Information Technology: Agencies and OMB Need to Continue Implementing Recommendations on Acquisitions, Operations, and Cybersecurity
Released: 2019-12-11T00:00:00

Letter

Background

The federal government plans to invest over $90 billion for IT in fiscal year 2019. Nevertheless, we have previously reported that investments in federal IT too often resulted in failed projects that incurred cost overruns and schedule slippages, while contributing little to the desired mission- related outcomes. For example:

The United States Coast Guard (Coast Guard) decided to terminate its Integrated Health Information System project in 2015. As reported by the agency in August 2017, the Coast Guard spent approximately $60 million over 7 years on this project, which resulted in no equipment or software that could be used for future efforts.

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ Financial and Logistics Integrated Technology Enterprise program was intended to be delivered by 2014 at a total estimated cost of $609 million, but was terminated in October 2011.

The Department of Defense’s Expeditionary Combat Support System was canceled in December 2012 after spending more than a billion dollars and failing to deploy within 5 years of initially obligating funds.

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Secure Border Initiative Network program was ended in January 2011, after the department obligated more than $1 billion for the program.

Our past work has found that these and other failed IT projects often suffered from a lack of disciplined and effective management, such as project planning, requirements definition, and program oversight and governance. In many instances, agencies had not consistently applied best practices that are critical to successfully acquiring IT.

Federal IT projects have also failed due to a lack of oversight and governance. Executive-level governance and oversight across the government has often been ineffective, specifically from CIOs. For example, we have reported that some CIOs’ roles were limited because they did not have the authority to review and approve the entire agency IT portfolio.

In addition to failures when acquiring IT, our cybersecurity work at federal agencies continues to highlight information security deficiencies. The following examples describe the types of risks we have found at federal agencies.

In September 2018, we reported that the Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid exercised minimal oversight of lenders’ protection of student data and lacked assurance that appropriate risk- based safeguards were being effectively implemented, tested, and monitored.

In August 2017, we issued a report stating that, since the 2015 data breaches, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) had taken actions to prevent, mitigate, and respond to data breaches involving sensitive personal and background investigation information. However, we noted that the agency had not fully implemented recommendations that DHS’s United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team made to OPM to help the agency improve its overall security posture and improve its ability to protect its systems and information from security breaches.

We reported in July 2017 that information security at the Internal Revenue Service had weaknesses that limited its effectiveness in protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of financial and sensitive taxpayer data. An underlying reason for these weaknesses was that the Internal Revenue Service had not effectively implemented elements of its information security program.

We reported in August 2016 that the information security of the Food and Drug Administration had significant weaknesses that jeopardized the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of its information systems and industry and public health data.

In May 2016, we found that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, OPM, and the Department of Veteran Affairs did not always control access to selected high-impact systems, patch known software vulnerabilities, or plan for contingencies. An underlying reason for these weaknesses was that the agencies had not fully implemented key elements of their information security programs.

FITARA Increases CIO Authorities and Responsibilities for Managing IT

Congress and the President have enacted various key pieces of reform legislation to address IT management issues. These include the federal IT acquisition reform legislation commonly referred to as the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA). This legislation was intended to improve covered agencies’ acquisitions of IT and enable Congress to monitor agencies’ progress and hold them accountable for reducing duplication and achieving cost savings. The law includes specific requirements related to seven areas:

Agency CIO authority enhancements. CIOs at covered agencies have the authority to, among other things, (1) approve the IT budget requests of their respective agencies and (2) review and approve IT contracts.

Federal data center consolidation initiative (FDCCI). Agencies covered by FITARA are required, among other things, to provide a strategy for consolidating and optimizing their data centers and issue quarterly updates on the progress made.

Enhanced transparency and improved risk management. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and covered agencies are to make detailed information on federal IT investments publicly available, and agency CIOs are to categorize their investments by level of risk.

Portfolio review. Covered agencies are to annually review IT investment portfolios in order to, among other things, increase efficiency and effectiveness and identify potential waste and duplication.

Expansion of training and use of IT acquisition cadres. Covered agencies are to update their acquisition human capital plans to support timely and effective IT acquisitions. In doing so, the law calls for agencies to consider, among other things, establishing IT acquisition cadres (i.e., multi-functional groups of professionals to acquire and manage complex programs), or developing agreements with other agencies that have such cadres.

Government-wide software purchasing program. The General Services Administration is to develop a strategic sourcing initiative to enhance government-wide acquisition and management of software. In doing so, the law requires that, to the maximum extent practicable, the General Services Administration should allow for the purchase of a software license agreement that is available for use by all executive branch agencies as a single user.

Maximizing the benefit of the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative.

Federal agencies are required to compare their purchases of services and supplies to what is offered under the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative.

In June 2015, OMB released guidance describing how agencies are to implement FITARA. This guidance was intended to, among other things: assist agencies in aligning their IT resources with statutory requirements; establish government-wide IT management controls to meet the law’s requirements, while providing agencies with flexibility to adapt to unique agency processes and requirements; strengthen the relationship between agency CIOs and bureau CIOs; and strengthen CIO accountability for IT costs, schedules, performance, and security.

The guidance identifies a number of actions that agencies are to take to establish a basic set of roles and responsibilities (referred to as the common baseline) for CIOs and other senior agency officials and, thus, to implement the authorities described in the law. For example, agencies are to conduct a self-assessment and submit a plan describing the changes they intend to make to ensure that common baseline responsibilities are implemented.

In addition, in August 2016, OMB released guidance intended to, among other things, define a framework for achieving the data center consolidation and optimization requirements of FITARA. The guidance directed agencies to develop a data center consolidation and optimization strategic plan that defined the agency’s data center strategy for fiscal years 2016, 2017, and 2018. This strategy was to include, among other things, a statement from the agency CIO indicating whether the agency had complied with all data center reporting requirements in FITARA. Further, the guidance states that OMB is to maintain a public dashboard to display consolidation-related costs savings and optimization performance information for the agencies.

In June 2019, OMB issued Memorandum M-19-19, which updated the data center optimization initiative and redefined a data center as a purpose-built, physically separate, dedicated space that meets certain criteria. It also revised the priorities for consolidating and optimizing federal data centers. Specifically, OMB directed agencies to report on spaces designed to be data centers (i.e., tiered data centers) as part of their inventories and to focus efforts on data centers that host business applications, rather than special purpose data centers. According to OMB’s August 2019 quarterly reporting instructions, non-tiered data centers may be flagged for removal in one reporting period and removed in the next unless OMB provides a written denial within a specified time frame.

In addition, OMB described criteria for designating certain data centers as mission critical facilities, and would therefore not be taken into consideration when setting new agency-specific closure targets. Those mission critical designations are also assumed to be granted unless OMB specifically overturns them. Regarding cost savings, OMB’s new memorandum, M-19-19, noted that agency-specific targets would be set in collaboration with each agency and appropriately aligned to that agency’s mission and budget.

OMB’s new memorandum also replaced the previous optimization metrics with new measures that focus on reporting the numbers of agencies’ virtualized hosts, underutilized servers, data centers with advanced energy metering, and the percentage of time that data centers were expected to be available to provide services. In contrast to the previous guidance, the new memorandum does not specify government-wide performance targets for the optimization metrics. Instead, OMB worked with agencies to establish agency-specific targets. In addition, the guidance describes how agencies could apply for an optimization performance exemption for data centers where typical optimization activities (consolidation of data collection, storage, and processing to a central location) are technically possible but increase the response time for systems beyond a reasonable limit.

Congress Has Undertaken Efforts to Continue Selected FITARA Provisions and Modernize Federal IT

Congress has recognized the importance of agencies’ continued implementation of FITARA provisions, and has taken legislative action to extend selected provisions beyond their original dates of expiration. Specifically, Congress and the President enacted laws to: remove the expiration dates for the enhanced transparency and improved risk management provisions, which were set to expire in 2019; remove the expiration date for portfolio review, which was set to expire in 2019; and extend the expiration date for FDCCI from 2018 to 2020.

In addition, Congress and the President enacted a law to authorize the availability of funding mechanisms to help further agencies’ efforts to modernize IT. The law, known as the Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act, authorizes agencies to establish working capital funds for use in transitioning away from legacy IT systems, as well as for addressing evolving threats to information security. The law also creates the Technology Modernization Fund within the Department of the Treasury, from which agencies can “borrow” money to retire and replace legacy systems, as well as to acquire or develop systems.

Further, in February 2018, OMB issued guidance for agencies on implementing the MGT Act. The guidance was intended to provide agencies additional information regarding the Technology Modernization Fund, as well as the administration and funding of the related IT working capital funds. Specifically, the guidance encouraged agencies to begin submitting initial project proposals for modernization on February 27, 2018. In addition, in accordance with the MGT Act, the guidance provided details regarding a Technology Modernization Board, which is to consist of (1) the Federal CIO; (2) a senior IT official from the General Services Administration; (3) a member of DHS’s National Protection and Program Directorate; and (4) four federal employees with technical expertise in IT development, financial management, cybersecurity and privacy, and acquisition that were appointed by the Director of OMB.

FISMA Establishes Responsibilities for Agencies to Address Federal Cybersecurity

Congress and the President enacted the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA) to improve federal cybersecurity and clarify government-wide responsibilities. The act highlights the increasing sophistication of cybersecurity attacks, promotes the use of automated security tools with the ability to continuously monitor and diagnose the security posture of federal agencies, and provides for improved oversight of federal agencies’ information security programs. To this end, the act clarifies and assigns specific responsibilities to entities such as OMB, DHS, and the federal agencies. Table 1 describes a selection of the OMB, DHS, and agency responsibilities.

The Administration Has Undertaken Efforts to Improve and Modernize Federal IT and Strengthen Cybersecurity

Beyond the implementation of FITARA, FISMA, and related actions, the administration has also initiated other efforts intended to improve federal IT and the nation’s cybersecurity. Specifically, in March 2017, the administration established the Office of American Innovation, which has a mission to, among other things, make recommendations to the President on policies and plans aimed at improving federal government operations and services. In doing so, the office is to consult with both OMB and the Office of Science and Technology Policy on policies and plans intended to improve government operations and services, improve the quality of life for Americans, and spur job creation.

In May 2017, the Administration also established the American Technology Council, which has a goal of helping to transform and modernize federal agency IT and how the federal government uses and delivers digital services. The President is the chairman of this council, and the Federal CIO and the United States Digital Service Administrator are among the members.

In addition, in May 2017, the President signed Executive Order 13800, Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure. This executive order outlined actions to enhance cybersecurity across federal agencies and critical infrastructure to improve the nation’s cyber posture and capabilities against cybersecurity threats. Among other things, the order tasked the Director of the American Technology Council to coordinate a report to the President from the Secretary of DHS, the Director of OMB, and the Administrator of the General Services Administration, in consultation with the Secretary of Commerce, regarding the modernization of federal IT.

In response, the Report to the President on Federal IT Modernization was issued in December 2017 and outlined the current and envisioned state of federal IT. The report focused on modernization efforts to improve the security posture of federal IT. Further, it recognized that agencies have attempted to modernize systems but have been stymied by a variety of factors, including resource prioritization, ability to procure services quickly, and technical issues. The report provided multiple recommendations intended to address these issues through the modernization and consolidation of networks and the use of shared services to enable future network architectures.

Further, in March 2018, the Administration issued the President’s Management Agenda, which laid out a long-term vision for modernizing the federal government. The agenda identified three related drivers of transformation—IT modernization; data, accountability, and transparency; and the workforce of the future—that are intended to push change across the federal government.

The Administration also established 14 related Cross-Agency Priority goals, many of which have elements that involve IT. In particular, the Cross-Agency Priority goal on IT modernization stated that modern IT must function as the backbone of how government serves the public in the digital age. This goal established three priorities that are to guide the Administration’s efforts to modernize federal IT: (1) enhancing mission effectiveness by improving the quality and efficiency of critical services, including the increased utilization of cloud-based solutions; (2) reducing cybersecurity risks to the federal mission by leveraging current commercial capabilities and implementing cutting edge cybersecurity capabilities; and (3) building a modern IT workforce by recruiting, reskilling, and retaining professionals able to help drive modernization with up-to-date technology.

On May 15, 2018, the President signed Executive Order 13833: Enhancing the Effectiveness of Agency Chief Information Officers. Among other things, this executive order was intended to better position agencies to modernize their IT systems, execute IT programs more efficiently, and reduce cybersecurity risks. The order pertains to 22 of the 24 Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act agencies; the Department of Defense and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are exempt.

For the covered agencies, the executive order strengthened the role of agency CIOs by, among other things, requiring them to report directly to their agency head; serve as their agency head’s primary IT strategic advisor; and have a significant role in all management, governance, and oversight processes related to IT. In addition, one of the cybersecurity requirements directed agencies to ensure that the CIO works closely with an integrated team of senior executives, including those with expertise in IT, security, and privacy, to implement appropriate risk management measures.

Agencies Need to Address the IT Acquisitions and Operations High-Risk Area

In the March 2019 update to our high-risk series, we reported that agencies still needed to complete significant work related to the management of IT acquisitions and operations. As government-wide spending on IT increases every year, the need for appropriate stewardship of that investment increases as well. However, we pointed out that OMB and federal agencies have not made significant progress since 2017 in taking the steps needed to improve how these financial resources are budgeted and realized. To address this issue, we highlighted the need for OMB and federal agencies to further implement the requirements of federal IT acquisition reforms, including the enhancement of CIO authority.

Our update to the IT acquisitions and operations high-risk area also stressed that OMB and agencies needed to continue to implement our prior recommendations in order to improve their ability to effectively and efficiently invest in IT. Specifically, since fiscal year 2010, we have made 1,320 recommendations and one matter for Congressional consideration to address shortcomings in IT acquisitions and operations.

As stated in our 2019 high-risk update, OMB and agencies should demonstrate government-wide progress by, among other things, implementing at least 80 percent of our recommendations related to managing IT acquisitions and operations. As of November 2019, OMB and agencies had fully implemented 807 (or 61 percent) of their 1,320 recommendations. In addition, the matter for Congressional consideration had also been implemented. Figure 1 summarizes the progress that OMB and agencies have made in addressing our recommendations compared to the 80 percent target.

Overall, federal agencies would be better positioned to realize billions in cost savings and additional management improvements if they address these recommendations, including those aimed at implementing CIO responsibilities, reviewing IT acquisitions, improving data center consolidation, and managing software licenses.

Agencies Need to Address Shortcomings and Challenges in Implementing CIO Responsibilities

In all, various laws, such as FITARA and related guidance, assign 35 IT management responsibilities to CIOs in six key areas. These areas are: leadership and accountability, budgeting, information security, investment management, workforce, and strategic planning.

In August 2018, we reported that none of the 24 agencies we reviewed had policies that fully addressed the role of their CIO, as called for by federal laws and guidance. In this regard, a majority of the agencies had fully or substantially addressed the role of their CIOs for the area of leadership and accountability. In addition, a majority of the agencies had substantially or partially addressed the role of their CIOs for two areas: information security and IT budgeting.

However, most agencies had partially or minimally addressed the role of their CIOs for two areas: investment management and strategic planning. Further, the majority of the agencies minimally addressed or did not address the role of their CIOs for the remaining area: IT workforce. Figure 2 depicts the extent to which the 24 agencies had policies that addressed the role of their CIOs for the six areas.

Notwithstanding the shortfalls in agencies’ policies addressing the roles of their CIOs, most agency officials stated that their CIOs are implementing the responsibilities even if the agencies do not have policies requiring implementation.

Nevertheless, in their responses to our survey, the CIOs of the 24 selected agencies acknowledged that they were not always very effective in implementing the six IT management areas. Specifically, at least 10 of the CIOs indicated that they were less than very effective for each of the six areas of responsibility. We believe that until agencies fully address the role of CIOs in their policies, they will be limited in addressing longstanding IT management challenges.

Figure 3 depicts the extent to which the CIOs reported their effectiveness in implementing the six areas of responsibility.

Beyond the actions of the agencies, however, shortcomings in agencies’ policies were also partially attributable to two weaknesses in OMB’s guidance. First, the guidance did not comprehensively address all CIO responsibilities, such as those related to assessing the extent to which personnel meet IT management knowledge and skill requirements and ensuring that personnel are held accountable for complying with the information security program. Correspondingly, the majority of the agencies’ policies did not fully address nearly all of the responsibilities that were not included in OMB’s guidance.

Second, OMB’s guidance did not ensure that CIOs had a significant role in (1) IT planning, programming, and budgeting decisions; and (2) execution decisions and the management, governance, and oversight processes related to IT, as required by federal law and guidance. In the absence of comprehensive guidance, CIOs would not be positioned to effectively acquire, maintain, and secure their IT systems.

In response to the survey conducted for our August 2018 report, the 24 agency CIOs also identified a number of factors that enabled and challenged their ability to effectively manage IT. Specifically, most agency CIOs cited five factors as being enablers to effectively carrying out their responsibilities: (1) NIST guidance, (2) the CIO’s position within the agency hierarchy, (3) OMB guidance, (4) coordination with the Chief Acquisition Officer (CAO), and (5) legal authority. Further, the CIOs cited three factors as major challenges to their ability to effectively carry out responsibilities: (1) processes for hiring, recruiting, and retaining IT personnel; (2) financial resources; and (3) the availability of personnel/staff resources.

As shown in figure 4, the five enabling factors were identified by at least half of the 24 CIOs and the three factors cited as major challenges were identified by at least half of the CIOs.

Although OMB issued guidance aimed at addressing the three factors identified by a majority of the CIOs as major challenges, the guidance did not fully do so. Further, regarding the financial resources challenge, OMB recently required agencies to provide data on CIO authority over IT spending; however, its guidance did not provide a complete definition of that authority. In the absence of such guidance, agencies created varying definitions of CIO authority. Until OMB updates its guidance to include a complete definition of the authority that CIOs are to have over IT spending, it will be difficult for OMB to identify any deficiencies in this area and to help agencies make any needed improvements.

In order to address challenges in implementing CIO responsibilities, we made three recommendations to OMB and one recommendation to each of the selected 24 federal agencies for each of the six IT management areas. Most agencies agreed with or had no comments on the recommendations. However, as of November 2019, none of the 27 recommendations had been implemented. We will continue to monitor the implementation of these recommendations.

Agencies Need to Ensure That IT Acquisitions Are Reviewed and Approved by CIOs

FITARA includes a provision to enhance covered agency CIOs’ authority through, among other things, requiring agency heads to ensure that CIOs review and approve IT contracts. OMB’s FITARA implementation guidance expanded upon this aspect of the legislation in a number of ways. Specifically, according to the guidance:

CIOs may review and approve IT acquisition strategies and plans, rather than individual IT contracts;

CIOs can designate other agency officials to act as their representatives, but the CIOs must retain accountability;

CAOs are responsible for ensuring that all IT contract actions are consistent with CIO-approved acquisition strategies and plans; and

CAOs are to indicate to the CIOs when acquisition strategies and acquisition plans include IT.

In January 2018, we reported that most of the CIOs at 22 selected agencies were not adequately involved in reviewing billions of dollars of IT acquisitions. For instance, most of the 22 agencies did not identify all of their IT contracts. In this regard, the agencies identified 78,249 IT- related contracts, to which they obligated $14.7 billion in fiscal year 2016. However, we identified 31,493 additional IT contracts with combined obligations totaling $4.5 billion, raising the total amount obligated to IT contracts by these agencies in fiscal year 2016 to at least $19.2 billion.

Figure 5 reflects the obligations that the 22 selected agencies reported to us relative to the obligations we identified.

The percentage of additional IT contract obligations we identified varied among the selected agencies. For example, the Department of State did not identify 1 percent of its IT contract obligations. Conversely, eight agencies did not identify over 40 percent of their IT contract obligations.

Many of the selected agencies that did not identify these IT contract obligations also did not follow OMB guidance. Specifically, 14 of the 22 agencies did not involve the acquisition office in their process to identify IT acquisitions for CIO review, as required by OMB. In addition, seven agencies did not establish guidance to aid officials in recognizing IT. We concluded that, until these agencies involve the acquisition office in their IT acquisition identification processes and establish supporting guidance, they cannot ensure that they will identify all such acquisitions. Without proper identification of IT acquisitions, these agencies and their CIOs cannot effectively provide oversight of the acquisitions.

In addition to not identifying all IT contracts, 14 of the 22 selected agencies did not fully satisfy OMB’s requirement that the CIO review and approve IT acquisition plans or strategies. Further, only 11 of 96 randomly selected IT contracts at 10 of the 22 agencies were CIO-reviewed and approved as required by OMB’s guidance. The 85 contracts that were not reviewed had a total possible value of approximately $23.8 billion.

Until agencies ensure that CIOs are able to review and approve all IT acquisitions, CIOs will continue to have limited visibility and input into their agencies’ planned IT expenditures and will not be able to effectively use the increased authority that FITARA’s contract approval provision is intended to provide. Further, agencies will likely miss an opportunity to strengthen their CIOs’ authority and the oversight of acquisitions. As a result, agencies may award IT contracts that are duplicative, wasteful, or poorly conceived.

As a result of these findings, we made 39 recommendations in our January 2018 report. Among these, we recommended that agencies ensure that their acquisition offices are involved in identifying IT acquisitions and issuing related guidance, and that IT acquisitions are reviewed in accordance with OMB guidance. OMB and the majority of the agencies generally agreed with or did not comment on the recommendations. As of November 2019, 23 of the 39 recommendations had been implemented. We will continue to monitor the implementation of the remaining recommendations.

Agencies Have Made Significant Progress in Consolidating Data Centers, but Need to Take Action to Achieve Planned Cost Savings

Data center consolidation efforts are key to implementing FITARA. Specifically, OMB established the FDCCI in February 2010 to improve the efficiency, performance, and environmental footprint of federal data center activities. The enactment of FITARA in 2014 codified and expanded the initiative.

In addition, OMB’s August 2016 memorandum that established the Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) included guidance on how to implement the data center consolidation and optimization provisions of FITARA. Among other things, the guidance required agencies to consolidate inefficient infrastructure, optimize existing facilities, improve their security posture, and achieve cost savings.

According to the 24 agencies covered by the initiative, data center consolidation and optimization efforts had resulted in approximately $4.7 billion in cost savings through August 2018. Even so, additional work remains to fully carry out the initiative. Specifically, in a series of reports that we issued from July 2011 through April 2019, we noted that, while data center consolidation could potentially save the federal government billions of dollars, weaknesses existed in several areas, including agencies’ data center consolidation plans, data center optimization, and OMB’s tracking and reporting on related cost savings.

In April 2019, we reported that agencies continued to report mixed progress toward achieving OMB’s goals for closing data centers and realizing the associated savings by September 2018. Specifically, as of August 2018, over half of the agencies reported that they had met, or planned to meet, all of their OMB-assigned closure goals for tiered data centers by the deadline. Six agencies reported that they did not plan to meet their goals for tiered data centers. In addition, as of August 2018, 11 agencies reported that they had already met the goal for closing 60 percent of their non-tiered centers, three agencies reported that they planned to meet the goal by the end of fiscal year 2018, and nine agencies reported that they did not plan to meet the goal by the end of fiscal year 2018.

In all, the 24 agencies reported a total of 6,250 data center closures as of August 2018, which represented about half of the total reported number of federal data centers. In addition, the agencies reported 1,009 planned closures by the end of fiscal year 2018, with an additional 191 closures planned through fiscal year 2023, for a total of 1,200 further closures.

Further, in August 2018, 22 agencies reported that they had achieved $1.94 billion in cost savings for fiscal years 2016 through 2018, while two agencies reported that they had not achieved any savings. In addition to that amount, 21 agencies identified an additional $0.42 billion in planned savings through fiscal year 2018—for a total of $2.36 billion in planned cost savings from fiscal years 2016 through 2018. Nevertheless, this total is about $0.37 billion less than OMB’s goal of $2.7 billion for overall DCOI savings.

From July 2011 through April 2019, we made a total of 196 recommendations to OMB and 24 agencies to improve the execution and oversight of the initiative. Most agencies and OMB agreed with our recommendations or had no comments. As of November 2019, 121 of these 196 recommendations had been implemented.

We also have ongoing work to review and verify the quality and completeness of federal data center inventories and strategies for consolidation submitted by the agencies covered by the law. We expect to issue the report related to this work in early 2020.

Agencies Have Improved Management of Software Licenses

In our 2015 high-risk report’s discussion of IT acquisitions and operations, we identified the management of software licenses as a focus area, in part because of the potential for cost savings. Federal agencies engage in thousands of software licensing agreements annually. The objective of software license management is to manage, control, and protect an organization’s software assets. Effective management of these licenses can help avoid purchasing too many licenses, which can result in unused software, as well as too few licenses, which can result in noncompliance with license terms and cause the imposition of additional fees.

As part of its PortfolioStat initiative, OMB has developed a policy that addresses software licenses. This policy requires agencies to conduct an annual, agency-wide IT portfolio review to, among other things, reduce commodity IT spending. Such areas of spending could include software licenses.

In May 2014, we reported on federal agencies’ management of software licenses and determined that better management was needed to achieve significant savings government-wide. Of the 24 selected agencies we reviewed, only two had comprehensive policies that included the establishment of clear roles and central oversight authority for managing enterprise software license agreements, among other things. Of the remaining 22 agencies, 18 had policies that were not comprehensive, and four had not developed any policies.

Further, we found that only two of the 24 selected agencies had established comprehensive software license inventories, a leading practice that would help them to adequately manage their software licenses. The inadequate implementation of this and other leading practices in software license management was partially due to weaknesses in agencies’ policies. As a result, we concluded that agencies’ oversight of software license spending was limited or lacking, thus, potentially leading to missed savings. However, the potential savings could be significant considering that, in fiscal year 2012, one major federal agency reported saving approximately $181 million by consolidating its enterprise license agreements, even when its oversight process was ad hoc.

Accordingly, we recommended that OMB issue a directive to help guide agencies in managing software licenses. We also made 135 recommendations to the 24 agencies to improve their policies and practices for managing licenses. Among other things, we recommended that the agencies (1) regularly track and maintain a comprehensive inventory of software licenses and (2) analyze the inventory to identify opportunities to reduce costs and better inform investment decision making.

Most agencies generally agreed with the recommendations or had no comments. As of November 2019, all but 19 of the 135 recommendations had been implemented. In particular, for our recommendations on maintaining and analyzing a comprehensive inventory of software licenses, agencies had fully implemented 42 out of 48 recommendations. Table 2 reflects the extent to which the 24 agencies implemented the recommendations in these two areas.

Agencies Need to Address Shortcomings in Cybersecurity Area

Safeguarding federal computer systems has been a longstanding concern. This year marks the 22nd anniversary of GAO’s first designation of information security as a government-wide high-risk area in 1997. We expanded this high-risk area to include safeguarding the systems supporting our nation’s critical infrastructure in 2003, protecting the privacy of personally identifiable information in 2015, and establishing a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy and performing effective oversight in 2018. Most recently, we identified federal information security as a government-wide high-risk area in our March 2019 high-risk update.

As we have previously noted, in order to strengthen the federal government’s cybersecurity posture, agencies should fully implement the information security programs required by FISMA. In this regard, FISMA provides a framework for ensuring the effectiveness of information security controls for federal information resources. The law requires each agency to develop, document, and implement an agency-wide information security program. Such a program should include risk assessments; the development and implementation of policies and procedures to cost- effectively reduce risks; plans for providing adequate information security for networks, facilities, and systems; security awareness and specialized training; the testing and evaluation of the effectiveness of controls; the planning, implementation, evaluation, and documentation of remedial actions to address information security deficiencies; procedures for detecting, reporting, and responding to security incidents; and plans and procedures to ensure continuity of operations.

Since fiscal year 2010, we have made 3,323 recommendations to agencies aimed at addressing the four cybersecurity challenges. These recommendations have identified actions for agencies to take to strengthen technical security controls over their computer networks and systems. They also have included recommendations for agencies to fully implement aspects of their information security programs, as mandated by FISMA. Nevertheless, many agencies continue to be challenged in safeguarding their information systems and information, in part, because many of these recommendations have not been implemented. Of the 3,323 recommendations made since 2010, 2,511 (or 76 percent) had been implemented as of November 2019, leaving 812 recommendations (or 24 percent) not implemented.

Agencies’ Inspectors General Are to Identify Information Security Program Weaknesses

In order to determine the effectiveness of the agencies’ information security programs and practices, FISMA requires federal agencies’ inspectors general to conduct annual independent evaluations. The agencies are to report the results of these evaluations to OMB, and OMB is to summarize the results in annual reports to Congress.

In these evaluations, the inspectors general are to frame the scope of their analyses, identify key findings, and detail recommendations to address the findings. The evaluations also are to capture maturity model ratings for their respective agencies. Toward this end, in fiscal year 2017, the inspector general community, in partnership with OMB and DHS, finalized a 3-year effort to create a maturity model for FISMA metrics. The maturity model aligns with the five function areas in the NIST Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity (Cybersecurity Framework): identify, protect, detect, respond, and recover. This alignment is intended to help promote consistent and comparable metrics and criteria and provide agencies with a meaningful independent assessment of their information security programs.

The maturity model is designed to summarize the status of agencies’ information security programs on a five-level capability maturity scale. The five maturity levels are defined as follows:

Level 1 (Ad hoc): Policies, procedures, and strategy are not formalized; activities are performed in an ad-hoc, reactive manner.

Level 2 (Defined): Policies, procedures, and strategy are formalized and documented but not consistently implemented.

Level 3 (Consistently Implemented): Policies, procedures, and strategy are consistently implemented, but quantitative and qualitative effectiveness measures are lacking.

Level 4 (Managed and Measurable): Quantitative and qualitative measures on the effectiveness of policies, procedures, and strategy are collected across the organizations and used to assess them and make necessary changes.

Level 5 (Optimized): Policies, procedures, and strategy are fully institutionalized, repeatable, self-generating, consistently implemented and regularly updated based on a changing threat and technology landscape and business/mission needs.

According to this maturity model, Level 4 (managed and measurable) represents an effective level of security. Therefore, if an inspector general rates an agency’s information security program at Level 4 or Level 5, then that agency is considered to have an effective information security program.

For fiscal year 2018, most of the 23 civilian CFO Act agencies’ inspectors general reported that their agencies were at Level 2 (defined) for the detect function; Level 3 (consistently implemented) for the identify, protect, and recover functions; and at Level 4 (managed and measurable) for the respond function. Table 3 shows the individual maturity ratings for each covered agency.

OMB Requires Agencies to Meet Targets for Cybersecurity Metrics

In its efforts toward strengthening the federal government’s cybersecurity, OMB also requires agencies to submit related cybersecurity metrics as part of its Cross-Agency Priority goals. In particular, OMB developed a goal so that federal agencies will be able to build and maintain more modern, secure, and resilient IT. A key part of this goal is to reduce cybersecurity risks to the federal mission through three strategies: manage asset security, protect networks and data, and limit personnel access. The key targets supporting each of these strategies correspond to areas within the FISMA metrics. Table 4 outlines the strategies, their associated targets, and the 23 civilian CFO Act agencies’ progress in meeting those targets, as of June 2019.

In conclusion, by addressing the high-risk areas on improving the management of IT acquisitions and operations and ensuring the cybersecurity of the nation, the government has the opportunity to both save billions of dollars and advance the efficiency and effectiveness of government services. Most agencies have taken steps to execute key IT management and cybersecurity requirements and initiatives, including implementing CIO responsibilities, requiring CIO reviews of IT acquisitions, realizing data center consolidation cost savings, managing software assets, and complying with FISMA requirements. The agencies have also continued to address the recommendations that we have made over the past several years. Nevertheless, further efforts by OMB and federal agencies to implement our previous recommendations would better position them to improve the management and security of federal IT. To help ensure that these efforts succeed, we will continue to monitor agencies’ efforts toward implementing the recommendations.

Chairman Connolly, Ranking Member Meadows, and Members of the Subcommittee, this completes my prepared statement. I would be pleased to respond to any questions that you may have.

GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments

If you or your staff have any questions about this testimony, please contact Carol C. Harris, Director of Information Technology Acquisition Management Issues, at (202) 512-4456 or harriscc@gao.gov. Contact points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last page of this statement. GAO staff who made key contributions to this testimony are Kevin Walsh (Assistant Director), Jessica Waselkow (Assistant Director), Chris Businsky, and Rebecca Eyler.

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