Evaluation Process: Performance Measures and Goals (Creation of the Department of Homeland Security)

(FDNY Firefighter on Ground Zero. Photo by Preston Keres, USN. Wikimedia Commons.)

            Peters said, “The first step in evaluation is to identify the goals of the program, but even this seemingly simple task may be difficult, if not impossible.”

            The DHS has set of strategic goals that are defined by the words: Awareness, Prevention, Protection, Response, Recovery, Service, and Organizational Excellence. The goals are clearly stated publicly and the next step was laying out performance measure to evaluate the goals. Federal agencies are mandated by law under the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) to set goals, measure performance, and report their accomplishments.

            On a report to President Bush and the Congress, the Gilmore Commission said, “the United States needs an improved homeland security strategy to strengthen security communities facing the greatest risk, improve the use of intelligence, increase the role of the state and local officials, and sharpen disaster response capabilities.”

            The Clinton and Bush Administrations had enacted 87 percent of the recommendations of the Gilmore Commission on security related matters. The Gilmore Commission was headed by former Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore III.

            The important recommendations of the Commission are as follows, “Combine all departmental grant making programs into a single entity in DHS; establish an interagency mechanism for homeland security grants, revise the homeland advisory system to include a regional alert system, training to emergency responders about preventive actions, and specific guidance to potentially affected regions; establish sustained funding to enhance EMS response capacity for acts of terrorism; and establish comprehensive procedures for sharing information with relevant state and local officials”