About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

GAO-03-877R 1 (2003-07-07)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaamgf0001 and id is 1 raw text is: I Accountability * Integrity * Reliability United States General Accounting Office Washington, DC 20548 July 7, 2003 Congressional Committees Subject: Business Systems Modernization: Summary of GAO's Assessment of the Department of Defense's Initial Business Enterprise Architecture (GAO-03 -877R) The Department of Defense (DOD) faces financial and related management problems that are pervasive, complex, long-standing, and deeply rooted in virtually all business operations throughout the department. These problems have impeded the department's ability to provide complete, reliable, and timely business information to the Congress, DOD managers, and other decision makers. Of the 25 areas on our governmentwide high-risk list, 6 are DOD program areas, and the department shares responsibility for 3 other high-risk areas that are governmentwide in scope.1 DOD's problems in each of these areas hinder the efficiency of operations, and leave the department vulnerable to fraud, waste, and abuse. For fiscal year 2003, DOD's information technology (IT) budget request was over $26 billion. More specifically, to support its business operations, DOD reports that it currently relies on about 2,300 systems, including accounting, acquisition, logistics, and personnel systems that will cost about $18 billion-nearly $5.2 billion for business systems2 and $12.8 billion primarily for business systems infrastructure-in fiscal year 2003 to operate, maintain, and modernize. As we have previously reported,3 this environment was not designed to be, but rather has evolved into, an overly complex and error-prone environment, including (1) little standardization across DOD, (2) multiple systems performing the same tasks, (3) the same data stored in multiple systems, and (4) manual data entry into multiple systems. One of the seven key elements we have reported4 as necessary to successfully reform DOD's financial and related management challenges is establishing and implementing an enterprise 1U.S. General Accounting Office, High-Risk Series: An Update, GAO=03-119 (Washington, D.C.: January 2003). The nine interrelated high-risk areas that represent the greatest challenge to DOD's development of world-class business operations to support its forces are contract management, financial management, support infrastructure management, inventory management, systems modernization, weapon system acquisition, human capital, information security, and real property. The last three areas are governmentwide in scope. 2Business systems include financial and nonfinancial systems, such as civilian personnel, finance, health, logistics, military personnel, procurement, and transportation, with the common element being the generation or use of financial data to support DOD's business operations. 3U. S. General Accounting Office, DOD Financial Management: Important Steps Underway But Reform Will Require a Long-term Commitment, GAO-02-784T (Washington, D.C.: June 4, 2002). 4GAO02-784T. GAO-03-877R DOD Business Enterprise Architecture

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most