GAO calls for better efficiency measurements, but IT could help

The Office of Management and Budget should focus more on assessing agency performance in the face of record-breaking deficits, and applying information technology to boost efficiencies this year should aid that effort, federal auditors said.

A Government Accountability Office report released on Monday said OMB has issued inconsistent, limited guidance and assistance to agencies on measuring efficiency. But the report also noted OMB has emphasized the importance of increasing efficiency through other initiatives, many of which involve restructuring IT.

"While a lot of attention has been given to the recent fiscal deterioration, the federal government faces even larger fiscal challenges, driven by certain factors, such as health care cost growth and demographic trends, which will persist long after the return of financial stability and economic growth," the GAO report stated. "Given the magnitude of these challenges, the federal government must identify ways to operate and deliver results more efficiently as well as more effectively."

The report cited promising responses to the challenges that the White House has already initiated, including trimming or eliminating programs and instituting new IT management procedures to improve efficiency.

In particular, the president's fiscal 2011 budget lists a number of activities intended to cut spending through smarter use of IT. The IT Dashboard, a website that tracks IT investments governmentwide, displays performance data on nearly 800 major IT projects, including schedule, cost and brief estimates of the project's risk level. In January, federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra initiated so-called TechStat sessions, in-person interviews with an agency's leadership to review IT programs based on concrete results. And the White House held an online contest to harness the ideas of federal employees on how to cut the 2011 budget.

Other IT-related maneuvers aimed at reducing budgets include the consolidation of data centers, increased use of cloud computing and various e-government initiatives that deliver services through the Internet to save time and money. Cloud computing is a way of sharing hardware and software by accessing such services through the Web as needed, rather than maintaining the products in-house.

To conduct the audit, GAO analyzed efficiency measures in five agencies and drew a sample of measures governmentwide; reviewed documents and interviewed officials from selected programs; examined literature on efficiency; and interviewed experts.

GAO recommended that OMB exercise a broader approach with its guidance and support to improve efficiency at the agency and program levels, as well as governmentwide. OMB agreed with the recommendations, according to the report.