Information Technology: Agencies Need to Strengthen Oversight of Multibillion Dollar Investments in Operations and Maintenance

Abstract

Of the over $82 billion that federal agencies plan to spend on IT in fiscal year 2014, at least $59 billion is to be spent on O and M, which consists of legacy systems (i.e., steady state) and systems that are in both development and O and M (known as mixed life cycle). OMB calls for agencies to perform annual OAs, which are a key method for examining the performance of O and M investments. GAO was asked to review IT O and M investments and agency use of OAs. The objectives of this report were to among other things (1) identify the federal IT O and M investments with the largest budgets, including their responsible agencies and how each investment supports its agency's mission; (2) determine the extent to which these investments have undergone OAs; and (3) assess whether the responsible agency's major IT investments are in development, mixed life cycle, or steady state. To do so, GAO focused on the 10 IT investments with the largest budgets in O and M and their responsible eight agencies, and assessed whether OAs were conducted on the investments. In addition, GAO evaluated what agencies spent on mixed, development, and O and M investments and whether agencies were using O and M funds for development activities.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 2013
Accession Number
AD1181247

Entities

People

  • David A. Powner

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accountability
  • Business Administration
  • Commerce
  • Communication Systems
  • Congress
  • Cycles
  • Data Centers
  • Department Of Defense
  • Department Of Homeland Security
  • Department Of Veterans Affairs
  • Electronic Mail
  • Governments
  • Homeland Security
  • Information Systems
  • Infrastructure
  • Investments
  • Life Cycles
  • Money
  • National Governments
  • Personnel Management
  • Security
  • Steady State
  • United States Government

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