5 U.S.C. § 313 — Evaluation Officers

(a) Establishment. Each agency head must name a senior employee of the agency as the agency's Evaluation Officer. (b) Qualifications. The Evaluation Officer must be appointed or named without regard to political party or affiliation, and based on demonstrated expertise in evaluation methods and practices, along with expertise appropriate to the agency's own fields. (c) Coordination. As much as practical, the Evaluation Officer must coordinate activities with other agency officials as needed to carry out the functions in subsection (d). (d) Functions. Each agency's Evaluation Officer must: (1) continually assess the coverage, quality, methods, consistency, effectiveness, independence, and balance of the agency's evaluations, policy research, and ongoing evaluation activities; (2) assess the agency's capacity to support developing and using evaluation; (3) establish and carry out an agency evaluation policy; and (4) coordinate, develop, and carry out the plans required under section 312.