Managing the Government

GAO assessed the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) recent and long-term performance in providing leadership and promoting improvements in executive branch management.

GAO found that: (1) the OMB governmentwide management improvement effort, known as Reform 88, has achieved success in some areas, but a lack of sustained direction, poor implementation strategies, and limited integration with the budget process have hindered progress in many other areas; (2) OMB concentration on short-term consequences has resulted in long-term problems; (3) OMB made some improvements in debt and credit management, but complex problems remain and nontax delinquencies rose from $15 billion in fiscal year (FY) 1982 to $32 billion in FY 1988; (4) legislation and OMB efforts have improved the government's financial management systems, but contracting and procurement reform have been unsuccessful; (5) OMB failure to integrate its management and budget operations has limited its ability to provide management leadership; (6) the OMB A-76 program has encountered significant agency resistance, and many agencies did not know whether A-76 was a contracting program or a program to improve efficiency; (7) 75 percent of government procurement executives and 87 percent of industry officials surveyed believed that the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) provided inadequate leadership; and (8) although management improvement progress is most likely when the President and Congress agree on broad reform objectives, OMB has generally opposed management legislation proposed by Congress and has had limited success in generating congressional support for its proposals.

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.

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