Justice Automation

GAO provided information about the progress of the Executive Office for U.S. Trustees' and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts' (AOUSC) joint project to develop and implement a legislatively required demonstration automated bankruptcy case management system to: (1) support bankruptcy case processing requirements for both the Trustees and the federal bankruptcy courts; and (2) provide automated access to bankruptcy data for other federal agencies and the public.

GAO found that: (1) the Trustees and AOUSC began to develop individual automated case management systems in 1984, 2 years before Congress passed the legislation; (2) a contractor identified system requirements and evaluated four system design alternatives involving links between the two individual systems, new design and development efforts, and enhancement of the existing system; (3) the contractor did not recommend a preferred alternative, since each met the functional requirements for the demonstration system and each had estimated 5-year costs ranging between $32 million and $34 million; (4) vendors did not respond to the Trustees' November 1988 solicitation for system design, programming, testing, and documentation, since they believed that the contractor who performed the requirements analysis would receive the contract; (5) cost concerns and AOUSC opposition to a single system design resulted in the Trustees' March 1989 decision to facilitate data exchange through extensive modification of its system and enhancement of the AOUSC system, at a total cost of $10 million to $12 million; (6) the Trustees expected to award a contract for system design, enhancements, and conversions in early 1990; and (7) the Trustees and AOUSC planned to develop an agreement regarding costs, tasks, and project milestones.