The Idaho Legislature's eight-person Office of Program Evaluation will receive the prestigious Alva and Gunnar Myrdal Award of the American Evaluation Association next month at the organization's annual meeting. From an OPE press release:
The American Evaluation Association has about 6,800 members in the United States and 60 other countries. The Myrdal Government Evaluation Award recognizes an individual or group whose evaluation work is highly influential in government context. In the award’s 35 years of history, it has typically been given to individuals. OPE is only the second group to receive this honor.
The award recognizes OPE for the work it completed in the past six years, which led to changes in policy and legislation as well as improvements in agency performance. One of the reports highlighted in the award nomination was the 2009 performance audit of Idaho’s transportation department, which recommended better ways of managing Idaho’s infrastructure assets and saving millions of dollars in highway construction, maintenance, and preservation.
“This award underscores the role of independent evaluation in government where policies are debated, laws are enacted, programs are implemented, and outputs are tallied,” said Rakesh Mohan, director of OPE. “However, not until independent evaluators assess the value of these policies and programs, would the public know how well their tax dollars are being used.”
The Idaho Statesman ran a story about the office and the award last week.
Congratulations to Rakesh (photo) and the OPE team!
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