The purpose of this section is to bring to the DEA management's attention another matter that we noted during the audit. The matter is for informational purposes only.

The Government Performance Results Act (GPRA) of 1993 provides for the establishment of strategic planning and performance measurements in the Federal Government. It seeks to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and accountability of federal programs by establishing a system for agencies to set goals for program performance and to measure results. The GPRA also requires agencies to prepare an annual performance plan. The annual performance plan establishes annual performance goals to help meet the agencies' long-term goals. The annual performance plan should also contain performance indicators for use in measuring whether the annual performance goals are met.

As part of our audit, we reviewed the DEA's FY 2001 Annual Performance Plan to assess whether the DEA had included performance goals and performance indicators for the linguistic services contracts. We found that no such goals or performance indicators were included in the DEA's annual performance plan. In our judgment, this is consistent with the GPRA of 1993 because it does not require that goals and performance measures be developed at the micro-level. The GPRA requires that performance goals and performance indicators be included in the annual performance plan for each program activity. The GPRA defines program activity as a specific activity or project as listed in the program and financing schedules of the annual budget of the United States Government. Contracts for linguistic services are not listed in the DEA's portion of the FY 2001 annual budget for the United States Government. Therefore, contracts for linguistic services are not considered a program activity and as such, the DEA was not required to develop performance goals and performance indicators for these contracts.