August 31, 1999

Thompson letter on GPRA - SSA Attachment 2

OPEN GAO RECOMMENDATIONS ON SSA

MAJOR MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS

LONG-STANDING SUPPLEMENTAL SECURITY INCOME ISSUES REQUIRE MORE ACTIVE MANAGEMENT AND OVERSIGHT (NO OPEN RECOMMENDATIONS

OTHER THAN THOSE UNDER SSI HIGH-RISK)

Problem description: Since SSA assumed responsibility in 1974 for the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, SSA officials have been challenged to serve the diverse needs of program recipients while still protecting the program’s overall financial health and integrity. Long-standing challenges—such as program abuses and mismanagement, increasing SSI overpayments, and SSA’s inability to recover outstanding SSI debt—have continued, contributing to recent congressional criticism of SSA’s ability to effectively manage SSI and ensure program integrity. GAO recently reported that SSI difficulties are attributable to two underlying causes: (1) an organizational culture that places greater priority on processing and paying claims than on controlling program expenditures; and (2) a management approach characterized by SSA’s reluctance to fulfill its policy development and planning role in advance of major program crises. Several recommendations dealing with SSI, a component of this management challenge, remain open and are included under the SSI high-risk area. There are no other open recommendations related to this management challenge.

DISABILITY PROGRAMS NEED REDESIGNING AND MORE FOCUS ON RETURN TO WORK

Problem description: SSA’s complex process for determining whether an individual qualifies for a disability benefit—the disability claims process—is plagued by a number of long-standing weaknesses. In reviewing SSA’s efforts to redesign its disability claims process, GAO has found that SSA has been unable to keep its activities on schedule or demonstrate that proposed changes will significantly improve its claims process. In addition, SSA has placed little priority on helping eligible disability program claimants move off the disability rolls and return to work.

GAO Report No. and Date	Recommendation
HEHS-97-28 Nov. 21, 1996	Because the Short Term Disability Plan has shown that it can help reduce the backlog of appealed cases, and if SSA determines that accurate decisions are being made, the Commissioner should extend the plan until SSA institutes a permanent process that ensures the timely and expeditious disposition of appeals.
HEHS-97-102 Aug. 12, 1997	To better ensure that adjudicators review the same record, SSA should increase the number of cases it plans to return to Disability Determination Services when new evidence is submitted on appeal.

HEHS-99-25 Mar. 12, 1999	As SSA proceeds with further exploration and testing of redesign initiatives and considers implementation options, it should further focus resources on those initiatives, such as process unification, quality assurance, and computer support systems, that offer the greatest potential for achieving SSA’s most critical objectives.
HEHS-99-25 Mar. 12, 1999	As SSA proceeds with further exploration and testing of redesign initiatives and considers implementation options, it should test promising concepts at a few sites in an integrated fashion.
HEHS-99-25 Mar. 12, 1999	As SSA proceeds with further exploration and testing of redesign initiatives and considers implementation options, it should establish key supports and explore feasible alternatives before committing significant resources toward testing of specific initiatives, such as the disability claims manager.
HEHS-99-25 Mar. 12, 1999	As SSA proceeds with further exploration and testing of redesign initiatives and considers implementation options, it should develop a comprehensive set of performance goals and measures to assess and monitor changes in the disability claims process.
HEHS-99-25 Mar. 12, 1999	As SSA proceeds further with exploration and testing of redesign initiatives and considers implementation options, it should ensure that quality assurance processes that both monitor and promote the quality of disability decisions are in place.
HEHS-96-133 July 11, 1996	The Commissioner of SSA should develop a comprehensive return-to-work strategy that integrates, as appropriate, earlier intervention, earlier identification, and provision of necessary return-to-work assistance for applicants and beneficiaries, and changes in the structure of cash and medical benefits. The Commissioner should also identify legislative changes needed to implement such a program.
HEHS-96-62 Apr. 24, 1996	The Commissioner of SSA should take immediate action to place a greater priority on return-to-work, including designing more effective means to more accurately identify and expand beneficiaries’ work capacities and better implementing existing return-to-work mechanisms. As part of this effort, the Commissioner should develop a legislative package for those areas in which SSA does not currently have authority to enact change in order to position SSA to expeditiously redirect its emphasis on return-to-work.

NEW TECHNOLOGY REQUIRED TO COPE WITH FUTURE WORKLOAD DEMANDS

Problem description: To cope with increased workload demands—caused, in part, by the forthcoming retirement of the baby boom generation—SSA is counting on its effective use of technology to allow the agency to serve the increasing numbers of applicants and beneficiaries with fewer staff. However, concerns have been raised about the implementation of new computer equipment under the Intelligent Workstation/Local Area Network (IWS/LAN) initiative, which is intended to play a major role in SSA’s redesigned work processes and in better serving a larger beneficiary population. SSA also needs to address deficiencies in its information systems’ internal controls. The SSA fiscal year 1998 financial statement audit noted continuing deficiencies in the design and operation of information systems’ internal controls. These deficiencies raise concerns regarding information protection, continuity of operations, and separation of duties. Specific information protection weaknesses were noted in SSA’s local area network, distributed systems, and mainframe computer security. The audit also noted that SSA remains vulnerable should a near-term disaster occur because of deficiencies in components of its disaster recovery plan and related testing of that plan. In addition, the audit noted instances of insufficient separation of duties, particularly in the data operations and customer service staff position.

Seven open GAO recommendations regarding SSA’s effective use of technology to serve its beneficiaries are discussed in the following table. While there are no open GAO recommendations related to information systems’ internal controls, an audit by an independent public accounting firm (which can be found in the Social Security Accountability Report for fiscal year 1998) identified deficiencies that need to be addressed to ensure appropriate information security. GAO continues to monitor SSA’s progress in addressing its internal control deficiencies as part of GAO’s efforts on the government-wide consolidated financial statement audit.

GAO Report No. and Date	Recommendation
AIMD-94-143 Sept. 19, 1994	The Commissioner of Social Security should better define IWS/LAN requirements by linking the agency’s planning and reengineering efforts to its automation initiatives, including implementing fully functioning pilots to assess the ability of IWS/LAN to support reengineered processes at locations offering the most potential benefits.
AIMD-94-143 Sept. 19, 1994	The Commissioner of Social Security should better define IWS/LAN requirements by linking the agency’s planning and reengineering efforts to its automation initiatives. This includes working closely with states in reassessing systems requirements for state Disability Determination Services to ensure that they support SSA business and service delivery needs and state requirements.
AIMD-94-143 Sept. 19, 1994	The Commissioner of Social Security should estimate and annually report the total cost and benefits of process and systems changes. This should include establishing measurable cost and performance goals that will provide SSA and its oversight bodies with adequate information to assess the reasonableness of SSA goals and progress during testing and implementation of IWS/LAN.
AIMD-98-39 Jan. 28, 1998	To strengthen SSA’s software process improvement program, as part of its recently initiated pilot projects, the Commissioner of Social Security should direct the Deputy Commissioner for Systems to develop and implement plans that explicitly articulate SSA’s strategy and time frames for (1) developing baseline data, (2) identifying specific, measurable goals for its improvement initiative, and (3) monitoring and measuring progress in achieving these goals.
AIMD-98-136 June 19, 1998	To strengthen SSA’s management of its IWS/LAN investment, the Commissioner of Social Security should direct the Deputy Commissioner for Systems to immediately assess the adequacy of workstations specified in the IWS/LAN contract, and based on this assessment, determine (1) the number and capacity of workstations required to support the IWS/LAN initiative, and (2) its impact on the IWS/LAN implementation schedule.
AIMD-98-136 June 19, 1998	To strengthen SSA’s management of its IWS/LAN investment, the Commissioner of Social Security should direct the Deputy Commissioner for Systems to work closely with state Disability Determination Services to promptly identify and resolve network management concerns and establish a strategy for ensuring the compliance of those states relying on IWS/LAN hardware for year 2000 corrections.
AIMD-98-136 June 19, 1998	To strengthen SSA’s management of its IWS/LAN investment, the Commissioner of Social Security should direct the Deputy Commissioner for Systems to establish a formal oversight process for measuring the actual performance of each phase of IWS/LAN, including identifying the impact that each IWS/LAN phase has on mission performance and conducting post-implementation reviews of the IWS/LAN project once it is fully implemented.