A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to create the North Carolina Accountability Report, to be operated by the Program Evaluation Division.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 120‑36.12 is amended by adding a new subdivision to read as follows:
"§ 120‑36.12.  Duties of Program Evaluation Division.
The Program Evaluation Division of the Legislative Services Commission has the following powers and duties:
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(11)	To create and maintain the North Carolina Accountability Report, as required by G.S. 120‑36.19."
SECTION 2.  Article 7C of Chapter 120 of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new section to read as follows:
"§ 120‑36.19.  North Carolina Accountability Report.
(a)	The Program Evaluation Division shall create and maintain the North Carolina Accountability Report. The report shall be published in a publically available Web‑based format and shall profile State departments and programs within each department. The profile for each department or program shall (i) describe why it exists, how it is funded, and what current issues exist and (ii) include references to pertinent information, including technical studies, audit reports, Program Evaluation Division reports, and similar research. The report shall be easily searchable and shall be indexed by categories defined by the Program Evaluation Division.
(b)	Each program profile shall contain a Program Evaluation Division rating. The rating shall be based upon the following criteria and questions:
(1)	Program purpose and design:
a.	Is the program's purpose and design explicit and sound?
b.	What public problem is the program seeking to remedy or what public service is the program seeking to provide?
c.	Is the program duplicative or redundant?
d.	Are there any impediments to the program's success? How is the program identifying and addressing such impediments?
(2)	Strategic planning:
a.	Does the program have a strategic plan?
b.	Does the plan assess strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats or challenges?
c.	Does the plan contain strategies for maintaining or enhancing strengths, addressing weaknesses, taking advantage of opportunities, and minimizing or containing threats or challenges?
d.	Does the plan contain a method for measuring the success of strategies?
e.	How are results reported?
f.	Is the plan periodically reviewed and revised?
(3)	Program management:
a.	How are employees organized and supervised?
b.	Are there organizational charts?
c.	Are work processes documented or flow‑charted?
d.	How are resources allocated among activities or work units?
e. 	Are managers held accountable for the cost, quantity, and quality of results?
f.	Is the program subject to internal audits?
g.	Are expensive assets such as real property, motor vehicles, and computer equipment subject to management controls and safeguards?
h.	Are financial management practices free of material weaknesses or repeat audit findings?
(4)	Program Results:
a.	How does the program measure outputs or units of service?
b.	How does the program measure outcomes or the results of outputs?
c.	How does the program establish standards for the quality and quantity of outputs and outcomes?
d.	Based upon independent evaluation, is there non‑anecdotal proof that the program results are attributable to the program and did not come about by chance or other factors?
e.	Does the program use evaluation results in strategic planning and management for continuous improvement?
The Program Evaluation Division shall develop a scale by which to measure the answers to the questions in this subsection, as well as when low performance would require an improvement plan from program managers.
(c)	The Office of Budget and Management shall assist the Program Evaluation Division to identify programs and their costs. When identifying programs, the Division may define a "program" more narrowly than the program is defined by the State department, such as by identifying a portion of a larger program as a "program." Additionally, when identifying programs, the Division may define a "program" more broadly than the program is defined by the State department, such as by identifying coordinated programs or closely related programs as a single "program."
(d)	State departments shall provide information for the Accountability Report to the Program Evaluation Division upon the request of the Division and shall answer all questions from the Division within 30 days of request. Upon the request of the department or institution, the Division may extend this 30-day time limit once by an additional 15 days. If the Division does not receive a response for a program within the allowed time, the Division may rate the program "Not Accountable for Failure to Respond."
(e)	As used in this section, the term "department" shall be interpreted broadly to include any State department, agency, commission, or institution."
SECTION 3.  G.S. 120‑131.1 reads as rewritten:
"§ 120‑131.1.  Requests from legislative employees for assistance in the preparation of fiscal  notes, evaluation reports, or North Carolina Accountability Report.
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(a1)	A request, and any accompanying documents, made to an agency employee by a legislative employee of the Program Evaluation Division for assistance in the preparation of an evaluation  report, or in the preparation of the North Carolina Accountability Report, is confidential. The request and any accompanying documents are not "public records" as defined by G.S. 132‑1. An agency employee who receives a request under this subsection or who learns of such a request made to another agency employee of his or her agency may reveal the existence of the request to other agency employees to the extent that it is necessary to respond to the request and to the agency employee's supervisor. All documents prepared by the agency employee in response to the request of a legislative employee of the Program Evaluation Division are confidential, shall be kept confidential in the same manner as the original request, and are not "public records" as defined in G.S. 132‑1.
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SECTION 3.  Recognizing that scoring all State programs will take several years, the Program Evaluation Division shall first catalogue and profile state programs, as described in G.S. 120‑36.19(a), as created by Section 2 of this act. The Division shall prioritize the order in which to rate State programs using the criteria in G.S. 120‑36.19(b), as created by Section 2 of this act, and shall develop a schedule by which State programs will periodically be reviewed and regraded by the Division.
SECTION 4.  Effective July 1, 2013, the sum of eight hundred thirty‑nine thousand seven hundred fourteen dollars ($839,714) is appropriated from the General Fund to the Legislative Services Commission, Program Evaluation Division, for fiscal year 2013‑2014, recurring, for the purpose of implementing and maintaining the North Carolina Accountability Report, as created by this act. That sum shall be allocated to the following positions, which are hereby created, as well as for equipment and other costs:
		Number of	Salaries &			
	Position Description	Positions	Benefits	Equipment	Other	Total
	Web Specialist/Evaluator	1	$68,455	$1,500	$1,000	$70,955
	Program Evaluator I	4	$273,820	$6,000	$4,000	$283,820
	Research Assistant	9	$484,939	$13,000	$9,000	$484,939
SECTION 5.  Except as otherwise provided, this act is effective when it becomes law.