Major Management Challenges and Program Risks

This publication is part of GAO's performance and accountability series which provides a comprehensive assessment of government management, particularly the management challenges and program risks confronting federal agencies. Using a "performance-based management" approach, this landmark set of reports focuses on the results of government programs--how they affect the American taxpayer--rather than on the processes of government. This approach integrates thinking about organization, product and service delivery, use of technology, and human capital practices into every decision about the results that the government hopes to achieve. The series includes an overview volume discussing governmentwide management issues and 20 individual reports on the challenges facing specific cabinet departments and independent agencies. The reports take advantage of the wealth of new information made possible by management reform legislation, including audited financial statements for major federal agencies, mandated by the Chief Financial Officers Act, and strategic and performance plans required by the Government Performance and Results Act. In a companion volume to this series, GAO also updates its high-risk list of government operations and programs that are particularly vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement.

GAO noted that: (1) a reexamination of the organization of the four major land management agencies is needed to streamline their operations and become more efficient; (2) even though Interior is the caretaker for much of the nation's natural and cultural resources, it frequently lacks information on the condition of these resources; (3) as a result, Interior does not know the status of key issues like the nature or extent of many problems relating to the resources it is legislatively mandated to foster, protect, and preserve; the effectiveness of measures taken to deal with the problems; or the areas where the limited financial resources available should be allocated to achieve the most good; (4) decentralization of responsibility, coupled with inadequate guidance and oversight, has resulted in significant differences in how Interior's field offices have implemented both legislative mandates and the administration's goals and objectives; (5) management of the $3 billion Indian trust fund has long been characterized by inadequate accounting and information systems, untrained and inexperienced staff, poor recordkeeping and internal controls, and inadequate written policies and procedures; (6) a half-billion-dollar automated records system now being developed by the Bureau of Land Management is years behind schedule and is estimated to cost more than $100 million over the original estimate; (7) Interior has acknowledged the need to address many of these challenges and, for the most part, has begun to do so; and (8) however, much remains to be done, and it is still too early to determine whether Interior's actions will be effective.