**GAO-07-274**                      Published: Feb 23, 2007. Publicly Released: Mar 26, 2007.                  

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## Highlights

In fiscal year 2005, the federal government spent nearly $117 billion on capital investments intended to yield long-term benefits for its operations. Effective capital planning ensures that the sizable investments made by federal agencies result in the most efficient return to taxpayers. Accordingly, GAO evaluated (1) how well selected entities followed the planning phase principles of GAO's Executive Guide and the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Capital Programming Guide, (2) OMB's actions to encourage all agencies to conform with capital planning principles, and (3) what capital planning information is received by or would be useful to congressional decision makers. Based on missions, asset types, and capital spending, we selected three entities to review within the Departments of Energy (DOE) and Homeland Security (DHS).

## Recommendations

## Matter for Congressional Consideration

## Recommendations for Executive Action

See All 9 Recommendations

## Full Report

Highlights

Full Report (66 pages)

Accessible Text 

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## Topics

Budget and Spending

Agency evaluationBudget outlaysBudgetingCongressional oversightCost analysisDecision makingEvaluation criteriaInvestment planningPlanning programming budgetingProcurement planningProjectionsRegulatory agenciesReporting requirementsStrategic planningCapital investment planningProgram implementation