NIH Performance Reporting (GPRA)

The Office of Program Evaluation and Performance supports activities related to NIH-level organizational performance assessments, including the coordination and preparation of the GPRA Annual Performance Plans and Annual Reports.

GPRA

The Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) is a public bipartisan law passed by Congress in 1993 (Public Law 103-62) to improve stewardship in the Federal Government by linking resources and management decisions with program performance. The law requires Federal programs to do the following:

• Develop strategic plans that specify what will be accomplished over a 3 to 5 year period
• Annually set performance targets related to the strategic plan
• Annually report the degree to which the targets set in the previous year were met
• Regularly conduct evaluations of programs and use those results to explain successes and failures based on performance data

GPRA Modernization Act of 2010

On January 4, 2011, President Obama signed the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010 (HR 2142). The implementation of this Act began in FY 2011 and will affect the FY 2013 budget development process. While this Act mainly codifies existing processes and procedures, the legislation details the following new requirements:

1. a Federal Government Performance Plan with Priority and Performance Goals
2. Position Classifications, Performance Management Skills, and Competencies
3. Quarterly Progress Reviews with the OMB
4. Transparency in Government by the establishment of http://www.performance.gov/
5. Measures to reduce duplicative and outdated reports

NIH Approach to GPRA Reporting

NIH's response to GPRA is embodied in two major reporting activities:

I.      NIH Annual Online Performance Appendix - yearly preparation of an NIH-specific Annual Performance Plan and Report, which describes the agency's mission, resources, programs and strategies, and provides an assessment of the progress towards achieving its performance goals and targets.

For the FY 2013 Online Performance Appendix (OPA), NIH contributed to a “streamlined” OPA that includes performance for all of HHS. Click here to access the FY 2013 HHS Online Performance Appendix.

II.      HHS Strategic Plan – NIH participates in the development and periodic updating of the unified (department-wide), multiyear Strategic Plan under GPRA, prepared by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

• HHS FY 2010 - 2015 Strategic Plan

Performance information is included in NIH Budget requests. Please see the NIH and HHS Budget websites for more information. Here are some useful links to information on program budget and resource allocation:

NIH Budget Request & Congressional Justification

HHS Budget and Performance Information