Winners and losers on the enhanced Federal IT Dashboard

The Social Security Administration got the highest overall rating for IT projects, while the Veterans Affairs Department received the lowest, according to the updated online Federal IT Dashboard.

The dashboard can now be accessed through a new website, IT.usaspending.gov, and has additional information to evaluate and track nearly 800 federal IT projects, according to the White House’s new Open Government status report released on Sept. 16.

“IT.usaspending.gov is a new information clearinghouse that allows the public visually to track approximately $80 billion in federal IT initiatives and to hold the government accountable for its investments in new IT,” the report states.

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The enhanced IT dashboard presents project ratings for federal agencies as well as for individual IT projects.

The agencies that earned the highest overall rating for their IT projects were the SSA, rated 9.3 out of 10; Energy Department, 9.1; National Science Foundation, 9.0; NASA, 8.6; and Smithsonian Institution, 8.2.

The lowest rated were the VA, 4.8; Homeland Security Department, 6.1; Commerce Department, 6.1; Health and Human Services Department, 6.7; and Treasury Department, 6.7.

The IT Dashboard also has information about 797 federal IT projects.

For example, it shows six projects that cost a total of $309 million that earned a “zero” rating, meaning that the spending was lowest in terms of its cost effectiveness, schedule, and agency CIO evaluation. Two of those projects are at the VA; two at the Transportation Department, and one each at Homeland Security and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.