Efforts of the Department of Labor To Develop a Computer System To Support the Federal Employees' Compensation Act Program

Due to an increasing claims workload, the Employment Standards Administration (ESA) of the Department of Labor has been attempting since 1974 to develop a computer system to administer the Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA) program in its 15 district offices. Although over $6 million has been spent and there have been three separate attempts to develop the system, only 2 of the 28 processing steps have been computerized. The following deficiencies in program implementation were identified: ESA management has not exercised sufficient contracting and procurement monitoring in its automatic data processing contracting activity; ESA management has failed to control and direct the automatic data processing operations effectively; and ESA has not addressed the total development costs of the project. The Secretary of Labor should direct the Assistant Secretary for ESA to place responsibility and authority for the overall direction of the system developmental effort on one person or organizational entity, and a cost-benefit analysis should be conducted. If it is determined that a computer system will be cost beneficial, ESA should: develop an overall plan detailing the direction the project should take; use contracting methods that provide incentives to deliver an acceptable product; and monitor contractor performance closely.