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COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES
WASHINGTON, o.C. 20548 RELEASED
RESTRICTED - Not to be released outside the General 10S
Account ng Office except on the basis of specific approval
by the Office of Congressional Relations6.
B-115369 AUGUST 16,1979
The Honorable Jack Brooks
Chairman, Committee on (1
Government Operations
House of Representatives 110354
Dear Mr. Chairman:
As you requested, we are reporting on our review of the
roblems associated with developing large, complex data proc-
essing systems] Our objective was to identify Government-
wide actions that would help resolve those problems. As you
requested, we also assessed the need and appropriate organi-
zational framework of a management assistance center for
computer software and system development.
Previous reports issued by us and others have widely
documented the failures of Federal agencies in developing
data processing systems. These failures have resulted in
millions of dollars being spent for systems that were not
cost effective, did not meet user needs, experienced pro-
longed development and cost overruns, or simply did not
work. Since 1970, we have identified almost $300 million
of waste in such efforts. We did not further assess the
extent of such failures but, rather, attempted to identify
ways to improve management control over such development
efforts.
Our reviewcentered on three agencies--the Department
of the Army, the Veterans Administration, and the Bonneville
Power Administration.) We also considered the results of
recent audits we made at the Department of Labor, the Bureau
of Census and National Bureau of Standards in the Department
of Commerce, and the Social Security Administration in the
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Additionally,
we reviewed 57 GAO reports issued since 1970 which included
discussions of data processing systems and software develop-
ment. Our findings are summarized below.
NEED FOR MANAGEMENT CONTROL
The objective in investing in data processing, as with
other major investments, is to develop data processin
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