OMB is responsible for working with agencies to ensure investments are  appropriately planned and justified. As  reported to OMB, federal agencies plan to spend more than $82 billion on  IT investments in fiscal year 2014, which is the total expenditure for not  only acquiring such investments, but also to operate and maintain them. Opportunities to Reduce Duplication and Achieve Cost Savings Exist in Critical IT-related Areas

Over the past several years, we have reported that overlap and  fragmentation among government programs or activities could be  harbingers of unnecessary duplication.of duplication, overlap, or fragmentation could potentially save billions of  tax dollars annually and help agencies provide more efficient and  effective services. Many of the government programs or activities with  opportunities to reduce duplication and the cost of government operations  are related to critical IT areas, including the following:   Thus, the reduction or elimination  IT Dashboard. OMB and agencies need to address  potentially duplicative IT investments to avoid investing in  unnecessary systems. The Department of Defense  (Defense) reported the largest number of IT investments (2,383  investments at $37 billion), followed by the Department of Energy  (Energy) (876 investments and $2 billion). In March 2012, OMB launched the PortfolioStat  initiative, which requires agencies to conduct an annual agency-wide  IT portfolio review to, among other things, reduce commodity IT  spending and demonstrate how their IT investments align with the  agency’s mission and business functions. PortfolioStat is designed  to assist agencies in assessing the current maturity of their IT  investment management process, making decisions on eliminating  duplicative investments (such as geospatial information), and moving  to shared solutions (such as cloud computing) in order to maximize  the return on IT investments across the portfolio. OMB believes that the PortfolioStat effort has  the potential to save the government $2.5 billion over the next 3 years  by, for example, consolidating duplicative systems. GAO Has Previously Reported on IT Investment Management at Selected Agencies

During the past few years, we have reported on IT investment  management—an important mechanism for identifying and analyzing  duplicative investments—at key agencies. More recently, in July 2012, we reported that DHS was making progress  in developing and implementing a new IT governance process that  focused on portfolio management and eliminating duplication. PortfolioStat and found that key performance metrics were not yet fully  defined. We also reported that, although OMB had previously stated that  PortfolioStat was expected to result in savings of approximately $2.5  billion through 2015, its March 2013 memorandum did not establish a  new cost savings goal that reflected the integration of the Federal Data  Center Consolidation Initiative. OMB agreed with our  recommendation. In summary, while OMB and agencies have taken steps to improve their  ability to identify and categorize IT investments, duplicative IT  investments still exist at federal agencies. Because these investments  account for billions of dollars in spending, it will be important for OMB and  agencies to implement our prior recommendations to better ensure that  duplicative investments are identified and eliminated. To help agencies better address duplicative IT investments, OMB  established PortfolioStat as a means of assisting agencies with the  assessment of the maturity of their IT investment management processes  and eliminating areas of duplication and waste.
Why GAO Did This Study

With the federal government poised to reportedly spend at least $82 billion on IT in fiscal year 2014, the magnitude of these expenditures highlights the importance of avoiding duplicative investments to ensure the most efficient use of resources. In a series of reports over the last few years, GAO has identified federal programs or functional areas where unnecessary duplication, overlap, or fragmentation exists. In particular, GAO has identified opportunities to reduce duplication and the cost of government operations in critical areas, such as federal data centers and IT investment management.
To help address IT duplication, OMB launched the PortfolioStat initiative. As part of this initiative, agencies are required to conduct an annual review of their IT investments and make decisions on eliminating duplication, among other things.
GAO was asked to testify on the results and recommendations from its selected reports that focused on IT duplication. To prepare this statement, GAO relied on previously published work.

What GAO Found

GAO has identified a number of issues related to information technology (IT) duplication across the federal government. For example, GAO has previously reported that hundreds of investments provide similar functions. Specifically, agencies reported 1,536 information and technology management investments, 777 supply chain management investments, and 622 human resource management investments.
GAO further reported that while the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and federal agencies have undertaken several initiatives to address potentially duplicative IT investments, such as consolidating similar functions through "line of business" initiatives, most of OMB's recent initiatives had not yet demonstrated results. Further, agencies were not routinely assessing operational systems to determine if they were duplicative. GAO recommended that OMB require federal agencies to report the steps they were taking to ensure that their IT investments were not duplicative as part of their annual budget and IT investment submissions. OMB agreed with the recommendation.
In addition, GAO reported on potentially duplicative investments at selected federal agencies. More specifically, although the Departments of Defense and Energy used various investment review processes to identify duplicative investments, GAO found that 37 of its sample of 810 investments were potentially duplicative. These investments accounted for about $1.2 billion in total IT spending for fiscal years 2007 through 2012. For example, GAO identified four Department of the Navy personnel assignment investments--one system for officers, one for enlisted personnel, one for reservists, and a general assignment system--each of which is responsible for managing similar functions. GAO recommended that the agencies report on the progress of efforts to identify and eliminate duplication, where appropriate; the agencies agreed with the recommendations.
In part to address duplicative IT investments, in March 2012 OMB launched PortfolioStat. Specifically, PortfolioStat is designed to assist agencies in assessing the current maturity of their IT portfolio management process, making decisions on eliminating duplication, and moving to shared solutions in order to maximize the return on IT investments across the portfolio. In March 2013, OMB reported that through this effort, agencies had identified and committed to nearly 100 opportunities to consolidate or eliminate commodity IT investments. OMB also believes that PortfolioStat may save the government $2.5 billion by 2015. GAO has ongoing work looking at PortfolioStat, including determining whether agencies are completing key actions.

What GAO Recommends

GAO has issued numerous recommendations to OMB and selected agencies to utilize existing transparency mechanisms and report the steps taken to avoid making duplicative investments.