Budgets Of IT Projects At Some Agencies Cut
September 15, 2010
| 3:38 PM
The White House Office of Management and Budget Wednesday announced changes to troubled financial system modernization projects at some agencies that will result in the loss of millions of dollars for those projects.
The OMB announced in June that it had halted federal financial system modernizations involving about 30 projects to shrink the scope and timetable of these projects, which were found to be behind schedule and over budget.
In a blog post, acting OMB Director Jeffrey Zients said the Environmental Protection Agency, Housing and Urban Development Department and Small Business Administration have completed reviews of their affected projects and are "moving forward with plans to reset the scope of and improve their financial system projects, resulting in reduced costs and a greater focus on critical business needs."
He said the budgets of the projects, along with a canceled financial systems project announced by the Veterans Administration, will be cut by a total of $750 million.
"These results are just the beginning," Zients said. "Agencies are taking the lessons learned from the financial systems reform effort and applying them across their portfolio of [information technology] projects, and we are using the best practices to inform our work on fundamental reform of IT procurement and management practices across all agencies."
The changes at HUD, for example, will include focusing on one single core financial system instead of implementing three separate upgrades to its financial systems as originally planned, a shift that could save $44 million, HUD said in a statement.
"Our strategic shift is a sign of the tough economic times," HUD Chief Financial Officer Doug Criscitello said in a statement. "We have been working on the HUD Integrated Financial Management Improvement Project (HIFMIP) for several years and have determined that more [a] focused approach to our financial systems modernization will still get us where we need to be while ensuring that we are not overspending."
Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Federal Financial Management Subcommittee, praised the OMB's move to cut funding for the troubled projects but said more work needs to be done to rein in other IT projects that have gone off track.
"This should have happened a long time ago," Carper said in a statement. "For years my colleagues and I urged the previous administration to hold agencies and contractors accountable for the skyrocketing costs and extended time lines on these failing investments. For far too long we threw good money after bad and I want to commend this White House for not sweeping these kinds of difficult management problems under the rug for someone else to deal with."
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