E-gov selection process found to be flawed

During the selection of the Bush administration's 24 e-government initiatives, the Office of Management and Budget did not consider how at least half of the projects would impact the customer, a new report from the General Accounting Office said.

In the selection of the 24 initiatives, OMB used a streamlined process to select 34 projects from 350 proposals. To do that, OMB's e-government task force developed abbreviated, "mini" business cases for the 34 projects. The President's Management Council approved the final 24 initiatives in October, less than two months after the process was started.

Those "mini" plans contained "at least some of the key information" that GAO determined was necessary for OMB to select and oversee the e-government initiatives. But the report notes that OMB did not collect complete business case data.

"OMB did not have all the information needed to fully monitor progress and development of the initiatives," according to the GAO report, "Selection and Implementation of the Office of Management and Budget's 24 Initiatives."

The GAO review was conducted at the request of Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee and the author of the recently signed E-Government Act.

"It troubles me that OMB decided upon its signature e-government initiatives without considering the very factors that it has identified as essential to successful e-government," Lieberman said in a statement.

"Especially now that the E-Government Act has passed, I hope that OMB will evaluate its programs more carefully, and consult closely with Congress, to ensure that its initiatives realize e-government's true potential," he said.

GAO found that fewer than half of the initiatives business cases addressed collaboration and customer focus, "despite the importance of these topics to OMB's e-government strategy," the report says.

Furthermore, only nine of the initiatives had identified a strategy for obtaining funding.

In addition, the accuracy of the estimated costs in the funding plans were questionable, GAO determined. Since May 2002, estimated costs for 12 of the initiatives have changed significantly, by more than 30 percent.

OMB officials were not immediately available for comment.