Information Technology: VA Actions Needed to Implement Critical Reforms
(Letter Report, 08/16/2000, GAO/AIMD-00-226).

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of
Veterans Affairs' (VA) efforts to address GAO's recommendations to
improve VA's information technology (IT) program.

GAO noted that: (1) VA had made progress in addressing GAO's 1998
recommendations regarding its information technology efforts; (2) for
example, compared with its fiscal year (FY) 1999 IT investment review
process, VA's FY 2001 process provided decisionmakers with more detailed
information on proposed projects; (3) however, VA's progress in
addressing other key issues had been limited, such as appointing an
assistant secretary for information and technology, developing an
overall strategy for reengineering its business processes, and
developing an integrated IT architecture; (4) further, VA faced
challenges in developing and implementing three key IT projects--the
Master Veteran Record, the Veterans Benefits Administration's
information systems modernization (Veterans Service Network), and the
Veterans Health Administration's decision support system; (5) taken
together, these remaining issues will need to be successfully addressed
if VA is to realize its goal of "One VA" and meet the provisions of the
Clinger-Cohen Act; and (6) sustained top management support and
leadership will also be required.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  AIMD-00-226
     TITLE:  Information Technology: VA Actions Needed to Implement
	     Critical Reforms
      DATE:  08/16/2000
   SUBJECT:  Information technology
	     Reengineering (management)
	     Strategic information systems planning
	     Information resources management
	     Chief information officers
	     Systems design
IDENTIFIER:  VA Veterans Integrated Service Network
	     VA Master Veteran Record Program

******************************************************************
** This file contains an ASCII representation of the text of a  **
** GAO Testimony.                                               **
**                                                              **
** No attempt has been made to display graphic images, although **
** figure captions are reproduced.  Tables are included, but    **
** may not resemble those in the printed version.               **
**                                                              **
** Please see the PDF (Portable Document Format) file, when     **
** available, for a complete electronic file of the printed     **
** document's contents.                                         **
**                                                              **
******************************************************************
GAO/AIMD-00-226

Accounting and Information
Management Division

B-285675

August 16, 2000

The Honorable Hershel W. Gober
The Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs

Dear Mr. Secretary:

In May we testified1 before the Subcommittee on Oversight and
Investigations, House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, on the Department of
Veterans Affairs' (VA) efforts to address the recommendations in our July
1998 report entitled VA Information Technology: Improvements Needed to
Implement Legislative Reforms.2 We found that VA had made progress in
addressing our 1998 recommendations. For example, compared with its fiscal
year 1999 information technology (IT) investment review process, VA's fiscal
year 2001 process provided decisionmakers with more detailed information on
proposed projects.

However, we also noted that VA's progress in addressing other key issues had
been limited, such as appointing an assistant secretary for information and
technology,3 developing an overall strategy for reengineering its business
processes, and developing an integrated IT architecture. Further, VA faced
challenges in developing and implementing three key IT projects--the Master
Veteran Record; the Veterans Benefits Administration's information systems
modernization, also known as the Veterans Service Network; and the Veterans
Health Administration's decision support system.

Taken together, these remaining issues will need to be successfully
addressed if VA is to realize its goal of "One VA" and meet the provisions
of the Clinger-Cohen Act. Sustained top management support and leadership
will also be required. To assist you in bringing this about, we are making
recommendations to you based on the suggestions we made in our May 2000
testimony, which is reprinted as appendix I.

We performed our work from July 1999 through April 2000, in accordance with
generally accepted government auditing standards. VA provided us with
comments on a draft of this report. These comments are discussed in the
"Agency Comments and Our Evaluation" section and are reprinted as appendix
II.

Timely in-process reviews are a key component of the IT decision-making
process and assist VA in controlling approved projects. We therefore
recommend that you take action to improve VA's IT investment decision-making
process by

ï¿½ establishing and monitoring deadlines for completing formal in-process
reviews at key milestones in a project's life cycle;

ï¿½ providing decisionmakers, such as investment panel members, with
information on lessons learned from post-implementation reviews of IT
projects so that they can use such data in making better informed judgments
about projects; and

ï¿½ developing and implementing guidance to better manage IT projects below
the Capital Investment Board (CIB) threshold.

Full implementation of key provisions of the Clinger-Cohen Act is required
by law and provides a foundation for an agency's effective use of IT. We
therefore recommend that you take action to ensure that VA fully addresses
these key provisions by

ï¿½ filling the position of assistant secretary for information and technology
as quickly as possible to provide the needed leadership to achieve the "One
VA" vision;

ï¿½ reassessing VA's decision to delegate business process reengineering to
the individual administrations; and

ï¿½ directing the department's CIO or designee to lead the effort and work
with VA business owners to develop a logical architecture as a step toward
an integrated IT architecture.

As you know, the head of a federal agency is required by 31 U.S.C. 720 to
submit a written statement on the actions taken on these recommendations to
the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs and the House Committee on
Government Reform not later than 60 days after the date of this report. A
written statement must also be sent to the House and Senate Committees on
Appropriations with the agency's first request for appropriations made more
than 60 days after the date of this report.

In commenting on a draft of this report, VA concurred with all but one of
our six recommendations. Specifically, it did not concur with our
recommendation that it reassess its decision to delegate business process
reengineering to the individual administrations. The department stated that
the administrations best understand the desired outcomes of their missions
and the means to achieve them, and that business process reengineering is a
constantly evolving function that is not conducted in a vacuum. VA added
that the combination of reengineering with an enterprise IT architecture and
IT capital investment process will provide the department with the processes
and strategies necessary to ensure that business process reengineering will
be accomplished.

We agree that individual administrations best understand their own
operations and that business process reengineering is an evolving function
that does not take place in a vacuum. However, by delegating primary
responsibility for reengineering to the individual administrations, each
administration is able to pursue its own reengineering initiatives rather
than focusing on achieving the "One VA" vision. Accordingly, this approach
would make it more difficult for the department to provide efficient,
unified services to veterans. Regarding VA's comment on the department's
enterprise IT architecture and IT capital investment process, we pointed out
in our May 11, 2000, testimony that VA's IT architecture has several
weaknesses. Specifically, VA had not documented the logical architecture
showing the business processes, information flows and relationships,
applications processing, and data description layers for the department.
Without an integrated, departmentwide architecture, VA lacks a framework for
maintaining existing IT and for acquiring new IT to achieve the agency's
strategic and IT goals. We also note in this report that VA needs to take
several actions to improve the department's IT capital investment
decision-making process. Strengthening VA's architecture and IT investment
decision-making process, along with implementing a departmentwide approach
to business process reengineering, are therefore essential to the
department's achieving its "One VA" vision.

We are sending copies of this report to Senator Christopher S. Bond, Senator
Robert Byrd, Senator Tom Harkin, Senator Barbara Mikulski, Senator John D.
Rockefeller, Senator Arlen Specter, and Senator Ted Stevens, and
Representative Michael Bilirakis, Representative Corrine Brown,
Representative Sherrod Brown, Representative Lane Evans, Representative
Terry Everett, Representative Bob Filner, Representative Luis Gutierrez,
Representative Ron Klink, Representative Alan B. Mollohan, Representative
Jack Quinn, Representative Clifford Stearns, Representative Bob Stump,
Representative Fred Upton, and Representative James T. Walsh, in their
capacities as Chairmen or Ranking Minority Members of Senate and House
Committees and Subcommittees. We are also sending copies of this report to
the Honorable Jacob J. Lew, Director, Office of Management and Budget.
Copies will also be made available to others upon request.

Should you or your staff have any questions concerning this report, please
contact me at (202) 512-6253. I can also be reached by e-mail at
[email protected]. You may also contact Helen Lew, Assistant
Director, at (202) 512-9356, or by e-mail at [email protected]. Individuals
making key contributions to this report included Tonia Johnson and J.
Michael Resser.

Sincerely yours,

Joel C. Willemssen
Director, Civil Agencies Information Systems

GAO's May 11, 2000, Testimony

Comments From the Department of Veterans Affairs

The following is GAO's comment on the Department of Veterans Affairs' letter
dated July 10, 2000.

1. Discussed in "Agency Comments and Our Evaluation" section of the report.

(511852)
  

1. Information Technology: Update on VA Actions to Implement Critical
Reforms
(GAO/T-AIMD-00-74, May 11, 2000).

2. GAO/AIMD-98-154, July 7, 1998.

3. This position is intended to serve as VA's chief information officer
(CIO).
*** End of document. ***