United States General Accounting Office

GAO Accounting and Information

Management Division

August 1995 IRM-RCED Issue Area

Plan

Fiscal Years 1994-96

GAO/IAP-95-17

Foreword

As the investigative arm of Congress and the nation’s auditor, the General

Accounting Office is charged with following the federal dollar wherever it

goes. Reflecting stringent standards of objectivity and independence, GAO’s

audits, evaluations, and investigations promote a more efficient and

cost-effective government; expose fraud, waste, abuse, and

mismanagement in federal programs; help Congress target budget

reductions; assess financial and information management; and alert

Congress to developing trends that may have significant fiscal or

budgetary consequences. In fulfilling its responsibilities, GAO performs

original research and uses hundreds of databases, or creates its own to

compile and analyze information.

To ensure that GAO’s resources are directed toward the most important

issues facing Congress, each of GAO’s 35 issue areas develops a strategic

plan that describes its key issues and their significance, how those issues

influence audit objectives, the focus of its work, and the planned major job

starts. Each issue area relies heavily on input from congressional

committees, agency officials, and subject-matter experts in developing its

strategic plan.

The IRM-RCED issue area covers information resources management of the

key agencies covered by GAO’s Resources, Community, and Economic

Development (RCED) Division—the Departments of Agriculture,

Commerce, Energy, Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Interior, and

Transportation; and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Information resources in the IRM-RCED area support over $160 billion in

annual program expenditures. These information resources are vital to

agencies achieving critical missions ranging from ensuring the safety of

millions of air travelers to overseeing loan portfolios valued at over $1

trillion.

GAO’s IRM-RCED work assists Congress in determining how effectively and

efficiently key agencies use the billions of dollars they invest annually in

information technology. The principal issues in this area are

• acquiring cost-effective Transportation computer andcommunication

systems;

• developing Agriculture computer and communication systems that

support revised business strategies;

• improving the development and operation of National Weather Service

systems;

Page 1 GAO/IAP-95-17
Foreword

• strengthening environmental systems to help recover cleanup costs, help

achieve missions, and reduce potential technological duplications;

• resolving problems with HUD systems supporting high-risk programs; and

• using information technology at Energy to effectively and efficiently

support missions.

In the pages that follow, we describe our objectives and planned work on

these issues.

Because events may affect this plan, GAO’s planning process allows the

flexibility to update the plan and respond quickly to emerging issues. If

you have any questions or suggestions, please call me at (202) 512-6253.

Joel Willemssen

Director, Information Resources Management/Resources,

Community, and Economic Development Issues

Page 2 GAO/IAP-95-17
Contents

Foreword 1

Table I: Key Issues 4

Table II: Planned

Major Work

8

Page 3 GAO/IAP-95-17
Table I: Key Issues

Issue Significance

Transportation: Is the Department of

Transportation effectively acquiring computer

and communications systems, providing

reliable safety data, and using innovative

technologies?

The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Air Traffic Control System Modernization

Program is a $38-billion effort that encompasses almost 200 individual projects. In 1995,

GAO designated this as a high-risk information technology program because it had

experienced past failures, involves complex technology, and is critical to FAA’s mission.

Agriculture: Is the Department of Agriculture

effectively developing computer and

communications systems to support its

revised business strategies?

In its effort to consolidate and streamline operations, Agriculture plans to spend billions

of dollars on information and communications technologies to support new

reengineered business processes. To be successful, it must carefully select enabling

technologies that will serve business needs in the most cost-effective manner possible.

National Weather Service: Are the systems

supporting the National Weather Service’s

$4.5-billion modernization program being

effectively and efficiently managed and

operated?

The National Weather Service is undertaking one of the largest system modernization

programs in the federal government to streamline and improve its aging weather service

capabilities and downsize its organization. In 1995, GAO designated the modernization

as a high-risk information technology program because of its size and use of complex

technologies.

Page 4 GAO/IAP-95-17
Table I: Key Issues

Objectives Focus of work

•Enhance the cost-effectiveness of computer

and communications systems supporting the

$38-billion air traffic control modernization

program.

•Recommend needed enhancements in

safety systems and data.

•Review of high-risk air traffic control modernization program

•Assessment of adequacy of airway safety systems and data

•Identify unnecessary system development

projects and redundant and inefficient

telecommunications services.

•Recommend streamlining of agency

business processes via information

technology.

•Reviews of $2.6-billion Info Share initiative, Agriculture’s management of its

telecommunications networks, and financial systems development efforts

•Assessment of information systems to support revised missions

•Recommend improvements in the

development, operation, and integration of

key system components leading to

strengthened weather forecasting.

•Evaluation of systems architecture needed to guide the Weather Service’s effort

•Review of development and operation of systems such as surface observing systems,

doppler radar, and the advanced weather interactive processing system 

Page 5 GAO/IAP-95-17
Table I: Key Issues

Issue Significance

Environment: Can environmental systems be

strengthened to obtain additional recoverable

costs, help achieve missions, and reduce

potential technological duplications?

With annual environmental compliance costs reaching $115 billion, federal facility

cleanup costs projected at $1 trillion, and environmental issues permeating almost

every facet of our lives, interest in environmental protection programs remains at the

forefront of the public and congressional agendas. To address these issues and carry

out its various environmental missions, EPA needs effective and efficient systems to

provide critical information to decisionmakers.

Housing: Can HUD effectively resolve

problems with the systems supporting its

high-risk programs and reengineer its

business processes?

Information system weaknesses are a major reason why GAO designated HUD a

high-risk agency. To address these and other program problems, HUD has proposed a

major reinvention initiative to consolidate programs and streamline operations. System

improvements are key to successfully transition from a high-risk agency to one that is

efficient and responsive to customers.

Energy: Is Energy effectively using

information technology to support its missions

and providing effective oversight of

contractors’ IRM activities?

The Department of Energy spends about $2 billion annually on information

technology—the third highest among civilian agencies. Concerns are escalating about

whether these expenditures (1) are helping the Department achieve its missions and (2)

may be unnecessarily duplicative among contractors.

Page 6 GAO/IAP-95-17
Table I: Key Issues

Objectives Focus of work

•Enhance the information systems supporting

EPA’s Superfund program to enable the

recovery of additional costs.

•Improve EPA information systems to help

support environmental missions such as

monitoring solid and hazardous waste, and

air quality.

•Recommend reducing duplications in the

federal government’s technological

approaches to collecting environmental data.

•Review of information systems supporting Superfund cost recovery

•Reviews of systems supporting missions such as hazardous and solid waste and air

quality

•Assessment of potential duplication of technology developments supporting

environmental data collection

•Recommend system enhancements

necessary to provide managers with better

information to control high-risk programs.

•Recommend improvements in information

resources management and opportunities to

streamline business processes.

•Reviews of systems supporting HUD’s high-risk programs

•Evaluation of HUD’s management of information resources

•Recommend improvements in information

systems and data so that Energy can more

effectively carry out its missions.

•Strengthen Energy’s oversight of its

contractors’ IRM activities and identify

possible reductions in contractor

expenditures.

•Evaluations of whether information systems are adequately supporting key missions,

such as nuclear tracking

•Reviews of Energy’s oversight of contractor IRM activities

Page 7 GAO/IAP-95-17
Table II: Planned Major Work

Issue Planned major job starts

Transportation —Perform investment portfolio analysis of air traffic

control modernization systems.

—Evaluate FAA’s Standard Terminal Automation

Replacement System.

—Evaluate FAA’s Oceanic Automation System.

—Analyze FAA software acquisition capability.

Agriculture —Analyze Agriculture’s component agencies’

development of financial information systems.

—Evaluate opportunities to achieve

telecommunications savings by extending USDA

approach governmentwide.

—Assess Agriculture’s implementation of its

Modernization of Administrative Processes

Program.

—Evaluate the consolidation and integration of

systems within Agriulture’s new natural resources

and environment mission area.

Weather Service —Assess Commerce restructuring of the

Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System.

—Evaluate operational testing of integrated

weather systems.

Environment —Analyze potential duplication of technology

developments supporting environmental data

collection.

Housing and Urban

Development

—Assess HUD’s efforts to strengthen its IRM

program to support evolving information needs.

Energy —Assess DOE’s oversight of contractors’ IRM

activities and expenditures.

—Evaluate information systems supporting DOE’s

environmental management program.

Other congressional requests —Evaluate the testing of Interior’s Automated Land

Management System.

Page 8 GAO/IAP-95-17
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