The U.S. Government Accountability Office has called on the Office of Management and Budget, General Services Administration and Performance Improvement Council to address Performance.gov’s usability and compliance with federal requirements.
GAO said Tuesday OMB, GSA and PIC’s efforts to update the government performance information website do not meet certain DigitalGov requirements for federal websites as well as some provisions under the Government Performance and Results Act Modernization Act of 2010.
Auditors added OMB and PIC work to track 18 of 24 Digitalgov website performance measures but have not established goals for those measures despite GAO’s June 2013 recommendations.
According to the GAO report, OMB and GSA have yet to fully address the findings of a GSA-led usability test in September 2013 that indicated issues with Performance.gov’s accessibility, purpose, data visualizations and search function.
OMB and PIC staff told GAO the government bodies did not take action on the 2013 usability test results nor set goals for DigitalGov’s performance measures due to “limited resources.”
GAO noted OMB does not have a customer outreach strategy that would provide information on OMB’s plans to notify users on Performance.gov changes; communicate through social media; and utilize mobile devices and applications.
OMB staff said the office has hired a digital services director to develop a strategic plan for Performance.gov and aid the website’s long-term development.
GAO recommended for OMB, GSA and PIC Performance.gov to comply with GPRAMA public reporting requirements; analyze and implement usability test results; and develop strategic, customer outreach, and data archiving plans for Performance.gov.
