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by Shaw, Bransford & Roth, P.C.
July 27, 2010
Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Delaware), members of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, recently released a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which they requested, highlighting government agencies' continued mismanagement of billions of dollars on information technology (IT) investments because of poor management oversight. The Committee, which oversees the $80 billion agencies spend annually on IT products and services, has held several hearings examining why agencies continue to waste billions of dollars on investments that are delivered late, over budget and not performing as planned. In 2008, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), after multiple requests from Congress, released a report detailing the reasons nearly one-third of every investment was poorly planned or over budget. In a move to make government information more accessible and transparent, the Administration established a website that provided an "IT Dashboard" which could quickly and easily illustrate investments that were on-track, having trouble, or needing to be canceled.
However, Senators Collins and Carper say, the new GAO report highlights the fact that agencies have failed to upload accurate information about the current status of projects, leaving OMB and the American people in the dark. Some of the investments listed on the IT Dashboard are already hundreds of millions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule. For example, the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) investment, Automated Commercial Environment, is expected to allow Border Patrol agents to more efficiently scan cargo entering the country and flag cargo that may be hazardous. The project's current status on the IT Dashboard shows that the project is on track and under budget. However, a previous examination by the GAO reveals the very same project is expected to cost approximately $740 million more than originally planned. Senators Collins and Carper have written to the agencies urging them to provide more timely and accurate data.
"This GAO report notes that accountability and public transparency hinge upon accurate, up-to-date data being entered into that oversight system," said Sen. Collins, Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Committee. "The accuracy and timeliness of that data are key to the success of the ‘IT Dashboard.' Much is at stake here. Aggressive oversight of the nearly $80 billion in taxpayer money that the federal government spends on IT investments annually is critical to helping ensure the prevention of waste, fraud and abuse. We have already seen hundreds of millions of dollars wasted by the federal government due to poorly planned and poorly managed IT projects.
"But the key to the oversight tool's success is to make certain that agencies provide accurate and updated information," added Sen. Collins. "That is why I, along with Senator Carper, have written to agencies urging them to provide correct, complete, and timely data on their IT investments. I expect GAO's recommendations to be implemented and agencies to be more proactive in providing factual and timely information about the performance of IT investments."
Said Sen. Carper, "No one would feel comfortable jumping into a car and driving off with their family for a road trip without a working dashboard to tell them how the car is handling. Information on how fast the car is going, how much fuel is left, and whether the car is running hot are three simple ways to tell whether your trip will be success or whether you will end up stuck on the side of the road. In fact, a car that doesn't provide this information should never be sold in the first place. Yet it seems to be common practice for agencies to provide OMB and Congress with inaccurate and out of date information on whether their investments are on budget, on schedule, and performing as expected. This is simply unacceptable and needs to change."
In response to these IT problems, Senators Carper and Collins introduced the "Information Technology Investment Oversight Enhancement and Waste Prevention Act of 2009" (S. 920), which would require agencies to rigorously plan investments and report on cost overruns and schedule delays. The legislation was passed by the Senate in May and is awaiting a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives.
To read GAO's report, titled "Information Technology: OMB's Dashboard Has Increased Transparency and Oversight, but Improvements Needed," GAO-10-701, July 2010, click here.
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