Defense Irm Poor Implementation Of Management Controls Has Put Migration Strategy At Risk Report To The Ranking Minority Member Committee On Governmental Affairs Us Senate PDF Download

In 1989, the Defense Department (DOD) began its Corporation Information Management (CIM) initiative in an attempt to save billions of dollars by streamlining operations and by deploying standard information systems to support common business operations. Eight years later, however, DOD has not realized the expected level of savings because it has not fully implemented sound management practices to carry out this initiative. GAO placed CIM on its list of government programs at high risk for waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. (See GAO/HR-97-9, Feb. 1997.) A key part of CIM is DOD's migration effort, which involves replacing its functionally duplicative and inefficient automated information systems with the best existing systems. DOD believes that migration can cut costs associated with developing and maintaining disparate systems supporting the same functions. It also believes that migration, if done properly, can help standardize business processes. This report (1) provides information on the number and cost of systems designated for migration, the number of legacy systems already terminated or scheduled for termination, and savings arising from terminations of legacy systems and (2) determines whether DOD's management control and oversight processes for migration are ensuring that investments are economically sound and comply with its technical and data standards.