XVI. Office of the Director

FY 2000 Performance Plan - Revised Final FY 1999 Performance Plan

The Office of the Director (OD) manages and directs programs of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by providing leadership, advice on policy matters, development of goals and measures in the implementation of CDC's responsibilities related to disease prevention and control, and evaluates CDC's progress toward program goals and performance measures. OD provides direction and coordination to the epidemiologic activities of CDC and coordinates CDC's response to public health emergencies. OD provides overall direction to and coordination of the scientific/medical programs of CDC; plans, promotes, and coordinates an ongoing program to assure equal employment opportunities in CDC. It provides leadership, coordination, and assessment of administrative management activities and oversees security for the CDC laboratory and office facilities. OD establishes, administers, and coordinates CDC's health communication and media relations policies in a manner to ensure that health communication efforts reflect the scientific integrity of all CDC research, programs, and activities, and that such information is factual, accurate, and targeted toward improving public health.

In addition, OD coordinates and manages programs on global health activities, minority health, and women's health relating to disease prevention and control.

The OD has developed goals and performance measures in the areas of health communication, information and security, financial management, and recruitment and retention. Accomplishment of these goals will enhance the ability of the CDC Centers, Institutes, and Offices to accomplish their programmatic goals.

Health and Communication: Communicating public health information to practicing health care providers, public health professionals, health researchers, policy makers, legislators, and the general public is one of CDC's core processes that is common to all of CDC's public health areas. The overall federal policy to make information readily available to the public, the importance of providing information to individuals and health care providers to make better informed health and prevention decisions, and the rapid expansion of electronic access to information through the Internet and other means are driving factors for leveraging electronic communication avenues for health communications.

Information Security and Integrity: CDC is an information-intensive organization. Much of CDC's mission revolves around the collection, analysis, and dissemination of data on health events, vital statistics and other health determinants. Protection of the confidentiality, privacy, and integrity of sensitive data and information is of utmost importance to CDC, our data provider partners, and the individuals and organizations who entrust public health agencies with these data.

Financial Management Processes, Internal Controls, and Information Systems: The Chief Financial Officers' Act requires federal agencies to have audits of their financial statements. This audit consists of a review of the agency's financial statements and of the underlying assessment and accounting principles used. In order to receive an "unqualified" auditor's opinion, the agency's financial statements must be determined to be presented fairly in accordance with the hierarchy of accounting principles and standards approved by the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board.

Recruitment and Retention of Qualified and Diverse Workforce: The CDC workforce is a critical strength of the agency. The recruitment and retention of highly qualified staff who represents the public that we serve is a top priority of the agency.

Performance Goals and Measures

Performance Goal: Provide a variety of standardized and integrated means for health practitioner and public access to CDC information resources.

Performance Measures:

FY Baseline	FY 1999 Appropriated	FY 2000 Estimate
In 1998, the average monthly (based on the first 7 months) visitors to CDC's web site was 662,000 with an average of 5.6 accesses of information content.	N/A	Continually enhance CDC's Internet infrastructure and valued information content so that access to CDC information resources grows 25% per year.
In 1997, average monthly calls to the CDC Voice/FAX information service (VIS) was 45,000 with 25,000 requests for information documents to be faxed to the callers.	N/A	Continue enhancing the CDC VIS such that usage grows 10% per year.

Verification/Validation of Performance Measures: Web site usage: The data is captured as a normal byproduct of running the agency's web servers. Visits and hits (information accesses) are automatically logged by the web servers and these files are summarized and analyzed monthly.

CDC Voice Information System Usage: The data is also captured as a normal byproduct of the vendor's provision of voice and fax-back services. Calls and pages faxed are automatically logged by the servers and these files are summarized and analyzed monthly.

These data are used to monitor the activity level of the public and health professionals in seeking CDC information and data resources over time. Coupled with user feedback, it is also used to evaluate the effectiveness of agency information products.

Performance Goal: Enhance CDC's information security program.

Performance Measure:

FY Baseline	FY 1999 Appropriated	FY 2000 Estimate
There have been no losses, alterations, or releases of data or information . However, with the higher degree of organization's vulnerability with Internet connectivity, additional security measures are required to increase prevention effectiveness.	N/A	No serious losses, alteration, or releases of data or information occur that are critical, highly sensitive, or are covered by privacy or confidentiality requirements.

Verification/Validation of Performance Measures: Dual fire walls provide access control, logging and restriction to CDC networks from the Internet. Additional security measures will increase the protection of data or information through Internet access. Intrusion software captures data necessary for monitoring and assessing intrusion activity, and auditing software audits the web servers and network devices to insure compliance with established security policies and procedures. Public key encryption will protect sensitive data on network servers.

Performance Goal: Ensure that CDC's financial statements are properly prepared and presented.

Performance Measure:

FY Baseline	FY 1999 Appropriated	FY 2000 Estimate
In FY 1998, CDC received a qualified opinion on the FY 1997 Financial Statements. This was the first ever financial statement audit of CDC. Two items prevented CDC from receiving an unqualified opinion: validation of the beginning balances, which is a concern for all first time audits and will not affect future audits, and the grant accrual process, which is a department-wide issue.	N/A	100% audited financial statements with no qualifications.

Verification/Validation of Performance Measures: Audited financial statement are published annually in the Chief Financial Officers Report for CDC and ATSDR. The measure and goal will be validated and verified by the published report of the independent audit firm, Ernst & Young.

Performance Goal: Decrease the time it take to refer candidates for vacancies and the time entailed in classifying positions.

Performance Measure:

FY Baseline	FY 1999 Appropriated	FY 2000 Estimate
Time to classify jobs: 15 Days. Time to refer candidates: 80 Days .  (FY 1998)		Reduce the time it takes to classify positions and the time involved in referring candidates to fill positions by 25%.
Total Program Funding	$31,146	$30,322

Verification/Validation of Performance Measures: Data will be collected through the Staffing Tracking and Reporting System (STARS) in the Human Resources Management Office, CDC. This system is monitored monthly for system errors and data irregularities.

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