Watch list of technology projects called ineffective

The watch list of information technology projects maintained by the Office of Management and Budget is not sufficiently used as an evaluation tool, according to government auditors.

Because OMB does not require follow-ups on projects and does not maintain a centralized list of those that are at risk, the Government Accountability Office found that OMB does not know whether the projects on the list are being managed effectively.

The report (GAO-05-276) found that OMB compiles the watch list by polling 12 OMB analysts, each responsible for the IT projects of several agencies.

The 342 projects on the watch list represent about half of the government's 1,087 IT efforts planned for fiscal 2006. In the fiscal 2005 budget, 621 projects totaling $22 billion were on the watch list. Projects are placed on the list when they fail to meet criteria established by OMB.

Follow-ups are at the discretion of the OMB staff responsible for reviewing each agency's budget submission, according to the report, which was released Thursday at a House Government Reform Committee hearing. The watchdog agency said OMB does not know whether the watch-list projects were being managed effectively.

Projects on the OMB watch list included the FBI's Virtual Case File, which failed after millions of dollars were spent developing the technology system for managing case records.

"OMB's follow-up on poorly planned and managed IT projects has been largely driven by its focus on the imperatives of the overall budget process," the report states. "[T]here is an increased risk that remedial actions were incomplete and that billions of dollars were invested in IT projects with planning and management deficiencies."

GAO recommended that OMB develop a central list of the projects and their deficiencies, use the list as a basis for tracking follow-ups, and prioritize the list to develop an assessment of risks and progress.

OMB rejected the idea of compiling a centralized list, saying it was not necessary.

Karen Evans, OMB's administrator for electronic government, told lawmakers Thursday that correcting projects with problems is the responsibility of the agencies.

"I don't see the value of OMB having an aggregate list," she testified. "We don't want to drive behavior where people are just checking off boxes."

Evans said that agencies with projects on the watch list could lose money in the budget process. Five had their budgets cut in the last cycle, she said.

Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., said he wanted the watch list to be used effectively. "We can blame the agencies, but at the end of the day, it stops with OMB," Davis said.

David Powner, GAO's director of information technology management issues, disagreed with Evans, adding that a governmentwide list allows for monitoring and tracking. "Knowing the difference between the 2005 and 2006 lists would be valuable," he said.