Recently, however, DOD has begun an initiative to better manage its technology investments using its planning, programming, and budgeting system. NWS has addressed some of our concerns in these areas, but others remain. To do this, GAO has worked closely with the Congress and the administration to fundamentally revamp and modernize federal information management practices. Both the PRA and the Clinger-Cohen Act incorporate this practice by making agency heads directly responsible for establishing goals for using information technology to improve the effectiveness of agency operations and service to the public, measuring the actual performance and contribution of technology in supporting agency programs, and including with their agencies’ budget submissions to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a report on their progress in meeting operational improvement goals through the use of technology. This major milestone represents the first time that all major government agencies will have exercised the type of financial reporting and control discipline that has been required in the private sector for over 60 years and in state and local governments since the early 1980s. Also, implementing the CFO Act’s blueprint for financial management improvements is at the heart of resolving many of DOD’s high-risk problems. Since 1990, auditors have made over 400 recommendations aimed at helping to correct DOD’s financial management problems. When financial statement audits under the CFO Act are completed, it will be important for the Congress to ensure that agencies promptly and thoroughly correct problems that these audits identify. continuing to build stronger financial management organizations by upgrading skill levels, enhancing training, and ensuring that CFOs possess all the necessary authorities within their agencies to achieve change; devising and applying more effective solutions to address difficult problems plaguing agencies’ underlying financial systems; designing comprehensive accountability reports to permit more thorough and objective assessments of agencies’ performance and financial conditions, as well as to enhance the budget preparation and deliberation process; and implementing complementary legislative requirements, including (1) the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 enacted to expand and strengthen federal agency debt collection practices and authorities and (2) the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996 requiring agencies to comply with new federal accounting standards, federal financial systems requirements, and the U.S. government’s standard general ledger. In crafting GPRA, the Congress built on the experiences of leading states and local governments and other countries that were successfully implementing management reform efforts and becoming more results-oriented. In 1995, progress in addressing five high-risk areas was sufficient to warrant the high-risk designation being removed, including the following. Of these, 5 were designated just last month. Sustained Congressional Oversight and Focused Attention Are Essential

We have also long advocated sustained oversight and attention by the Congress to agencies’ efforts to fix high-risk problem areas and implement broad management reforms. Under the Government Management Reform Act, several agencies are preparing accountability reports on a pilot basis.
Why GAO Did This Study

GAO discussed actions needed to bring about lasting solutions to serious and long-standing federal government management problems.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) its mission is helping the Congress in its efforts to improve management of our national government; (2) one approach has entailed identifying critical management problems before they become uncontrollable crises; (3) since 1990, GAO has produced a list for the Congress of areas that GAO identified, based on its work, as highly vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement; (4) to help solve high risk problems, GAO has made hundreds of recommendations to get at the heart of these problems, which have at their core a fundamental lack of accountability; (5) this list helps focus attention by the administration and the Congress on critical management problems; (6) the high risk designation has prompted agencies to take action in many areas, and progress in addressing management problems has ensued; (7) the need to address fundamental management problems also was a factor in prompting the Congress to to enact important reforms such as the 1995 Paperwork Reduction Act and the 1996 Clinger-Cohen Act to better manage investments in information technology (IT), the Government Management and Reform Act of 1994, which expanded the 1990 Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act's requirement for financial statements and controls that can pass the test of an independent audit, and the 1993 Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) to better measure performance and focus on results; (8) this legislation forms an integrated framework that will help agencies identify and monitor high risk areas and operate programs more efficiently and will assist the Congress in overseeing agencies' efforts to achieve these results; (9) through the set of reforms embodied in the CFO Act, GRPA, and the IT initiatives, the Congress has laid the groundwork for the federal government to use proven best management practices that have been successfully applied in the private sector and state and local governments; and (10) these reforms will not produce lasting improvements, however, without successful implementation by agencies and relentless Congressional involvement.