR
• RESULTS
• Inputs
• Outputs
• Efficiency
• Service Quality
• Outcomes
• Explanatory
• Data

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Citizen Discussion GroupsSome Selected
Observations

• Citizens are very knowledgeable about performance
  measures.
• Citizens believe performance measures should be
  reported.
• They want communication to be at several levels
  with an overview that is brief and very easy to
  understand, then more detail provided for those
  who want more information.
• Citizen surveys are an important, but not
  complete, measure of performance.

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Citizen Discussion GroupsSome Selected
Observations
(continued)

• Web-based information is important.
• Explanatory information should be available.
• Report card format is easy to use and
  understandbut there is a risk of a simple
  grading scale.
• Some impressive efforts at developing and
  engaging citizens.

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Five Main Uses of Performance Measurement
Pertaining to Citizens

• Increase government accountability
• Increase citizen engagement
• Enable citizens to analyze, interpret, and
  evaluate public performance
• Support citizen decision making
• Increase citizens confidence in government

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Who are SEA performance reports prepared for, and
why are they important?
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Why Performance or Service Efforts
Accomplishments (SEA) Reports?

• Ultimately empower citizens and other
  stakeholders to make better informed decisions
• Provide key results information
• Provide decision-useful information
• Facilitate more transparent communication

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Why Performance or Service Efforts
Accomplishments (SEA) Reports (cont.)?

• Assist legislative bodies and management to make
  decisions
• Help improve delivery of public services
• Improve public accountability
• Improve trust in government
• Easier to obtain funding for additional services

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Why Performance or Service Efforts
Accomplishments (SEA) Reports (cont.)?

• Declining resources, need to be used by the most
  effective programs
• Make most efficient outsourcing decisions
• To demonstrate you are on the leading edge
• Demonstrate sustainability of services
• Enhanced management of programs

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Why Performance or Service Efforts
Accomplishments (SEA) Reports (cont.)?

• In touch with citizens, hearing what they want
• Sensitive to taxing issues and working to reduce
  threat of increasing taxes
• To make your location enticing to new businesses
  and families

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AGAs Involvement

• Experience evaluating federal agency performance
  reports through CEAR Program
• CEAR Program is effecting improvement through
  reviews and recognition
• Ideally suited to manage a similar program for
  state and local governments

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SEA Program Launched

• Objective Expand the extent and quality of SEA
  reporting
• Provides advice via team/peer review using
  published guidelines
• Highlights best practices
• Recognizes outstanding reports

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The Suggested Criteria
The External Report on Performance Information

• Purpose and Scope of the Report
• Statement of Major Goals and Objectives
• Involvement in Establishing Goals and Objectives
• Multiple Levels of Reporting
• Analysis of Results and Challenges
• Focus on Key Measures
• Reliable Information

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The Suggested Criteria(continued)
What Performance Information to Report

• 8. Relevant Measures of Results
• 9. Resources Used and Efficiency
• 10. Citizen and Customer Perceptions
• 11. Comparisons for Assessing Performance
• 12. Factors Affecting Results
• 13. Aggregation and Disaggregation of
• Information
• 14. Consistency

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The Suggested Criteria(continued)
Communication of Performance Information

• Easy to Find, Access, and Use
• Regular and Timely Reporting

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The SEA Review

• Assesses SEA reports usefulness
• Evaluates whether the report has substantially
  applied the 16 suggested criteria
• Provides recommendations for more complete
  application of the criteria to improve the
  quality of the report and its ability to
  communicate the government's performance.

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Review Team

• Evaluates reports
• Assigns points
• Recommends improvements
• Votes on presenting Certificate of Achievement

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Pilot PhaseJan 2003 Sept 2004

• 20 charter governments
• 68 reviewers trained
• Program post-mortem

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20 Pilot YearCharter Governments

• Austin
• Bellevue
• Charlotte
• Detroit
• Franklin County
• Kansas City
• King County
• Maricopa Cty
• MoDOT
• Montgomery Cty

• Multnomah Cty
• New York City
• Oregon DHS
• Oregon SU
• Palo Alto
• Phoenix
• Portland
• Prince William Cty
• San Diego
• Washington, DC

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Implementation PhaseOct 2004 Dec 2005

• 25 reports
• 3 person review teams
• Including technical director and citizen group
  representatives

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Congratulations to Recipients of AGAs
2004Certificate of Achievement in Service
Efforts and Accomplishments Reporting
Bellevue, WA Charlotte, NC Des Moines, IA Kansas
City, MO King County, WA Oklahoma Health
Care Palo Alto, CA Portland, OR Prince William
County, VA Saco, ME
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Implementation Phase-Year 2 Certificates of
Achievement as of September 2006 (11)

• Ankeny, IA
• Bellevue, WA
• Des Moines, IA
• Kansas City, MO
• King County, WA
• Maricopa County, AZ
• OK Health Care
• Palo Alto, CA
• Portland, OR
• Prince William County, VA
• Saco, ME
• 2nd year

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Governments ReactionsWhat They Said

• In general, the review comments were very
  helpful.
• We found most of the recommendations very
  helpful.
• Overall comments are helpful.
• Valuable learning experience, recommendations
  were helpful.
• It was quite useful.

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Governments ReactionsHow They Feel

• 14 of 17 want to participate again
• 88-overall participation beneficial
• 76-comments were valuable
• 88-will adopt recommendations

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• Free copy of the User Guide
• Request additional information
• Performance Measurement for Government website at
• www.seagov.org or the GASB website at
  www.gasb.org,
• Call the GASB order department
• Governmental Accounting Standards Board
• 401 Merritt 7
• PO Box 5116
• Norwalk, CT 06856-5116
• Order Dep. [phone]
• Fax [phone]

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To Learn Morewww.agacgfm.org

• Click on Performance and Accountability
• GASB Guidelines
• Reviewer Information
• Participant and Reviewer applications

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Get Involved!

• Reporting performance to the public?
• Evaluations October 2006 through July 2007
• Interested in becoming a reviewer?
• Free Reviewer Training
• Contact Evie Barry at AGA, ebarry_at_agacgfm.org