Federal agencies are doing a better job of expanding E-government, according to a scorecard issued this week by the White House Office of Management and Budget. Five agencies--the Environmental Protection Agency, the Small Business Administration, and the departments of Interior, Justice, and Transportation--improved their performance during the second quarter.

Still, only five of the 26 departments and agencies graded by OMB have achieved the top status of green. EPA, SBA, and the Transportation Department moved up from yellow, joining the National Science Foundation and Office of Personnel Management as the top E-government performers. Among the criteria for green ranking: verifying and documenting IT security-remediation processes and actively participating in E-government initiatives that avoid the creation of redundant IT systems.

The Interior and Justice departments moved to yellow from red, joining 10 other agencies. Yellow agencies provide acceptable business cases for at least half of their major systems; green agencies provide them for all major IT systems. Yellow agencies limit average cost overruns for major IT projects to less than 30%, compared with less than 10% for green agencies.

Nine departments and agencies received the unsatisfactory rating of red, in part, by failing to submit to OMB security reports that document consistent security improvements. Among those agencies: OMB.