OMB's High Risk Program

In 1989 the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in coordination with federal agencies, identified 106 areas in which the government was at high risk for waste, fraud, and abuse. OMB's program to strengthen federal management in these high risk areas has provided top-level government officials with a much needed focus for correcting deficiencies. Further, reporting the status of agency accomplishments in each high risk area in the President's budget will help ensure continued high visibility and attention to correcting existing problems. Although most information presented in the budget appears reasonable and accurate, the progress reported in several areas is misleading or overly optimistic. Furthermore, the budget does not disclose the existence of continuing material weaknesses in some high risk areas deleted from the list. No OMB staff work solely on the program and OMB's Management Integrity Branch, which directs the program's day-to-day operations, often rotates its staff among high risk areas. Because of these staff changes, documenting key events and agreements becomes critical to track and evaluate agency progress in correcting program shortcomings. GAO discovered, however, that records of meetings and agreements with agency officials and OMB evaluation of agency-provided information were often unavailable.

GAO found that: (1) the high-risk program has provided a needed focus and emphasis by top-level officials in executive departments and agencies and within OMB on strengthening the operation of federal programs; (2) reporting the status of agency accomplishments in each high-risk area in the President's budget is a positive step toward high visibility and attention to correcting existing problems; (3) audits show that the progress reported in several areas of the budget is misleading or overly optimistic; (4) OMB reported devoting the equivalent of 3 staff years to the high-risk program, but no staff work solely on the program; and (5) records of meetings and agreements were frequently not available.

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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