ADP Procurements
GSA Needs to Improve Its Review Process to Enhance Its ADP Oversight Gao ID: IMTEC-92-7 October 28, 1991The General Services Administration (GSA) could do a better job in overseeing agencies' automated data processing procurements. While GSA has taken some positive steps, agency actions still result in poorly designed, poorly managed procurements. GSA's management of its procurement review process is not well focused, with staffing problems and poor internal procedures limiting GSA's effectiveness in reducing acquisition risks. In addition, GSA's procurement and management reviews, which can help agencies develop good information resources management processes and procedures, are limited in number and scope. The agency is considering ways to improve its oversight; however, it has not done the analysis necessary to determine what changes are necessary.
GAO found that: (1) federal agencies spend over $6 billion annually to acquire the essential hardware and software that comprises over 50,000 federal computer systems; (2) although GSA has taken some positive steps to effectively discharge its governmentwide ADP oversight activities, its actions still result in poorly designed, poorly managed procurements; (3) staff instability, an increasing work load, and inadequate recordkeeping and office procedures have limited GSA ability to properly review agency procurement requests (APR); (4) the information reported under the Federal Information Resources Management (IRM) Review Program is not useful because it is incomplete and GSA does not validate whether the information is accurate; and (5) GSA is considering ways to improve its oversight activities, but has not performed the analysis necessary to determine what changes are needed.
RecommendationsOur 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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