Air Traffic Control

The Interim Support Plan Does Not Meet FAA's Needs Gao ID: RCED-90-213 September 11, 1990

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO evaluated the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) planning and analysis in support of its Interim Support Plan (ISP), focusing on whether: (1) FAA adequately identified its requirements when developing ISP; and (2) the program was progressing in a manner that reflected its stated urgent nature.

GAO found that: (1) FAA inadequately identified ISP requirements; (2) FAA did not conduct a requirements analysis, as required by federal regulations and its own procedures; (3) FAA considered ISP as urgently needed, but ISP procurement and installation were behind schedule, indicating that FAA set unrealistic procurement and installation schedules; (4) FAA did not complete ISP assessment and approval until over a year after seeking congressional funds; (5) FAA recently concluded that ISP was insufficient and was initiating programs costing at least another $126 million to further expand capacity; and (6) since FAA was about 1 year behind its contracting schedule and about 3 years behind its installation schedule, it will be 1998 before the travelling public can benefit from ISP equipment.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Team: Phone:


The Justia Government Accountability Office site republishes public reports retrieved from the U.S. GAO These reports should not be considered official, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Justia.