These are now the 25 OMB- sponsored initiatives. This structure includes five  portfolios: “government to citizen,” “government to business,”  “government to government,” “internal efficiency and effectiveness,”  and “cross-cutting.” Each of the 25 initiatives is assigned to one of  these portfolios, according to the type of results the initiative is  intended to provide. Its goal is to have 77,000  courses completed and 48 sites developed. OPM Faces Significant Challenges in Implementing Its e-Government Initiatives

OPM’s portfolio of e-gov initiatives represents an ambitious attempt  to transform the way human capital functions and services are  carried out in the federal government. In implementing the  initiatives, OPM faces a number of challenges that, if not fully met,  could erode support for the initiatives or prevent OPM from meeting  its objectives and realizing the improvements and dollar savings that  the agency has projected. One of the criteria for OMB’s selection of its e-government  initiatives was the potential for the project to be completed “within  18–24 months.” In order to meet the demand for quick results,  significant alterations have been made to the acquisition plans for  several initiatives. In its decision to continue with  its awarded contract for Recruitment One-Stop, despite a successful  bid protest by Symplicity Corporation, OPM officials perceived the  need to implement an e-government initiative as quickly as possible  to be one factor outweighing the importance of issues that we raised  concerning the conduct of the procurement. Achieving Governmentwide Consolidation of Common Electronic Functions

Each of OPM’s five initiatives aims to ultimately create a single  system or Web-based service to support a specific human capital  function across the federal government. Effective change management and communication will be critical,  as agencies may be required to take positive action to both to shut  down existing redundant systems and invest in new technology to  connect with OPM’s standardized systems. OPM faces a significant challenge in realistically estimating the  financial savings to be derived from its e-government initiatives. In  many cases, estimated cost savings associated with process  improvements are only loosely based on measures that are  inherently abstract, such as the average cost of performing a certain  function across the government. Cost  savings from eliminating redundant systems is also a factor—though  a smaller one—in savings projected for Recruitment One-Stop and  e-Training. To be truly effective  in meeting the goals set out in OMB’s e-government strategy,  agencies need to establish complete, meaningful, and quantitative  measures of cost savings. Electronic Government: Selection and Implementation of the  Office of Management and Budget’s 24 Initiatives. Federal Rulemaking: Agencies’ Use of Information Technology to  Facilitate Public Participation.
Why GAO Did This Study

Electronic government (e-government) refers to the use of information technology (IT), including Web-based Internet applications, to enhance access to and delivery of government information and services, as well as to improve the internal efficiency and effectiveness of the federal government. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is managing five e-government initiatives whose goal is to transform the way OPM oversees the government's human capital functions. These 5 initiatives are among 25 identified by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as foremost in the drive toward egovernment transformation. The 25 initiatives have ambitious goals, including eliminating redundant, nonintegrated business operations and systems and improving service to citizens by an order of magnitude. Achieving these results, according to OMB, could produce billions of dollars in savings from improved operational efficiency. In today's testimony, among other things, GAO identifies the challenges facing OPM as it moves forward in implementing the five human capital initiatives.

What GAO Found

OPM's five e-government initiatives are an ambitious attempt to transform the way human capital functions and services are carried out in the federal government. OPM faces several challenges that, if not fully met, could prevent it from meeting its objectives and realizing projected improvements and dollar savings. For instance, in order to meet a perceived need for quick results, alterations have been made to the acquisition plans for several of the 25 OMBsponsored e-government initiatives, including OPM's Recruitment One-Stop initiative. In OPM's recent decision to continue with its awarded contract for Recruitment One-Stop, despite a successful bid protest by Symplicity Corporation, agency officials perceived the need for quick results to be one factor outweighing the importance of issues raised by GAO concerning the conduct of the procurement. However, by taking this course, OPM risks alienating potential supporters of its initiative. Further, managing the migration from agency-specific systems to consolidated systems will be a challenge, because agencies may be required to take positive action to shut down existing systems and invest in additional or updated technology to use the new, consolidated systems resulting from OPM's five initiatives. Consequently, it will be crucial for OPM to implement effective change management and communication policies. In addition, technical integration across agencies to support consolidation, including the development of standards, is a formidable task. Finally, OPM also faces a significant challenge in realistically estimating the cost savings to be derived from these initiatives. In many cases, estimates of cost savings are only loosely based on measures that are difficult to quantify, such as the average cost of performing a certain function across the government. To be truly effective in meeting its goals, OPM needs to establish complete, meaningful, and quantitative measures of cost savings.