Homeland Security. Oversight of Neglected Human Resources Information Technology Investment Is Needed
Human resources IT investments get stuck in management's lack of interest Although the Human Resources Information Technology (HRIT) investment was initiated about 12 years ago with the intent to consolidate, integrate, and modernize the department's human resources IT infrastructure, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has made very limited progress in achieving these goals. HRIT's minimally involved executive steering committee during a time when significant problems were occurring was a key factor in the lack of progress. This is particularly problematic given that the department's ability to efficiently and effectively carry out its mission is significantly hampered by its fragmented human resources. DHS's ineffective management of HRIT, such as the lack of an updated schedule and a life-cycle cost estimate, also contributed to the neglect this investment has experienced. DHS will be limited in efficiently tracking and reporting accurate, comprehensive performance and learning management data across the organization, and could risk further implementation delays.
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Federal Agencies Need to Address Aging Legacy Systems
Be aware of legacy IT risks The US government spends about 75 percent of the total amount budgeted for information technology on operations and maintenance. GAO reviewed Office of Management and Budget and 26 agencies, covering years 2010 through 2017 and recommends to develop a goal for spending measure and finalize guidance to identify and prioritize legacy IT needing to be modernized or replaced.
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Opportunities Exist for SEC to Improve Its Controls over Financial Systems and Data
The SEC is responsible for enforcing securities laws, issuing rules and regulations that provide protection for investors, and helping to ensure that the securities markets are fair and honest ... . In carrying out its mission, the SEC relies on computerized information systems to collect, process, and store sensitive information, including financial data. Having effective information security controls ... in place is essential to protecting these systems and the information they contain. <br/> This report details weaknesses GAO identified in the information security program at SEC during its audit ... IT security basics under scrutiny ... Financial audit by US GAO was accompanied by an IT examination focused on information security measures in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). GAO found that SEC’s systems could ... be compromised, because of risks jeopardizing the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of sensitive financial information.
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The National Government Service Centre – Has administration become more effective?
. These viewpoints have been analysed with a special focus on the conditions that applied to the Service Centre when it was formed and the measures taken by the Government and the Service Centre in the first years. ... The purpose of this audit has been to investigate whether the Service Centre has made administrative operational support functions taken over from client agencies more effective, and to find ... explanations for the results so far achieved by the Service Centre. The audit has also aspired to illustrate how agencies that do not subscribe to the services regard their potential for doing so ... ... Has Swedish public administration become more effective? ... The Service Centre – payroll and financial administration IT system for Swedish public agencies under the government – has achieved the target of a subscription rate of 25 per cent of the total ... number of state employees. However, subscription to the Service Centre was initially slower than the Government had predicted and meant lower revenues than expected in autumn 2013. The Service Centre ... then introduced a rigorous review of its expenditure, for example for some planned development initiatives for internal procedures and support systems.<br/>The Swedish NAO noted that the Government’s steering
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Performance measurement by regulators
Performance measurement for regulators Primary adressees of this good practice guide - by the British NAO - are regulators, the public institutions established for making sure that an industry or system works legally and fairly. But we are sure that many more can find this guidance useful - including auditors. NAO presents a comprehensible framework for performance measurement and hints how to focus on influence that regulators can use.
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OMB and Agencies Need to Focus Continued Attention on Implementing Reform Law
How to invest efficiently in IT IT investments are large and growing position in annual budgets. Historically, they have frequently failed, incurred cost overruns and schedule slippages, or contributed little to mission-related outcomes. GAO recommendations focus on the oversight and execution of the data center consolidation initiative, the accuracy and reliability of the IT Dashboard, and incremental development policies.
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The Shared Services Centre
The necessary environment for the efficient management of the Shared Service Center is lacking The department's administration of the Shared Services Centre (SSC) has been effective for sharing resources between the departments and delivering selected back-office services to a small client base. However, the governance arrangements established to oversight the SSC have not positioned it well for the future and the departments have not yet determined if the arrangement is efficient and resulting in savings. ANAO found instances where the advisory board of SSC was not consulted or involved in decisions relating to the strategic direction, financial arrangements and expenditure priorities. Information reported to the board did not focus on areas of strategic importance and the quality and completeness of this information could be improved. The mechanisms established for setting out responsibilities and obligations and ensuring transparency for services delivered by the SSC was weak. Service standards and levels were not fixed and can change. The delineation of responsibilities between the SSC and its clients was not clear and there was no commitment by the SSC to certify the quality of its control framework.
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Use of consultants and temporary staff
New skills needed in a longer term UK NAO: Used well, consultants and temporary staff can be an important source of specialist skills and capabilities that are uneconomic for departments to maintain in their permanent staff. Since 2009-10, the government has used spending controls to reduce its use of consultants and temporary staff, and by 2014-15 spending had fallen by £1.5 billion. However, spending has increased by between £400 million and £600 million since 2011-12, suggesting that this was more of a short-term reduction than a sustainable strategy. In the longer term, departments will need to develop workforce, skills and capacity plans to reduce their dependence on external skills. They will need to improve their strategic workforce planning to determine where they can deploy existing staff, where they need to recruit, and where they need to engage temporary resources. Without this, departments cannot demonstrate that they are achieving value for money from the use of consultants and temporary staff.
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Maintenance efficiency in the rail network
The primary objective of railway politics is to contribute to ensure that users of the transport service have good railway options. The Norwegian National Rail Administration is organised under ... the Ministry of Transport and Communications, and its responsibilities include operation, maintenance and development of the State's railway infrastructure. The maintenance activities must safeguard safety ... , fixed assets and operational stability of the railway system. The most important objective for the maintenance is to reduce the scope of operational interruptions, and to facilitate better punctuality ... ... Rail network maintenance - negative balance of costs and results ... SAI Norway evaluated efficiency of the railway maintenance and found that its costs increased nearly 110 per cent in years 2006–2014. Negative development in uptime and regularity dominated the first ... part of the examined period, from 2006 to 2011. It turned positive from 2011, but in 2014 results were still worse than in 2006. The results have lagged behind the Ministry's target figures for most ... of the period.
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Federal Human Resources Data
Internal control weaknesses may put mission at risk GAO audited the Enterprise Human Resources Integration payroll data warehose. The American auditors pointed at problems that may impede 'leverage of these data to meet its mission and allow others to make full use' of them. The critical internal contols areas to be improved in this cas are: completeness, accuracy, and validity of information, authorization, documentation, monitoring, results' evaluation.
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