Data Reliability, Completeness, and Validity
Performance measurement is dependent on the availability and integrity of useful data that will indicate the reliability, completeness, and validity of performance. Because all data are imperfect in some fashion, pursuing “perfect” data may consume public resources without creating appreciable value. For this reason, there must be an approach that provides sufficient accuracy and timeliness, but at a reasonable cost. Provided below is information on how USAID reports its performance data and plans to improve USAID’s data verification and validity reporting processes.
To ensure that an acceptable level of data quality is being maintained, USAID’s operating units (OU) are requested to ensure that the data reported meet the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) standards for data completeness and reliability. The standards are presented in OMB Circular A-11, Section 230.2(f), as follows:
The performance data in a performance and accountability report (PAR) are considered complete if:
- Actual performance is reported for every performance goal and indicator in the performance budget (performance plan), including preliminary data if that is the only data available when the PAR is sent to the President and the Congress; and
- The Agency identifies in the PAR any performance goals and indicators for which actual performance data are not available or only preliminary data or estimates are available at the time the report is transmitted, and notes that the performance data will be included in a subsequent annual report. (Agencies are encouraged to pre-announce expected lags in the reporting of performance data in their performance budgets.)
Performance data need not be perfect to be reliable, particularly if the cost and effort to secure the best performance data possible will exceed the value of any data so obtained. Agencies must discuss in their assessments of the completeness and reliability of the performance data any limitations on the reliability of the data. Additionally, agencies should discuss in their PARs efforts underway to improve the completeness and reliability of future performance information as well as any audits, studies, or evaluations that attest to the quality of current data or data collection efforts.
The Agency's data meet these tests for completeness, reliability, and validity. The data contained in this Addendum to the FY 2005 PAR are final performance results for the 2005 fiscal year, and known discrepancies from data in the FY 2005 PAR are also addressed. In future years, final performance data will be reported in the joint State-USAID Performance Summary. Verification and validation of the Agency’s performance data is accomplished by periodic reviews, certifications and audits, including Data Quality Assessments (DQA) of OU performance, as well as annual certification of OU strategic objectives and their relationship to the Agency’s strategic goals. Because of the size and diversity of the Agency’s portfolio, data validation and verification are also supported by extensive automated systems and external expert analyses.
During the FY 2005 reporting cycle, completed in December 2005, six performance indicators were deleted to reflect changes that have occurred in USAID's performance monitoring and evaluation process. These changes include the introduction of Agency common indicators and standardized program categories. These indicators and categories were developed by the Bureau for Program and Policy Coordination in conjunction with the U.S. Department of State, and were validated by the other operating units in USAID, including regional and technical bureaus and overseas missions.
The indicators that were removed and will not be reported on are:
- Number of Local Organizations Promoting Peace for 6 + Months
- Number of Functioning Civil Society-Civil Authority Local Governance Partnerships in Stable Areas
- Number of Communities Assisted Through USAID
- Number of Clients Provided Services at Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) Clinics
- Hectares of Coastal and Marine Ecosystems Under Management
- Number of People and Number/Percent of Partner Institutions that Received Training and Technical Support
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