EPA Receives Highest Management Honor--Again
For the second straight year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has received the President's Quality Award for Management Excellence.
"We are the first agency ever to win this award back-to-back," said EPA Deputy Administrator Marcus Peacock. "It's just another sign of EPA's commitment to accountability and excellence."
The award was established in 1988 to recognize excellence in quality and productivity, applying to the public sector similar criteria used for the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Improvement Awards for private organizations. In 2002, the award was redesigned to improve government management in five priority areas: human capital, competitive sourcing, financial performance, electronic government, and budget and performance integration.
EPA is the only agency to win the highest tier of the award for overall management. This year's award recognizes EPA's continued efforts to develop a data-driven, results-oriented culture.
Among its 2008 accomplishments, EPA
• launched EPAStat, an integrated management system that engages senior leadership in improving performance by using environmental and operational data to drive decision-making. In this system, senior management from across the agency meet regularly with the deputy administrator to discuss the latest performance data, steps that can be taken to improve performance, and successful strategies that should be shared across agency offices to improve results.
• led development of improved efficiency measures for research projects across the federal government, and
• launched new efforts to engage states and other partners in its planning and operational decisions and to efficiently and effectively collect performance-based data.
In addition to this award, the Government Accountability Office has acknowledged EPA as a leader among federal agencies and departments in its use of performance management data.