Electronic Government
Selection and Implementation of the Office of Management and Budget's 24 Initiatives Gao ID: GAO-03-229 November 22, 2002In the President's Management Agenda, a key element for reforming the federal government is the expansion of electronic government (e-government)--that is, the use of technology, particularly the Internet, to enhance access to government information and services. Accordingly, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) established a task force to select and manage strategic e-government initiatives. GAO was asked to review the completeness of information used for choosing and overseeing these initiatives.
OMB's e-government task force developed abbreviated ("mini") business cases on which to base its selection of initiatives. GAO compared the content of these mini business cases with best practices for the content of e-government business cases. Based on this comparison, all the business cases contained at least some of the key information needed, but many elements were missing. In particular, fewer than half addressed collaboration and customer focus, despite the importance of these topics to OMB's e-government strategy and the President's stated goal: to "champion citizen-centered electronic government that will result in a major improvement in the federal government's value to the citizen." Similarly, the work and funding plans associated with the initiatives all contained at least some key information necessary for OMB oversight. However, based on GAO's analysis, OMB did not have all the information needed to fully monitor the progress and development of the initiatives. For example, only 9 of the initiatives identified a strategy for obtaining needed funds. Also, the accuracy of the estimated costs in the funding plans may be questionable: since May 2002, estimated costs for 12 of the initiatives have changed significantly--by more than 30 percent. Without accurate cost, schedule, and performance information, OMB cannot ensure that its e-government initiatives are on schedule and achieving their goals of providing value to customers and improving government efficiency.
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Director: Team: Phone:GAO-03-229, Electronic Government: Selection and Implementation of the Office of Management and Budget's 24 Initiatives
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Report to the Committee on Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate:
November 2002:
Electronic Government:
Selection and Implementation of the Office of Management and Budget‘s
24 Initiatives:
GAO-03-229:
GAO Highlights:
Highlights of GAO-03-229, a report to the Committee on Governmental
Affairs, U.S. Senate.
Why GAO Did This Study:
In the President‘s Management Agenda, a key element for reforming
the federal government is the expansion of electronic government
(e-government)”that is, the use of technology, particularly the
Internet, to enhance access to government information and services.
Accordingly, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) established
a task force to select and manage strategic e-government initiatives.
GAO was asked to review the completeness of information used for
choosing and overseeing these initiatives.
What GAO Found:
OMB‘s e-government task force developed abbreviated (’mini“) business
cases on which to base its selection of initiatives. GAO compared the
content of these mini business cases with best practices for the
content
of e?government business cases. Based on this comparison, all the
business
cases contained at least some of the key information needed, but
many
elements were missing (see figure). In particular, fewer than half
addressed
collaboration and customer focus, despite the importance of these
topics to
OMB‘s e-government strategy and the President‘s stated goal: to
’champion
citizen-centered electronic government that will result in a major
improvement in the federal government‘s value to the citizen.“:
Similarly, the work and funding plans associated with the
initiatives all
contained at least some key information necessary for OMB oversight.
However,
based on GAO‘s analysis, OMB did not have all the information needed
to fully
monitor the progress and development of the initiatives. For example,
only 9
of the initiatives identified a strategy for obtaining needed funds.
Also,
the accuracy of the estimated costs in the funding plans may be
questionable:
since May 2002, estimated costs for 12 of the initiatives have
changed
significantly”by more than 30 percent. Without accurate cost,
schedule, and
performance information, OMB cannot ensure that its e-government
initiatives
are on schedule and achieving their goals of providing value to
customers and
improving government efficiency.
Highlights Figure: Best Practice Elements Included in Mini
Business Cases:
[See PDF for image]
Note: OMB‘s e-government task force members developed business
cases for 23
and 24 Initiatives.
[End of figure]
What GAO Recommends:
The OMB Director should ensure that the managing partners for
all 24 e-government
initiatives focus on customers by soliciting input from the
public and conducting
user needs assessments, work with partner agencies to develop
and document
effective collaboration strategies, and provide OMB with
adequate information to
monitor the cost, schedule, and performance of the 24 e-government
initiatives.
Contents:
Letter:
Results in Brief:
Recommendations for Executive Action:
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:
Appendix:
Appendix I: Selection and Implementation of the Office of Management
and Budget‘s
24 Initiatives:
Abbreviations:
e-government: electronic government:
G2B: government to business:
G2C: government to individual citizens:
G2G: overnment to government:
IEE: internal efficiency and effectiveness:
IT: information technology:
MP: managing partner:
OMB: Office of Management and Budget:
PMC: President‘s Management Council:
Letter November 22, 2002:
The Honorable Joseph I. Lieberman
Chairman
The Honorable Fred Thompson
Ranking Minority Member
Committee on Governmental Affairs
United States Senate:
The President has identified the expansion of electronic government
(e-government)[Footnote 1] as one of the five priorities of his
management agenda. To support this priority, the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) developed an implementation strategy that identified
24 e-government initiatives. These initiatives are expected to support
the goal of the President‘s management agenda and ultimately provide
improved government services to citizens, businesses, and other levels
of government.
This report responds to your request that we review the information and
documentation related to the selection and implementation of each of
the e-government initiatives identified within OMB‘s e-government
strategy. Our objectives were to (1) describe the completeness of the
business case information used by OMB to make the initial selection of
e-government initiatives and (2) describe the completeness of the work
plans and funding plans submitted to OMB in May 2002 for use in
overseeing implementation of the initiatives. To fulfill our first
objective, we reviewed best practices for preparing information
technology (IT) business cases developed by leading government,
academic, and private sector organizations. We then compared the
initial business cases used in the selection of the 24 initiatives with
these best practices. To fulfill our second objective, we compared the
information in the May 2002 work plans and funding plans with
identified best practices from GAO and OMB guidance on IT project
management and oversight. We conducted our review from June through
September 2002 in accordance with generally accepted government
auditing standards.
While we were able to obtain sufficient information to address the
objectives in this report, OMB declined to provide certain information
we requested. Specifically, OMB officials declined to provide business
cases submitted by agencies in December 2001 and other relevant
information submitted as part of the budget development process,
stating that these documents were never updated by the agencies to
reflect the final information presented in the President‘s fiscal year
2003 budget. The OMB officials agreed to provide us this information as
soon as it is updated after the 2004 budget is released.
On October 8, 2002, we provided a detailed briefing to your office on
the results of our review. The briefing slides[Footnote 2] are included
as appendix I. The purpose of this report is to provide the published
briefing slides to you and to officially transmit our recommendations
to the Director of OMB.
Results in Brief:
The business cases, work plans, and funding plans obtained by OMB all
contained at least some of the key information that we identified as
necessary to select and oversee the initiatives. However, we also
reported that OMB did not collect complete business case information
before making its selection of 24 e-government initiatives.
Specifically, despite the importance that OMB attached to collaboration
and customer focus in its e-government strategy, fewer than half of the
initiatives‘ initial business cases addressed these topics. In
addition,
the May 2002 work and funding plans provided OMB with insufficient
information to monitor the status of its 24 e-government initiatives.
Without addressing these issues, OMB increases the risk that the
initiatives will not meet the President‘s goal of a citizen-centric
electronic government that seeks to enhance the federal government‘s
value to its citizens.
Recommendations for Executive Action:
In order to help ensure the success of the President‘s objective of
expanding electronic government to improve the potential value of
government to citizens, we recommend that the Director of OMB ensure
that the managing partners for all 24 e-government initiatives
(1) focus on customers by soliciting input from the public and
conducting user needs assessments, (2) work with partner agencies to
develop and document effective collaboration strategies, and
(3) provide OMB with adequate information to monitor the cost,
schedule, and performance of the 24
e-government initiatives.
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:
In providing oral comments on a draft of this report, officials of
OMB‘s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and its Office of
General Counsel generally agreed with the facts, conclusions, and
recommendations. These officials emphasized that while OMB leads the
administration‘s overall electronic government effort, federal
agencies are responsible for leading the 24 individual initiatives. OMB
officials also provided technical comments, and we have made changes
where appropriate.
As agreed with your office, unless you publicly announce the contents
of this report earlier, we plan no further distribution until 30 days
from the report date. At that time, we will send copies of this report
to the Director of OMB and other interested congressional committees.
We also will make copies available to others upon request. In addition,
the report will be available at no charge on the GAO Web site at http:/
/www.gao.gov.
Should you have any question on matters contained in this report,
please contact me at (202) 512-6240, or by E-mail at koontzl@gao.gov.
Other key contributors to this report included Barbara Collier, Felipe
Colón, Jr., John de Ferrari, Elizabeth Roach, and Megan Savage.
Signed by Linda D. Koontz:
Linda D. Koontz
Director, Information Management Issues:
[End of section]
Appendixes:
Appendix I: Selection and Implementation of the Office of Management
and
Budget‘s 24 Initiatives:
[See PDF for image]
[End of figure]
FOOTNOTES
[1] E-government refers to the use of technology, particularly Web-
based Internet applications, to enhance the access to and delivery of
government information and services to citizens, business partners,
employees, other agencies, and other entities.
[2] We have amended the briefing as of October 31, 2002, to include
technical corrections and clarifications.
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