OMB enhances investment tracking tool, but criticisms linger

The Office of Management and Budget announced on Thursday updates to its tool for monitoring federal information technology investments, but at least one lawmaker said the application still fails to provide crucial information about troubled projects.

Enhancements to the original Visualization for Understanding Expenditures in Information Technology, or VUE-IT site, launched in October, include the ability to export data using a text format and the addition of more channels for user feedback. The site was created to help lawmakers and other interested parties, including private citizens, follow federal IT spending.

The latest version also shows projects on OMB's high-risk list of prominent investments that have the potential to hinder agency operations if problems arise. VUE-IT notes if those projects have a clear baseline and if they have strayed more than 10 percent from that mark, but it does not explain if that deviation is due to cost, schedule or performance issues.

Lawmakers in recent months have repeatedly requested more information on why projects are included on the high-risk list, as well as OMB's management watch list of initiatives that have failed to meet standards. "That's been a big request," said Karen Evans, administrator of the Office of Electronic Government and Information Technology at OMB.

"VUE-IT is a good step toward more transparency and accountability in government," said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del. "That's why I sent a letter to OMB commending them for their work. However, it's unfortunate that OMB still won't provide the American taxpayers with all the information necessary to determine whether their money is being spent wisely."

Carper added that he is "starting to think OMB isn't properly collecting this information."

But Evans said the administration has the information and that it's just a matter of determining what is made public. "It's not that we don't want transparency," Evans said. "We want to release information that's meaningful and can be used toward a solution, not as a 'gotcha' to be used at a hearing on why [the agency] is off the projections."

Evans added that in most cases, the reasons projects are on the high-risk list are self-evident to all the stakeholders.

"For the most part, whenever you see one of these, you know it's pretty much cost and schedule," she said. It would be pointless, Evans added, to single out agencies that have had problems implementing earned value management -- the process used to measure progress against the baseline -- because their original cost and schedule projections often are flawed.

"It's kind of like, how many times do you have to hit an agency over the head like [the Veterans Affairs Department]," Evans said. "They know they have a problem. Everyone knows they have a problem."

Evans said OMB will continue to integrate more information into VUE-IT as the tool becomes more popular. The long-term goal is to make all relevant information available to the public.

"I think you'll see incremental increases [in the amount of information posted] each quarter," Evans said. "Agencies have been put on notice that more data will be made available. The big thing is making this data available so people can do their own analysis."