Architect of the Capitol: Committed, Sustained Leadership Needed 
to Continue Progress (28-FEB-07, GAO-07-407).			 
                                                                 
The Architect of the Capitol (AOC) is responsible for the	 
operation, maintenance, renovation, and new construction of the  
Capitol Hill complex, including the U.S. Capitol, the Library of 
Congress, and the Senate and House Office Buildings. In 2003, at 
the request of Congress, GAO issued a management review of AOC	 
that contained recommendations designed to help AOC become more  
strategic and accountable. Subsequently, Congress directed GAO to
monitor AOC's progress in implementing recommendations. This is  
the fourth status report on AOC's progress and summarizes GAO's  
assessment of AOC's overall progress and remaining actions in	 
becoming more strategic and accountable, including AOC's	 
responses to specific recommendations GAO made in January 2003	 
and subsequently. To assess AOC's progress, GAO analyzed AOC	 
documents; interviewed AOC officials; and relied on the results  
of related GAO reviews, including reviews of the Capitol Visitor 
Center (CVC). AOC generally agreed with GAO's assessment of its  
progress, but noted that 2 additional recommendations--1 on	 
financial management practices and 1 on collecting worker safety 
data--should be considered implemented. GAO acknowledges AOC's	 
efforts in these areas, but maintains that further steps are	 
necessary to fully implement these recommendations.		 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-07-407 					        
    ACCNO:   A66368						        
  TITLE:     Architect of the Capitol: Committed, Sustained Leadership
Needed to Continue Progress					 
     DATE:   02/28/2007 
  SUBJECT:   Accountability					 
	     Agency evaluation					 
	     Architects 					 
	     Facility management				 
	     Federal office buildings				 
	     Financial management				 
	     General management reviews 			 
	     Internal controls					 
	     Personnel management				 
	     Program management 				 
	     Strategic planning 				 
	     Capitol Visitor Center Project			 

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GAO-07-407

   

     * [1] 

          * [2]Results in Brief
          * [3]Background
          * [4]AOC Is Making Progress in Becoming More Strategic and Accoun

               * [5]Leadership Continuity and Planning Are Key to New
                 Management
               * [6]AOC Revised Its Strategic Plan, but Has Not Clearly
                 Delineat

                    * [7]Service Delivery
                    * [8]Workforce Planning

               * [9]Improved Communication Procedures Need to Be Sustained
               * [10]Further Progress in Improving Financial Management, IT
                 Manag

                    * [11]Financial Management
                    * [12]IT Management
                    * [13]Project Management

          * [14]Agency Comments and Our Evaluation

     * [15]Appendix I: Status of AOC's Progress on Recommendations

          * [16]Strategic Management
          * [17]Human Capital Management
          * [18]Financial Management
          * [19]Information Technology Management
          * [20]Project Management
          * [21]Facilities Management
          * [22]Worker Safety
          * [23]Capitol Power Plant Management
          * [24]Recycling

     * [25]Appendix II: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments

          * [26]GAO Contact
          * [27]Staff Acknowledgments

               * [28]Order by Mail or Phone

Report to Congressional Requesters

United States Government Accountability Office

GAO

February 2007

ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL

Committed, Sustained Leadership Needed to Continue Progress

GAO-07-407

Contents

Letter 1

Results in Brief 3
Background 5
AOC Is Making Progress in Becoming More Strategic and Accountable, but
Completing the Management Transition and Other Critical Actions Remain 7
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation 18
Appendix I Status of AOC's Progress on Recommendations 20
Strategic Management 20
Human Capital Management 26
Financial Management 31
Information Technology Management 37
Project Management 44
Facilities Management 49
Worker Safety 51
Capitol Power Plant Management 55
Recycling 57
Appendix II GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments 59

Tables

Table 1: Current Status of Recommendations on Strategic Management 21
Table 2: Current Status of Recommendations on Human Capital Management 26
Table 3: Current Status of Recommendations on Financial Management 32
Table 4: Current Status of Recommendations on Information Technology
Management 38
Table 5: Current Status of Recommendations on Project Management 45
Table 6: Current Status of Recommendations on Facilities Management 49
Table 7: Current Status of Recommendations on Worker Safety 52
Table 8: Current Status of Recommendations on CPP Management 55
Table 9: Current Status of Recommendations on Recycling 57

Figure

Figure 1: New Senior-Level Managers at AOC since January 2006 8

Abbreviations

AOC Architect of the Capitol
BSMO Business Systems Modernization Office
CFO Chief Financial Officer COO Chief Operating Officer CPP Capitol Power
Plant
CVC Capitol Visitor Center EA enterprise architecture
FMIS Facilities Management Information System
FTE full-time equivalent
ICS Inventory Control System
IRB Investment Review Board
IT information technology
JHA job hazard analysis
MOR Management Operations Reporting
OAP Office of the Attending Physician
OIRM Office of Information and Resource Management
OOC Office of Compliance
PRB Project Review Board
SDLC systems development life-cycle
SHEC Safety, Health, and Environment Council

This is a work of the U.S. government and is not subject to copyright
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separately.

United States Government Accountability Office

Washington, DC 20548

February 28, 2007

The Honorable Mary L. Landrieu
Chairman
The Honorable Wayne Allard Ranking
Minority Member
Subcommittee on Legislative Branch
Committee on Appropriations
United States Senate

The Honorable Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Chair
The Honorable Zach Wamp
Ranking Minority Member
Subcommittee on Legislative Branch
Committee on Appropriations
House of Representatives

The Honorable Dianne Feinstein
Chairman
The Honorable Bob Bennett
Ranking Minority Member
Committee on Rules and Administration
United States Senate

The Architect of the Capitol (AOC) is responsible for the operations,
maintenance, renovation, and new construction of the Capitol Hill complex,
including such high-profile and historic buildings as the U.S. Capitol
Building, Senate and House Office Buildings, Library of Congress, and
Supreme Court. AOC also is managing the construction of the Capitol
Visitor Center (CVC)--the largest incremental growth in the history of the
Capitol complex. Preserving and modernizing these buildings while meeting
the needs of Congress and the visiting public poses challenges for AOC. In
2001, Congress raised concerns about management shortcomings at AOC and
asked us to review the management of AOC's operations. In response, we
issued a report in January 2003 containing recommendations that were
designed to help AOC establish a strong strategic management and
accountability framework.1 Congress subsequently directed us to monitor
AOC's progress in implementing these recommendations. This report is the
fourth in a series of status reports on AOC's progress.2 In our previous
report on AOC's progress, we emphasized the need for improvement in
communication with external stakeholders and in development of internal
controls and stressed the importance of leadership support for these
improvements.

1GAO, Architect of the Capitol: Management and Accountability Framework
Needed for Organizational Transformation, [29]GAO-03-231 (Washington,
D.C.: Jan. 17, 2003).

To continue our efforts in monitoring AOC's progress, this report includes
an assessment of AOC's overall progress and remaining actions in becoming
more strategic and accountable, including responses to specific
recommendations we made in January 2003 and subsequently. The
recommendations involve nine areas--strategic management, human capital
management, financial management, information technology (IT) management,
project management, facilities management, worker safety, Capitol Power
Plant (CPP) management, and recycling.

To assess AOC's progress in implementing our recommendations and identify
remaining actions, we analyzed documents related to AOC's actions and
interviewed AOC officials responsible for implementing the
recommendations. Our analysis also relies on the results of other work we
conducted during this past year--including reviews of the extent to which
AOC outsources operations,3 AOC's procedures to estimate project costs,4
and AOC's efforts to improve the CPP's utility tunnels5--as well as our
ongoing oversight of the construction of the CVC.6 We conducted our work
from September 2006 through February 2007 in accordance with generally
accepted government auditing standards.

2GAO, Architect of the Capitol: Management Challenges Remain,
[30]GAO-06-290 (Washington, D.C.: Feb. 21, 2006); Architect of the
Capitol: Midyear Status Report on Implementation of Management Review
Recommendations, [31]GAO-04-966 (Washington, D.C.: Aug. 31, 2004); and
Architect of the Capitol: Status Report on Implementation of Management
Review Recommendations, [32]GAO-04-299 (Washington, D.C.: Jan. 30, 2004).

3In September 2006, we briefed the House Appropriations Committee on AOC's
outsourcing efforts.

4In June 2006, we briefed the Senate Appropriations Committee on AOC's
procedures for estimating project costs and a comparison of AOC's and
other agencies' project costs.

5GAO, Capitol Power Plant Utility Tunnels, [33]GAO-07-227R (Washington,
D.C.: Nov. 16, 2006).

6Since February 2006, we have testified at nine hearings on the status of
the CVC project. Our most recent testimony was in February 2007. See GAO,
Capitol Visitor Center: Update on Status of Project's Schedule and Cost as
of February 16, 2007, GAO-07-507T (Washington, D.C.: Feb. 16, 2007.

Results in Brief

AOC has made progress in becoming a more strategic and accountable
organization, but critical actions remain for the agency to sustain and
build on this progress. Specifically, AOC has filled seven existing
leadership positions--including the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and the
Chief Financial Officer (CFO)--and two new leadership positions
established to help AOC better meet the needs of its customers. In
addition, AOC revised its strategic plan, improved communication with
congressional stakeholders, and continued initiatives to improve financial
management, IT management, and project management. Through these actions,
AOC is establishing a foundation for becoming more strategic and
accountable. However, completing the transition to new
leadership--including the transition to a new Architect of the Capitol (a
position that is now vacant)--and other actions are needed to bring about
lasting improvements in performance. For example, AOC's new managers
enhance its ability to advance the agency's strategic transformation, but
AOC must integrate these new managers into the agency while ensuring its
continued progress. Furthermore, the agency must sustain this progress
despite the vacancy in the position of the Architect of the Capitol
(Architect). The COO is performing the Architect's responsibilities in
addition to his own; however, it will be challenging for one person to
fulfill the critical roles of the Architect and the COO in completing the
CVC project and continuing AOC's progress in becoming more strategic and
accountable. In addition, although AOC has revised its strategic plan to
better focus on its mission and goals, it has not identified how best to
deliver the services that support its mission and goals and has not
determined whether its workforce has the skills and capacity to deliver
those services. Finally, a continued focus on improving communication and
other areas, including financial management, IT management, and project
management, is needed to ensure that improvements already made in these
areas are sustained and further progress is made. For example, sustained
commitment is required to fully implement the cost accounting system to
more effectively track costs across all of AOC's operations. For project
management, AOC's management of the CVC project provides lessons learned
that can be applied to all projects, such as the importance of
communicating with stakeholders throughout all phases of the project.

Appendix I provides a summary of AOC's progress on recommendations that we
have made in January 2003 and subsequently. Over the last year, AOC has
implemented 21 recommendations. For example, AOC implemented 6 of our
strategic management recommendations by involving congressional and other
stakeholders in the development of its revised strategic plan, finalizing
procedures to facilitate communication with congressional stakeholders,
and revising its employee feedback process manual to establish a process
for regularly collecting and reporting employee feedback information,
among other things. In the project management area, AOC implemented 7
recommendations by taking several steps, such as developing tools to
communicate priorities and progress of projects, informing congressional
stakeholders on how and why specific projects are submitted for funding,
and establishing project-management-related performance measures.
Implementing these 21 recommendations brings the total number of
implemented or closed recommendations to 43 out of 64, or 67 percent.
These 64 recommendations were designed to help AOC establish a strong
strategic management and accountability framework and were made in nine
areas--strategic management, human capital management, financial
management, IT management, project management, facilities management,
worker safety, CPP management, and recycling.7

In responding to a draft of this report, AOC generally agreed with our
assessment of the agency's overall progress, but noted that the following
2 additional recommendations--1 on institutionalizing financial management
practices to support budgeting, financial, and program management and 1 on
developing a rigorous approach for collecting worker safety data--should
be considered implemented. According to AOC officials, the agency has made
significant progress over the past year and installed a solid foundation
for further improvements. The officials also recognized that continued
focused attention to the agency's improvement initiatives is essential to
maintaining progress. For our recommendation on financial management
practices, AOC suggested that the two remaining actions for this
recommendation--fully developing and implementing an appropriate
risk-based internal control framework and cost accounting and management
reporting initiatives--are addressed in the other financial management
recommendations. We maintain that these two remaining actions are key
strategies for institutionalizing internal control and accountability and
strengthening and supporting effective budgeting, financial, and
performance management at AOC and are necessary to fulfill this
recommendation. For the recommendation on collecting worker safety data,
AOC officials noted that they believe their current practices--including
conducting biennial focus groups, conducting daily shop safety meetings,
and establishing a safety hazards hotline--sufficiently meet the
requirements of this recommendation. While we recognize that these
initiatives provide the agency with some information on worker safety,
these initiatives do not provide a rigorous and confidential approach for
collecting employee perceptions of AOC's safety climate, such as
perceptions of management commitment, discipline policies, and hazard
corrections. This lack of confidentiality can impede the quality of
information collected. AOC also made clarifying and technical comments
that we addressed in the text of this report.

7Although this report draws on our ongoing work on the CVC, we did not
include the status of the specific recommendations made to AOC on the
management of the CVC project.

Background

AOC is responsible for the operation, maintenance, renovation, and new
construction of the buildings and grounds of the Capitol Hill complex.
Organizationally, AOC consists of nine separate jurisdictions responsible
for the day-to-day operations of the U.S. Capitol Building, Capitol
Grounds, Senate Office Buildings, House Office Buildings, Library of
Congress Buildings and Grounds, Supreme Court Buildings and Grounds, CPP,
Botanic Garden, and Security Programs. AOC also has centralized staff that
perform administrative and project management functions. AOC has managed
major projects throughout the Capitol Hill complex and is currently
managing the construction of the CVC. The historic nature and high profile
of many of these buildings create a complex environment for AOC to carry
out its mission; AOC must balance the diverse and sometimes divergent
needs of congressional leaders, committees, members, and staffs as well as
the visiting public.

Congress has raised concerns about management shortcomings at AOC.8 For
example, in 2001, the Senate Appropriations Committee cited several
management issues, including a lack of strategic planning, inadequate
financial and project management controls, and an unacceptably high level
of worker injuries. Congress subsequently directed GAO to conduct a review
of the management of AOC's operations9 and, later, to monitor AOC's
progress in addressing recommendations that arose from the review.10

Our January 2003 report contained 35 recommendations designed to assist
AOC in transforming itself into a more strategic and accountable
organization. The recommendations were in seven areas, including strategic
management, human capital management, financial management, project
management, IT management, worker safety, and recycling. The report
recognized this transformation as a long-term effort that involves a
fundamental change in AOC's culture. For example, AOC faces the challenge
of how best to marshal its jurisdiction-based resources to address the
strategic planning and other functional issues that cut across the
organization. Changes of this magnitude require the sustained commitment
of the agency's top leadership.11

8Sen. Rep. No. 107-37, at 28-29 (2001) and H.R. Conf. Rep. No. 107-148, at
73 (2001).

9Pub. L. No. 107-68, 115 Stat. 560, 580 (2001), 2 U.S.C. S 1801 note.

10H.R. Conf. Rep. No. 108-10, at 1225 (2003), accompanying Pub. L. No.
108-7 (2003).

Subsequent reports on AOC's progress that we issued in 2004 and 2006
concluded that, while AOC was making progress on all recommendations,
substantial work remained to achieve the goal of becoming more strategic
and accountable, and that sustained commitment and assertive involvement
by AOC's leadership would be key to instilling long-term management
improvements. Specifically, our last report in this series, issued in
February 2006, concluded that the agency had not addressed two
issues--communication with external stakeholders and development of
internal controls--that affect a wide range of AOC operations, including
cost accounting, procurement, and information security. Furthermore,
leadership support is vital to ensure that needed improvements are
implemented and sustained, but key leadership positions--including those
of the COO, CFO, Chief Administrative Officer, and Director of CPP--were
vacant and the term of the agency head, the Architect, was due to expire
in less than a year. Therefore, it was critical for AOC to quickly fill
the vacant management positions with qualified people so AOC would have a
cohesive management team in place in preparation for a change in the
agency's top leadership. These reports and two others on the CPP included
assessments of two additional areas--facilities management and the
CPP--and 29 additional recommendations for AOC, bringing the total number
of recommendations to 64.12

11 [34]GAO-03-231 .

12The 29 additional recommendations include 4 issued in January 2004, 13
issued in August 2004, 9 issued in February 2006, and 3 issued on the
management of CPP. The recommendations to improve the management of CPP
were issued in April 2005 and February 2006. See GAO, Capitol Power Plant:
Actions Needed to Improve Operating Efficiency (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 8,
2005), which was issued as an unnumbered correspondence; and Architect of
the Capitol: Addressing Staffing and Training Issues Is Important for
Efficient and Safe West Refrigeration Plant Operations, [35]GAO-06-321R
(Washington, D.C.: Feb. 10, 2006) for the CPP recommendations.

In addition, we and AOC recently worked together to identify lessons
learned from the ongoing CVC project, including practices that could be
applied to AOC's future projects and practices that could have been done
better or differently. The lessons covered four areas--acquisition
planning and policy; decision making, coordination, and communication;
project and contract management; and worksite safety and security--and
included such lessons as the importance of communicating and coordinating
with all relevant stakeholders and identifying and mitigating risks early
in the development of a major construction project.

AOC Is Making Progress in Becoming More Strategic and Accountable, but
Completing the Management Transition and Other Critical Actions Remain

During the last year, AOC has filled nine key leadership positions,
revised its strategic plan to better align its activities with its mission
and goals, and continued initiatives to improve internal controls and
accountability. These actions have furthered AOC's progress in
establishing a foundation for becoming a more strategic and accountable
organization. It is now important for AOC to continue to build on this
foundation by transitioning to new management; determining how best to
provide services to AOC's customers; and making further improvements in
communication, financial management, IT management, and project
management.

Leadership Continuity and Planning Are Key to New Management Transition

The nine leadership positions that AOC has filled during the last year are
vital to sustain improvements that have already been achieved, support
further transformation efforts, and maintain operations during the
transition to a new Architect. These new managers comprise 9 of the 20
managers that report directly to the Architect or the COO. (See fig. 1.)
Most of these positions, including those of the CFO and the Chief
Administrative Officer, were vacant because of retirements and
resignations. To help AOC better meet the needs of its customers, AOC also
created and filled two new leadership positions--the Director of
Congressional and External Relations and the Director of Planning and
Project Management. In addition to these nine positions, AOC has filled
seven other management positions over the past year, such as the Deputy
Director for the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer, Deputy
Director of the Project Management Division, and Director of the
Information Technology Division.

Figure 1: New Senior-Level Managers at AOC since January 2006

Note: The Office of the Attending Physician (OAP) is organizationally
aligned under AOC and reports administratively to the Architect (e.g.,
time and attendance). The OAP receives direction from the Attending
Physician (a separate and distinct officer of Congress) and is not an AOC
senior manager.

While these new managers can bring new energy and ideas to the agency, the
introduction of so many new managers within a short period makes it
challenging to integrate them into AOC while sustaining the progress made
thus far. The turnover in AOC's senior leadership over the past year
resulted in a loss of leadership continuity, institutional knowledge, and
expertise--a loss that could adversely affect AOC's ability to continue
its progress, at least in the short term. AOC has taken steps to mitigate
these factors and integrate the new managers into the agency by, for
example, holding weekly senior leadership meetings and monthly detailed
briefings on various AOC construction projects. These managers are also
part of AOC's senior executive performance management system, which links
the managers' performance plans to AOC's mission-critical goals and holds
the managers accountable for results. AOC officials also noted that 4 of
the 9 new managers have been promoted from within the agency and have the
institutional knowledge and expertise gained from several years of
experience at AOC.

The current vacancy in the Architect's position further challenges AOC's
ability to sustain progress. The process for hiring the new Architect is
in the early stages, and according to the COO, hiring the previous
Architect took over a year.13 Until a new Architect is in place, the COO
is authorized to act as the Architect and is assuming the Architect's
duties along with his own.14 In general, the Architect's responsibilities
include overall management of AOC, support and representation on boards
and commissions--including the Capitol Police Board--and management of the
CVC project, while the COO's responsibilities involve developing the
agency's strategic and performance plans, proposing organizational and
staffing changes needed to carry out AOC's mission, and reviewing and
directing the operational functions of AOC. The COO identified the
management of the CVC project as one of the agency's major challenges to
becoming more strategic and accountable, because the CVC requires
significant management attention that could otherwise be focused on AOC's
transformation initiatives. The management responsibilities for the CVC
project could increase if, as scheduled, the CVC reaches a critical
juncture in the next year as the construction phase ends and operations
begin. For example, before the CVC becomes operational, the roles and
responsibilities for managing CVC operations, including those of AOC, will
need to be determined. Furthermore, the CVC project executive is planning
to leave the agency in March 2007, which is likely to place additional
responsibilities on the COO. Given these factors, it will be challenging
for one person to fulfill the critical roles of the Architect and the COO
in completing the CVC and continuing AOC's progress in becoming more
strategic and accountable.

13Pursuant to 2 U.S.C. S 1801, the process for hiring a new Architect
involves the establishment of a commission composed of the Speaker of the
House; the President Pro Tempore of the Senate; the majority and minority
leaders of the Senate and House, and the Chairmen and Ranking Minority
Members of the House Oversight Committee, the Senate Rules and
Administration Committee, and the Senate and House Appropriations
Committees. The commission recommends at least three individuals to the
President for the position of the Architect. An Architect is then
appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate for a
term of 10 years.

142 U.S.C. S 1804.

AOC has begun preparing for the transition to a new Architect by
determining how to support the COO in the absence of an Architect and
establishing a transition team for bringing in a new Architect. To support
the COO, AOC has begun identifying individuals to assist the COO in
managing various areas, such as project management and facilities
management. While this strategy will provide support to the COO, it
remains to be seen whether the strategy will provide the necessary support
during the transition. AOC has also established a transition team that is
chaired by the Director of Congressional and External Relations and that
includes the COO and the Chief Administrative Officer, among others. This
team has begun to prepare background materials for quickly bringing the
new Architect up to speed on the agency and its initiatives, once a new
Architect has been selected. The team also plans to be involved in
preparing potential candidates for the confirmation hearings by providing
the candidates with information on AOC's responsibilities and structure,
including its strategic plan.

AOC Revised Its Strategic Plan, but Has Not Clearly Delineated a Strategy for
Best Delivering Its Services

Over the past year, AOC has revised its strategic plan to better focus on
its mission and provide a means to demonstrate results. In January 2007,
AOC issued the revised plan, which sets forth AOC's mission--to provide
Congress and the public with a wide range of professional expertise and
services to preserve and enhance the Capitol complex and related
facilities. The revised plan also has three strategic goals--congressional
and Supreme Court operations support, heritage asset stewardship, and
leadership and administrative support--which cover all of AOC's
operations. The plan includes performance measures that allow AOC to
regularly monitor progress in achieving its strategic goals and convey the
results of its activities in its annual performance and accountability
report. AOC's revised strategic plan is an important building block in the
agency's efforts to become more strategic and accountable and provides a
framework for assessing and prioritizing the agency's activities.

While AOC has defined its mission and goals in its revised strategic plan,
the agency has not identified how best to deliver the services--through
outsourcing or in-house resources--that support the mission and goals and
has not determined whether its workforce has the skills and capacity to
deliver those services. These two initiatives--identifying how best to
deliver services and developing a workforce plan--are interrelated. For
example, contracting out for a service requires a different set of skills
to manage the contract than to conduct the work. While AOC has included
both initiatives in its strategic plan and COO action plan15 and
recognizes that coordinating these initiatives is important, the agency's
workforce planning efforts do not include an analysis of potential
outsourcing opportunities that may arise as the result of AOC's
identification of how best to deliver services.

  Service Delivery

Given recent trends and long-range fiscal challenges, we have reported the
need for the federal government to engage in a fundamental review,
reassessment, and reprioritization of what the government does, how the
government does business, and who does the government's business.16 In
fiscal year 2005, AOC outsourced about 23 percent of the agency's
operations and maintenance expenditures; this percentage was within the
range of operations outsourced by similar organizations (12 to 41
percent).17 However, AOC has not comprehensively reviewed all the services
it provides to determine whether the services could better be provided
through outsourcing or in-house resources. Consequently, few activities
are outsourced consistently throughout AOC, and contracts are seldom
consolidated to obtain similar services across jurisdictions.18 In 2006,
the House Appropriations Committee instructed AOC to develop a plan that
analyzes the costs, cost-effectiveness, benefits, and feasibility of the
Architect's entering into contracts with private entities for managing and
operating its facilities.19 AOC submitted a plan to Congress that outlines
a long-term strategy for comprehensively reviewing operations and
identifying opportunities for additional contracting; however, the plan
does not provide time frames for executing this strategy. AOC officials
told us that the time frames for the long-term strategy depend on
coordination with the new congressional leadership to brief them on AOC's
outsourcing plan.

15In August 2006, AOC also issued a COO action plan, which is a 1- to
2-year plan that sets forth "quick hit" tactical actions intended to help
AOC become a more strategic and accountable organization. According to the
plan, once these actions are completed, the action plan will no longer be
necessary, since the strategic plan will serve as the vehicle for change
and process improvement.

16GAO, Commercial Activities Panel: Improving the Sourcing Decisions of
the Federal Government, [36]GAO-02-847T (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 27,
2002).

17AOC also outsourced about 90 percent of capitalized expenditures for
fiscal year 2005; however, AOC's capitalized expenditures were not
comparable with similar organizations.

18We provided this finding in our September 2006 briefing to the House
Appropriations Committee on AOC's outsourcing efforts.

19House Rep. No. 109-485, at 14 (2006).

In 2002, the Commercial Activities Panel issued guiding principles for
federal agencies to follow when making decisions on whether to outsource
services.20 In briefings to congressional committees, we have reported
that these principles could guide AOC in determining how best to deliver
its services. For example, the panel recommended that the decision on
whether to outsource services should

           o support agency missions, goals, and objectives (as defined in
           the agency's strategic plan);

           o be based on a clear, transparent, and consistently applied
           process;

           o avoid arbitrary full-time equivalent or other arbitrary
           numerical goals;

           o ensure that competitions involve a process that considers both
           quality and cost factors; and

           o provide for accountability in connection with all decisions.
			  
   			  Workforce Planning

           In addition, AOC has not assessed its current workforce to
           determine whether it has the appropriate balance of skills needed
           to provide services and manage contracts for services that are
           outsourced. An assessment of AOC's workforce can help AOC
           leadership further refine their decisions on whether to deliver
           AOC's services with outsourcing or in-house resources. As we
           recommended, AOC has taken steps to identify current and future
           workforce needs and address potential skill gaps by hiring a
           contractor to assist in the development of a strategic workforce
           plan. Although the scope of the contractor's work will include
           collecting and analyzing data on AOC's workforce, it does not
           include an analysis of potential outsourcing opportunities that
           may arise as the result of AOC's identification of how best to
           deliver services. Furthermore, the COO requested that the
           workforce planning efforts include an analysis of potential
           outsourcing opportunities, but the COO's guidance came after AOC
           had finalized its workforce planning contract. An AOC official
           responsible for the contract stated that this level of analysis
           either would require additional resources for the current contract
           or would need to be incorporated into a second phase of its
           workforce planning efforts. Another initiative in AOC's workforce
           planning efforts--the implementation of a skills assessment
           survey--has been delayed to revise the survey instrument and make
           a more useful tool for collecting data on AOC's current workforce.
           An official stated that AOC does not expect the skills assessment
           survey to be completed in the near future. Consequently, data from
           the skills assessment survey will not be taken into account in the
           work being done by AOC's contractor responsible for developing the
           strategic workforce plan.
			  
			  Improved Communication Procedures Need to Be Sustained

           AOC took several steps over the past year to improve communication
           with its external stakeholders, and stakeholders are responding
           positively to these efforts. To improve communication with
           congressional stakeholders, AOC hired a Director of Congressional
           and External Relations. The director is responsible for developing
           and maintaining positive relations with congressional
           stakeholders, and she regularly provides them with updates on AOC
           issues. Other AOC officials, including the COO and the Director of
           Planning and Project Management, also periodically brief
           congressional stakeholders on a variety of issues, such as
           revisions to the strategic plan, the COO's action plan, and AOC's
           budget submission and the status of projects. As a result of these
           efforts, the COO believes that AOC better understands what
           Congress wants and is able to set expectations, obtain feedback,
           and make changes on the basis of that feedback. Congressional
           stakeholders we spoke with generally agree that AOC's outreach
           efforts have improved, and they said that the addition of the
           Director of Congressional and External Relations has improved
           AOC's responsiveness to congressional questions and requests for
           information.

           Although AOC has taken steps to improve communication with its
           congressional stakeholders, it is critical for these improvements
           to be formalized and sustained. AOC is finalizing written
           procedures for communicating with congressional and other external
           stakeholders and plans to brief congressional leadership on these
           procedures. In instituting these procedures, AOC is working to
           establish "one voice" for the agency and set expectations for
           AOC's response time to stakeholder inquiries. Although
           congressional stakeholders generally agree that communication has
           improved, documentation of AOC's communication procedures can help
           ensure that AOC deals with its congressional customers using
           clearly defined, consistently applied, and transparent policies
           and procedures.21

           AOC also has taken actions to improve communication with its
           employees, but the effectiveness of these efforts remains to be
           seen. AOC recently revised its process for collecting and
           assessing data on employee satisfaction to address our
           recommendations on systematically collecting and communicating
           employee feedback. AOC continues to distribute newsletters to its
           employees; hold biannual town hall meetings and monthly,
           small-group sessions with the COO; and address issues that were
           identified in employee focus groups, first held in 2004.22 AOC
           also contracted for an ombudsperson to serve as a confidential
           resource for responding to employee complaints, concerns, and
           questions on employment-related matters. Although these are
           positive steps, AOC will not be able to determine the extent to
           which communication has been improved until the next round of
           employee focus groups is completed and compared with the results
           of the 2004 focus groups. AOC originally planned to conduct the
           next round of focus groups in fiscal year 2007; however, because
           of fiscal constraints and ongoing transformation efforts, AOC is
           considering the possibility of conducting focus groups in fiscal
           year 2008.

           The effectiveness of AOC's communication improvements also depends
           on how well AOC can identify and address issues that may arise as
           well as communicate the actions that are being taken to address
           the issues. For example, in 2006, employees involved in repairing
           AOC's utility tunnels expressed concerns over how AOC management
           communicated with them. Although AOC developed a plan to address
           problems in the utility tunnels, the tunnel workers expressed
           concern that they had no clear idea of when the problems would be
           solved. To improve communication, AOC began holding weekly
           meetings with the tunnel shop workers in April 2006 to discuss
           tunnel issues and the actions being taken, but workers continued
           to express frustration about the lack of progress in addressing
           their safety and health concerns.23 As issues such as worker
           safety arise, it is important for employees to see that AOC's
           leadership not only listens to their concerns, but also takes
           action and makes appropriate adjustments in a visible and timely
           way.24
			  
			  Further Progress in Improving Financial Management, IT
			  Management, and Project Management Requires Ongoing Commitment

           AOC has made progress in financial management, IT management, and
           project management, but sustained commitment is required to
           continue progress on the long-term efforts in these areas, many of
           which are needed to improve AOC's internal controls and
           accountability. Internal control and accountability are critical
           elements in managing an organization. Internal control involves
           the plans, methods, and procedures used to meet missions, goals,
           and objectives and, in doing so, to support performance-based
           management. Accountability represents the processes, mechanisms,
           and other means by which AOC managers demonstrate their
           stewardship and responsibility for resources and performance.
           Internal control and accountability initiatives require sustained
           and committed leadership to ensure successful implementation.
           While AOC has made progress in all nine areas that are important
           to a strong strategic management and accountability framework,
           work remains to develop significant and lasting internal control
           and accountability improvements in the areas of financial
           management, IT management, and project management. (See app. I for
           more information on the status of recommendations in all nine
           areas, including strategic management, human capital management,
           facilities management, worker safety, CPP management, and
           recycling.)
			  
			     Financial Management

           AOC has made progress in preparing its financial statements and
           implementing a new financial management system, but significant
           work remains to establish an effective internal control framework
           and cost accounting system. AOC achieved its goal of preparing
           auditable comprehensive agencywide financial statements with the
           successful audit of its fiscal year 2005 and 2006 financial
           statements. To a significant extent, these achievements reflect
           the increased focus and attention by AOC's senior management on
           financial accountability and control. For example, AOC's senior
           management regularly meets with the AOC Audit Committee and its
           internal and external auditors to discuss the status of the
           financial statement audits, any related findings, and AOC's
           corrective plans. In 2006, AOC also implemented the final phase of
           its new financial management system. AOC has begun efforts to
           establish a risk-based internal control framework, although
           progress has been impacted by staffing shortages and limited
           resources. To improve accountability across the agency, AOC has
           begun the implementation of its cost accounting system, including
           working to get employees to charge their time to specific
           activities and project codes in the time and attendance system and
           working to develop reporting formats that demonstrate the types of
           information that can be generated when the system is fully
           implemented. Although these are important steps, the system will
           have to be further developed to link AOC's cost information to the
           strategic plan, performance measures, and performance-based
           budgeting--actions that are important to producing reliable
           information for decision making and performance evaluation. AOC
           officials noted that further progress in implementing the internal
           control framework and the cost accounting system will be limited
           by current resource constraints. Implementing this key effort
           impacts other AOC initiatives. For example, while AOC has taken
           steps to improve its cost and timeliness measures for facilities
           management, it will not be able to accurately and routinely track
           or benchmark these measures until the cost accounting system is
           further developed and linked with the facilities management
           information system. AOC officials noted that it will take several
           years for the systems and processes to evolve to the point that
           the system can be fully implemented. Successful implementation of
           these systems and processes that impact all of AOC's operations
           will require sustained organizational commitment to ensure these
           efforts are appropriately funded, staffed, and monitored. Until
           these efforts are implemented and operating effectively, AOC
           continues to face substantial risk in the area of linking cost and
           financial information to organizational performance.
			  

20Section 832 of the Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2001, Pub.
L. No. 106-398, 114 Stat. 1654 (2000) required the Comptroller General of
the United States to convene a panel of experts to study the process used
by the federal government to make sourcing decisions. After a year-long
study, this panel published its report in April 2002. See Commercial
Activities Panel, Improving the Sourcing Decisions of the Government:
Final Report (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 30, 2002), on the GAO Web site,
http://www.gao.gov.

21 [37]GAO-03-231 .

22AOC established employee focus groups as a method for collecting
employee feedback information on a regular basis.

23 [38]GAO-07-227R .

24 [39]GAO-04-299 and [40]GAO-04-966 .
			  
			    IT Management

           AOC has made progress in improving IT management controls and
           accountability, but work remains to fully implement an effective
           agencywide approach to IT management. To improve management
           controls in AOC's IT investment management process, AOC developed
           and approved an IT investment management policy that describes the
           agency's investment management process and the roles and
           authorities of the boards involved in overseeing IT investments.
           AOC also has begun to plan for and implement the practices in our
           IT investment management guide associated with corporate,
           portfolio-based investment decision making. However, AOC has yet
           to prioritize all IT investments, develop an IT investment
           portfolio, and oversee each investment from a portfolio approach
           to ensure that it achieves its cost, benefit, schedule, and risk
           expectations. According to AOC officials, AOC has begun the
           process of establishing an IT portfolio management program that
           will arrange IT investment into a single portfolio and provide
           visibility, control, and decisions based on project objectives
           such as costs, resources, and risks. However, until AOC fully
           institutes these practices, it cannot ensure that the investments
           address the agency's strategic goals, objectives, and mission.
			  
   			  Project Management

           AOC also took actions to improve internal controls and
           accountability in the area of project management, but sustained
           commitment is needed to continue progress in managing project
           costs and developing a project information system to help manage
           and track projects. For example, AOC made internal control and
           accountability improvements by developing and tracking
           project-management-related performance measures, clarifying the
           roles and responsibilities of staff in the Project Management
           Division, and revising its project management manuals. However,
           AOC's lack of accurate cost data for the Construction
           Division--the division that provides construction services
           in-house (rather than by contractors)--hampers its efforts to
           fully account for the costs of projects. In April 2006, a peer
           review group within AOC issued recommendations designed to better
           track cost data for the division, including standardizing the cost
           estimating process. AOC is taking steps to address the peer review
           recommendations, such as developing centralized planning and
           estimating capabilities to provide better cost estimates for all
           Construction Division projects, but, according to AOC officials,
           the agency will not be able to fully account for project costs
           until the cost accounting system is in place. In addition, AOC
           plans to modify its project information system to improve AOC's
           ability to manage, track, and communicate the status of projects.
           AOC has developed the requirements for this system, which includes
           the automation of AOC's quarterly construction projects progress
           report. AOC plans to begin modifications to the current system
           with available in-house resources in fiscal year 2007 and
           requested funding for further modifications in its fiscal year
           2008 budget. Sustained support of these project management
           initiatives is critical to improving AOC's efforts to manage
           projects, identify reasons for project cost and schedule changes,
           and report to the stakeholders.

           On the basis of our ongoing work and issued testimonies on AOC's
           management of the CVC project, we and AOC worked together to
           identify lessons learned from the ongoing CVC project, some of
           which are also relevant for project management across AOC. For
           example, one lesson suggests the importance of establishing and
           maintaining a detailed, realistic, and complete project schedule
           and ensuring that the schedule sufficiently reflects the impact of
           problems and changes and the likely impact of known risks. Another
           lesson suggests the importance of clearly identifying
           qualifications and limitations associated with cost and schedule
           estimates; understanding risks and uncertainties; and providing
           Congress with accurate, timely updates on the project's status,
           completion date, and costs. Recognizing the need to improve how
           AOC manages large projects, the agency is adding capital project
           administrators to its Project Management Division to lead the
           design and construction activities of larger projects.
			  
			  Agency Comments and Our Evaluation

           In responding to a draft of this report, AOC generally agreed with
           our assessment of the agency's overall progress, but noted that 2
           additional recommendations--1 on institutionalizing financial
           management practices to support budgeting, financial, and program
           management and 1 on developing a rigorous approach for collecting
           worker safety data--should be considered implemented. According to
           AOC officials, the agency has made significant progress over the
           past year and installed a solid foundation for further
           improvements. The officials also recognized that continued focused
           attention to the agency's improvement initiatives is essential to
           maintaining progress. For our recommendation on financial
           management practices, AOC suggested that the two remaining actions
           for this recommendation--fully developing and implementing an
           appropriate risk-based internal control framework and cost
           accounting and management reporting initiatives--are addressed in
           the other financial management recommendations. In our August 2004
           report, we noted the AOC's limited progress on the financial
           management initiatives, which lead us to make additional
           recommendations calling for senior management to provide strong
           and visible support and commitment to helping ensure that these
           important initiatives are successfully implemented. While some
           progress has been made on these initiatives, AOC officials noted
           that further progress will be limited by staffing shortages and
           resource constraints. The potential limited, near-term progress
           leads us to observe in this report that successful implementation
           of these systems and processes, which impact all of AOC's
           operations, will require sustained organizational commitment to
           ensure these efforts are appropriately funded, staffed, and
           monitored. We maintain that full implementation of these
           initiatives is necessary for institutionalizing internal control
           and accountability and strengthening and supporting effective
           budgeting, financial, and performance management at AOC. For the
           recommendation on collecting worker safety data, AOC officials
           noted that they believe their current practices--including
           conducting biennial focus groups, conducting daily shop safety
           meetings, and establishing a safety hazards hotline--sufficiently
           meet the requirements of this recommendation. While we recognize
           that these initiatives provide the agency with some information on
           worker safety, these initiatives do not provide a rigorous and
           confidential approach for collecting employee perceptions of AOC's
           safety climate, such as perceptions of management commitment,
           discipline policies, and hazard corrections. This lack of
           confidentiality can impede the quality of information collected.
           Furthermore, although AOC established a schedule to collect
           employee feedback every other year, AOC has not conducted focus
           groups since fiscal year 2004 and does not have plans to do so
           until possibly fiscal year 2008. AOC's recently revised employee
           feedback manual specifies that AOC can use other means or tools to
           collect and provide employee feedback information. This would
           allow AOC to pursue another, more rigorous and confidential method
           for collecting worker safety data. AOC also made clarifying and
           technical comments that we addressed in the text of this report.

           We are sending copies of this report to the appropriate
           congressional committees. We are also sending this report to the
           Acting Architect of the Capitol. We will make copies available to
           others upon request. In addition, this report will be available at
           no cost on the GAO Web site at http://www.gao.gov. Contact points
           for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may
           be found on the last page of this report.

           If you or your staffs have any questions about this report, you
           may contact me at (202) 512-6923 or at [email protected]. Major
           contributors to this report are listed in appendix II.

           Terrell G. Dorn
			  Director, Physical Infrastructure Issues
			  
			  Appendix I: Status of AOCï¿½s Progress on Recommendations

           Since January 2003, we have made 64 recommendations in nine areas
           to improve the Architect of the Capitol's (AOC) strategic
           management and accountability framework, which is needed to drive
           the agency's transformation effort and address long-standing
           program issues. These nine areas are strategic management, human
           capital management, financial management, information technology
           (IT) management, project management, facilities management, worker
           safety, Capitol Power Plant (CPP) management,1 and recycling. Over
           the past year, AOC has implemented 21 recommendations, bringing
           the total number of implemented or closed recommendations to 43
           out of 64, or 67 percent.

           This appendix provides (1) the overall progress and remaining
           actions in each of the nine issue areas and (2) details on the
           status of the recommendations made in each area (see tables 1
           through 9). For the recommendations that have been implemented,
           the "status" column in the tables includes the month and year of
           the GAO report that acknowledges the completion of that
           recommendation. Recommendations implemented since our February
           2006 report were given an implementation date of February 2007.
			  
			  Strategic Management

           AOC has made progress in improving its strategic planning and
           organizational alignment, establishing meaningful performance
           measures, improving the process to obtain feedback from employees
           and customers, and strengthening the relationship between AOC and
           congressional stakeholders. As a result, AOC has implemented 6 of
           our strategic management recommendations over the year.
           Specifically, AOC has issued its revised strategic plan and the
           Chief Operating Officer (COO) action plan and provided periodic
           briefings to update congressional stakeholders on these plans and
           related organizational changes. To improve communication with its
           employees, AOC revised its employee feedback process manual to
           establish a process for regularly collecting and reporting
           employee feedback information. Finally, to improve communication
           with its external stakeholders, AOC is establishing procedures for
           communicating with congressional and other external stakeholders
           and has taken a more proactive approach to communicating with
           these stakeholders.

           Although AOC has made progress in the area of strategic
           management, sustained commitment from the agency's new leaders is
           necessary to build upon this progress. To ensure that the
           strategic plan is current and useful to the agency, AOC leadership
           should review and update the strategic plan regularly and
           incorporate any changes that may result from AOC's review of
           options and strategies for delivering its services and operations.
           Furthermore, AOC should continue to work with congressional
           stakeholders to develop and report key measures that are
           meaningful to AOC's customers and reflect the agency's day-to-day
           operations. See table 1 for more information on the implementation
           status of our recommendations on strategic management.

1During this same time period, GAO made an additional 8 recommendations
related to the Capitol power plant master plan. See GAO, Capitol Power
Plant Utility Master Plan, [41]GAO-04-456RNI (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 1,
2004). AOC implemented 6 of the recommendations and is making progress in
implementing the remaining 2 recommendations. Due to the security
sensitive nature of these recommendations, we did not include these
recommendations in this report.

Table 1: Current Status of Recommendations on Strategic Management

                                Status                                        
GAO recommendation and date  (month/year of                                
of the recommendation        GAO report)     Progress and remaining action 
1. Improve strategic         Implemented     AOC has fulfilled our         
planning and organizational  (February 2007) recommendation by involving   
alignment by involving key                   congressional and other       
congressional and other                      stakeholders in drafting the  
external stakeholders in                     January 2007 version of the   
AOC's strategic planning                     strategic plan. For example,  
efforts and in any                           AOC conducted briefings with  
organizational changes that                  stakeholders on the strategic 
may result from these                        plan and COO action plan,     
efforts.                                     sought feedback, and          
                                                integrated the suggested      
January 2003                                 changes into the plans. In    
                                                addition, AOC has hired a     
                                                permanent COO and a Director  
                                                of Congressional and External 
                                                Relations to coordinate the   
                                                flow of information between   
                                                Congress and the Architect of 
                                                the Capitol (Architect) and   
                                                the COO.                      
2. To strengthen the         Making progress Progress                      
relationship between AOC and                                               
its congressional and other                     o AOC has developed a      
stakeholders, we recommend                      mixture of outcome and     
that the Architect of the                       output measures that are   
Capitol direct the COO to                       clearly linked to its      
actively consult with                           strategic goals, and AOC   
Congress on the design and                      has worked with            
implementation of meaningful                    congressional stakeholders 
outcome-based and                               to develop, review, and    
performance-based measures                      revise three documents     
that are useful to both AOC                     designed to assist AOC in  
and Congress. This effort                       becoming a more strategic  
will enable AOC and Congress                    and accountable            
to assess AOC's progress.                       organization. All three    
                                                   documents track            
August 2004                                     performance toward         
                                                   specific targets that are  
                                                   linked to the agency's     
                                                   strategic goals.           
                                                   o The strategic plan       
                                                   contains AOC's three       
                                                   strategic goals and a      
                                                   performance plan that      
                                                   outlines specific          
                                                   objectives and associated  
                                                   activities as well as      
                                                   performance measures that  
                                                   are linked to the          
                                                   strategic goals. This plan 
                                                   is used by the COO and the 
                                                   Architect to move AOC      
                                                   forward and track progress 
                                                   on AOC's strategic goals.  
                                                   o The COO action plan is   
                                                   for use by the COO and the 
                                                   Architect in tracking      
                                                   progress on a set of       
                                                   complimentary tasks to     
                                                   AOC's strategic plan. The  
                                                   action plan contains       
                                                   several short-term "quick  
                                                   hit" items intended to     
                                                   help AOC become a more     
                                                   strategic and accountable  
                                                   organization.              
                                                   o The AOC dashboard        
                                                   summarizes AOC's           
                                                   performance and contains a 
                                                   series of tactical or      
                                                   operational indicators     
                                                   that are tracked on a      
                                                   monthly basis and are for  
                                                   use by the COO and the     
                                                   Architect, as well as      
                                                   superintendents and        
                                                   division heads, to discuss 
                                                   AOC's performance.         
                                                                              
                                                Remaining action              
                                                                              
                                                   o Congressional            
                                                   stakeholders noted that    
                                                   they would like to see key 
                                                   measures that are          
                                                   meaningful to AOC's        
                                                   customers and reflect the  
                                                   agency's day-to-day        
                                                   operations. For example,   
                                                   response time on cleaning  
                                                   requests (such as a        
                                                   request to clean up a      
                                                   spill in a hallway) is     
                                                   important to AOC's         
                                                   building occupants, but    
                                                   AOC does not have a        
                                                   measure that captures how  
                                                   quickly the agency         
                                                   responds to this type of   
                                                   request. Stakeholders also 
                                                   suggested that AOC could   
                                                   develop a top 10 key       
                                                   indicators list that       
                                                   succinctly shows AOC's     
                                                   overall performance.       
3. Develop a comprehensive   Implemented     AOC has established a process 
strategy to improve internal (February 2006) for obtaining employee input  
and external communications                  and feedback and finalized a  
by providing opportunities                   process manual for employee   
for routine employee input                   feedback. The process manual  
and feedback.                                provides guidance for         
                                                obtaining employee feedback   
January 2003                                 using a four-step approach:   
                                                identifying concerns,         
                                                obtaining data, giving        
                                                feedback, and following up on 
                                                results. The process manual   
                                                also details responsibilities 
                                                for staff and provides an     
                                                implementation plan. While    
                                                AOC has provided              
                                                opportunities for routine     
                                                employee feedback, it is      
                                                important for AOC to collect  
                                                a consistent and              
                                                comprehensive set of data on  
                                                a regular basis in order to   
                                                monitor progress against an   
                                                established baseline.         
4. Gather and analyze        Implemented     AOC held focus group sessions 
employee feedback from focus (February 2006) in September 2004 and has     
groups or surveys before                     communicated planned actions  
fiscal year 2005, as well as                 to employees by issuing three 
communicate how it is taking                 brochures. According to AOC,  
actions to address any                       it has begun to implement     
identified employee                          several of the planned        
concerns.                                    actions and will continue to  
                                                communicate with employees as 
January 2004                                 each action plan is           
                                                implemented. In addition, AOC 
                                                has issued a focus group      
                                                guide that outlines           
                                                procedures for conducting     
                                                focus groups and reporting on 
                                                the results.                  
5. To improve communication  Implemented     AOC implemented the basic     
with employees, we recommend (February 2006) framework in its              
that the Architect of the                    communications plan through a 
Capitol direct the COO to                    variety of communication      
fully and effectively                        methods to convey information 
implement the basic                          to employees, including a     
framework as defined in its                  weekly newsletter on project  
communications plan and                      updates, policy               
process manuals, and                         announcements, management and 
finalize its draft employee                  communication tips, and other 
feedback manual to ensure                    agencywide messages. AOC has  
that the current progress                    also distributed a process    
already made is maintained.                  manual for employee feedback. 
                                                                              
August 2004                                                                
6. Develop a comprehensive   Implemented     AOC is finalizing its         
strategy to improve internal (February 2007) congressional protocols,      
and external communications                  designed to facilitate and    
by completing the                            improve internal and external 
development of congressional                 communications. AOC has       
protocols by involving                       worked closely with its       
stakeholders.                                congressional stakeholders to 
                                                develop these protocols to    
January 2003                                 ensure that they are useful   
                                                to AOC, Congress, and other   
                                                external stakeholders. The    
                                                Director of Congressional and 
                                                External Relations has sought 
                                                and incorporated input from   
                                                both internal and external    
                                                stakeholders during the       
                                                development of these          
                                                protocols.                    
7. Conduct a pilot of its    Implemented     AOC has chosen to pilot its   
congressional protocols in   (February 2007) congressional protocols       
one or more of its                           agencywide to avoid potential 
jurisdictions to determine                   confusion among jurisdictions 
how well its protocols would                 operating under different     
work in addressing customer                  protocols and to take         
requests for service, while                  advantage of the benefits of  
balancing the need of                        training all employees        
multiple requests with the                   concurrently. AOC officials   
strategic plan and                           stated that AOC expects to    
corresponding project                        receive feedback from its     
priorities of the agency.                    stakeholders during the       
                                                protocol's implementation and 
January 2004                                 will revise the protocols, as 
                                                appropriate.                  
8. Develop a comprehensive   Implemented     AOC fulfilled our             
strategy to improve internal (February 2006) recommendation through the    
and external communications                  release of its fiscal year    
by improving annual                          2003 accountability report    
accountability reporting                     and plans to publish annual   
through annual performance                   accountability reports        
planning and reporting.                      thereafter. In addition, AOC  
                                                released a performance plan   
January 2003                                 in April 2005 that details    
                                                steps to achieve its          
                                                strategic goals and           
                                                objectives. AOC staff, AOC    
                                                Audit Committee staff, GAO,   
                                                and other congressional       
                                                stakeholders are involved in  
                                                the development of these      
                                                reports. AOC plans to monitor 
                                                the progress toward meeting   
                                                milestones outlined in its    
                                                performance plan through      
                                                monthly assessment meetings.  
9. Develop a comprehensive   Implemented     AOC has fulfilled our         
strategy to improve internal (January 2004)  recommendation by             
and external communications                  implementing the annual       
by continuing to regularly                   building services customer    
measure customer                             satisfaction survey.          
satisfaction AOC-wide.                       Information from the survey   
                                                will be incorporated into     
January 2003                                 AOC's business plan and will  
                                                be useful in monitoring the   
                                                quality of AOC's services and 
                                                the progress of AOC's         
                                                improvement initiatives.      
10. To strengthen the        Implemented     AOC has fulfilled our         
relationship between AOC and (February 2006) recommendation by releasing   
its congressional and other                  the results of the 2003       
stakeholders, we recommend                   building services customer    
that the Architect of the                    satisfaction survey in its    
Capitol direct the COO to                    2004 report. The report       
expedite the release of the                  tracked customer satisfaction 
2003 building services                       between 2002 and 2004. In     
customer satisfaction                        addition, AOC provided        
survey, as a transparency                    customers with letters        
and accountability                           detailing actions planned to  
mechanism, and to provide                    address their concerns.       
Congress and other                                                         
stakeholders with assurance                                                
that actions are being taken                                               
in response to their                                                       
feedback.                                                                  
                                                                              
August 2004                                                                
11. Establish                Implemented     AOC fulfilled our             
action-oriented              (January 2004)  recommendation by issuing its 
implementation goals over                    draft performance plan in     
the long term and a timeline                 March 2003, which was         
with milestone dates to                      prepared to satisfy a         
track the organization's                     congressional requirement for 
progress toward achieving                    the development of a          
those implementation goals.                  management improvement plan.  
The Architect of the Capitol                 This draft performance plan   
should work with key                         for fiscal years 2003-2007    
congressional and other                      established action-oriented   
stakeholders to develop                      implementation goals over the 
plans.                                       long term and a timeline with 
                                                milestone dates to track the  
January 2003                                 organization's progress       
                                                toward achieving those goals. 
12. To enhance the           Implemented     AOC fulfilled this            
usefulness of the COO action (February 2007) recommendation by taking      
plan, we recommend that the                  several actions.              
Architect of the Capitol and                                               
the COO consult with Members                    o In March 2006, AOC hired 
of Congress and key                             a permanent COO.           
committees on the specific                      o In August 2006, the COO  
information regarding AOC's                     issued an action plan,     
plans, policies, procedures,                    including actions related  
actions, and proposed                           to project management. For 
organizational changes. As                      example, the action plan   
part of this effort, the                        includes establishing      
Architect of the Capitol and                    technical expertise in     
the COO should work with                        project scheduling to      
Congress to determine                           improve AOC's estimating   
Congress's information needs                    process and enhancing      
and the timing and format of                    project delivery services  
delivery of that information                    through continued use of   
that will best meet                             an effective project       
Congress's needs.                               process and monitoring of  
Furthermore, consistent with                    all projects to ensure     
our findings and                                completion of projects on  
recommendations with respect                    time and within budget.    
to congressional and other                      o To ensure project        
stakeholder involvement in                      priorities are determined, 
general and the Capitol                         AOC continues to meet with 
complex master plan in                          congressional stakeholders 
particular, as well as our                      to discuss how AOC targets 
original January 2003                           its resources and          
management review, specific                     prioritizes projects and   
emphasis should be placed on                    revised its project        
AOC's project management.                       prioritization process to  
Particular issues to be                         more clearly articulate    
discussed could include how                     the criteria for assigning 
                                                   project ratings.           
      o AOC's projects'                            o To monitor projects, AOC 
      priorities are                               continues to issue         
      determined;                                  quarterly reports to       
      o AOC monitors and                           Congress on the cost and   
      controls project cost,                       schedule of active         
      quality, and timeliness;                     projects.                  
      o AOC uses lessons                           o To benefit from lessons  
      learned from projects and                    learned, AOC developed and 
      seeks to incorporate best                    implemented design         
      practices;                                   services and construction  
      o project management                         services surveys. Also,    
      accountability is                            AOC developed and          
      assigned and managed; and                    implemented an acquisition 
                                                   strategy process with an   
                                                   acquisition strategy board 
                                                   that meets on a regular    
                                                   basis to discuss, among    
                                                   other things, lessons      
                                                   learned from previous      
                                                   projects. AOC's            
                                                   acquisition strategy board 
                                                   also discusses the best    
                                                   mix of in-house and        
                                                   contractor support as part 
                                                   of their regular meetings. 
o AOC determines the best                       o To improve               
mix of in-house and                             accountability, AOC        
contractor support when                         established a project      
designing projects.                             management organization    
                                                   with a project manager     
Subsequent COO action plans                     dedicated to each project  
and status reports will                         from start to finish.      
likely be most helpful to                       Also, AOC uses its         
Congress to the extent that                     dashboard (see table 2,    
they are rigorously specific                    recommendation 1) to       
as to the problem or issue                      monitor project management 
that needs to be addressed,                     performance and discuss    
the actions that are being                      performance issues with    
taken in response, the                          AOC senior management each 
progress to date, and                           month.                     
milestones for additional                       o AOC officials, including 
actions.                                        the COO and the Director   
                                                   of Planning and Project    
August 2004                                     Management, also regularly 
                                                   brief congressional        
                                                   stakeholders on a variety  
                                                   of issues, including AOC's 
                                                   budget submission, status  
                                                   of projects, and project   
                                                   priorities.                
13. AOC should further       Implemented     AOC has recently revised its  
refine its employee feedback (February 2007) employee feedback process     
efforts by establishing a                    manual, which establishes a   
method(s) to collect                         process for regularly         
consistent and comprehensive                 collecting employee feedback  
information on a regular                     information. In the revised   
basis and to allow AOC to                    employee feedback manual, AOC 
track results over time                      established the results of    
against an established                       its 2004 focus groups as a    
baseline.                                    baseline for its work         
                                                environment assessment and    
October 2005                                 planned to conduct focus      
                                                groups every 2 years. AOC     
                                                originally planned to conduct 
                                                the next round of focus       
                                                groups in fiscal year 2007;   
                                                however, because of the       
                                                fiscal constraints and        
                                                ongoing transformation        
                                                efforts, AOC may conduct      
                                                focus groups in fiscal year   
                                                2008, according to AOC        
                                                officials. AOC also plans to  
                                                conduct other feedback        
                                                efforts, such as surveys of   
                                                customer satisfaction, as     
                                                needed.                       
14. AOC should improve its   Implemented     AOC has improved its          
communications strategy for  (February 2007) communication strategy for    
employee feedback (as                        employee feedback by revising 
documented in its employee                   its employee feedback process 
feedback manual) to ensure                   manual to reflect GAO's       
that employees and external                  recommendations on the        
stakeholders receive an                      timeliness of feedback to     
adequate level of detail                     employees and is completing   
about employee feedback                      final edits on the manual.    
initiative results and                       For the next biennial         
related agency actions in a                  assessment, AOC plans to make 
timely manner. The                           one person responsible for    
communications strategy also                 preparing initial feedback to 
should emphasize the need to                 employees as soon as          
summarize the documents and                  practicable and for           
provide a consistent level                   developing a feedback plan    
of detail.                                   that provides information to  
                                                stakeholders within 4 months  
October 2005                                 of completing the assessment. 
                                                AOC's revised employee        
                                                feedback manual also states   
                                                that the level of detail on   
                                                feedback should be tailored   
                                                for each audience and         
                                                purpose. Although AOC has set 
                                                up a process to fulfill this  
                                                recommendation, AOC needs to  
                                                demonstrate that it has       
                                                improved its communication    
                                                strategy in its next series   
                                                of focus groups by providing  
                                                employees and stakeholders    
                                                with timely information on    
                                                focus group results and       
                                                initiatives.                  

Source: GAO analysis of AOC data.

Human Capital Management

AOC has taken steps to strengthen performance management and strategic
human capital management by implementing our recommendation to develop the
capacity for collecting and analyzing workforce data. Additionally, AOC
has hired a contractor to begin developing a strategic workforce plan
intended to provide AOC with information on its current and future
workforce as well as recommendations on how AOC could meet its strategic
goals. Although hiring the contractor is an important step, AOC's current
effort to develop a strategic workforce plan will not include an
assessment of how best to deliver (either through outsourcing or in-house
resources) the services it provides. Without this type of assessment,
AOC's strategic workforce plan will not provide AOC leadership with the
appropriate set of strategies to acquire, develop, and retain its current
and future workforce. See table 2 for more information on the
implementation status of our recommendations on human capital management.

Table 2: Current Status of Recommendations on Human Capital Management

GAO recommendation and  Status                                             
date of the             (month/year of                                     
recommendation          GAO report)     Progress and remaining action      
1. Strengthen           Implemented     AOC has implemented a performance  
performance measurement (February 2006) management approach that includes  
and strategic human                     strategic planning, annual         
capital management by                   performance planning and           
developing annual goals                 reporting, and assessment of AOC's 
and measuring                           progress in meeting agencywide     
performance.                            milestones and measures. AOC has   
                                           identified four strategic goals:   
January 2003                            facilities management, project     
                                           management, human capital          
                                           management, and organizational     
                                           excellence. AOC also has           
                                           identified a number of measures to 
                                           monitor and evaluate performance,  
                                           and these measures will serve as   
                                           the basis for employees' annual    
                                           performance goals as well as the   
                                           assessment of AOC's overall        
                                           success in meeting its strategic   
                                           goals. The measures include        
                                           quality facility management;       
                                           projects delivered on time, on     
                                           budget, and of high quality;       
                                           highly skilled and motivated       
                                           employees; and effects of          
                                           managerial oversight. In addition, 
                                           AOC has developed a document--the  
                                           AOC dashboard--that summarizes     
                                           performance in each of its         
                                           strategic focus areas: project     
                                           management, facilities management, 
                                           human capital management, and      
                                           organizational excellence. The     
                                           dashboard includes several         
                                           high-level indicators to track     
                                           performance for each of the        
                                           strategic goals as well as a       
                                           target goal for each indicator.    
2. Strengthen           Implemented     AOC's senior executive performance 
performance measurement (February 2006) management system and its employee 
and strategic human                     performance evaluation system are  
capital management by                   linked to AOC's mission-critical   
creating "a line of                     goals. Employees are expected to   
sight" by linking AOC's                 ensure completion of a performance 
senior executive and                    plan that outlines performance     
employee performance                    standards for each critical task   
management systems to                   related to the employee's          
mission-critical goals.                 position. The employee's           
                                           performance is evaluated against   
January 2003                            the established performance plan   
                                           as it relates to AOC's strategic   
                                           goals and objectives. The employee 
                                           is given a rating of               
                                           "outstanding," "fully successful," 
                                           or "unsuccessful" for each element 
                                           as well as a summary rating.       
3. Strengthen           Making progress Progress                           
performance measurement                                                    
and strategic human                        o AOC previously identified     
capital management by                      core competencies for most of   
establishing agencywide                    the agency's positions and has  
core and technical                         linked these competencies to    
competencies and                           the positions' critical tasks.  
holding employees                                                          
accountable for these                   Remaining actions                  
competencies as a part                                                     
of the performance                         o AOC is working with a         
management system.                         contractor to develop a process 
                                              to link identified core         
January 2003                               competencies to an individual's 
                                              training plan and performance   
                                              assessment. AOC has not set a   
                                              specific completion date for    
                                              this phase.                     
                                              o Employees still need to be    
                                              notified of the competencies    
                                              that they will be evaluated     
                                              against. AOC is currently       
                                              working to develop a            
                                              communications plan for this    
                                              notification.                   
4. Strengthen           Implemented     AOC's Workforce Planning and       
performance measurement (February 2007) Management Office has identified   
and strategic human                     numerous ways to collect, report,  
capital management by                   and analyze workforce data.        
developing the capacity                 Additionally, several data sources 
to collect and analyze                  have been identified for analyzing 
workforce data.                         the agency's workforce and         
                                           developing products such as AOC's  
January 2003                            retirement report. AOC also has    
                                           developed a system to report and   
                                           monitor full-time equivalents      
                                           (FTE) on a regular basis using     
                                           man-hours required for projects    
                                           rather than estimating FTEs on the 
                                           basis of funding.                  
5. Strengthen           Making progress Progress                           
performance measurement                                                    
and strategic human                        o AOC has awarded a contract    
capital management by                      for the development of a        
identifying current and                    strategic workforce plan, which 
future workforce needs                     AOC expects will identify and   
and developing                             detail the (1) goals of the     
strategies to fill                         agency for the next 5 years,    
gaps.                                      (2) areas where progress has    
                                              previously been made, and (3)   
January 2003                               current and future changes that 
                                              should be made to preclude gaps 
                                              in staffing. The final plan was 
                                              to be delivered in March 2007,  
                                              but because of the increase in  
                                              AOC's workload resulting from   
                                              office moves for the new        
                                              Congress, the contractor was    
                                              unable to hold focus groups as  
                                              planned. AOC now anticipates    
                                              receiving the completed plan in 
                                              May 2007.                       
                                              o To assess and analyze current 
                                              skill sets, AOC has developed a 
                                              skills assessment survey and a  
                                              draft communications plan for   
                                              rolling out the survey. This    
                                              survey, which will identify,    
                                              measure, and track employee     
                                              skills agencywide, was tested   
                                              in a focus group as it was      
                                              developed, and AOC has          
                                              consulted the unions and        
                                              jurisdictions about             
                                              implementing the skills         
                                              assessment survey and a         
                                              strategy for the data           
                                              collection. However, these      
                                              consultations have been         
                                              suspended because of the recent 
                                              congressional election and      
                                              related office moves as well as 
                                              because of needed revisions to  
                                              the survey instrument.          
                                                                              
                                           Remaining actions                  
                                                                              
                                              o AOC needs to assess how best  
                                              to deliver its                  
                                              services--through outsourcing   
                                              or in-house resources--that     
                                              support AOC's mission and       
                                              goals. This assessment is an    
                                              important input into the        
                                              development of a strategic      
                                              workforce plan, which focuses   
                                              on developing strategies to     
                                              acquire, develop, and retain an 
                                              organization's total workforce  
                                              (including full- and part-time  
                                              in-house staff and contractors) 
                                              to meet future workforce needs. 
                                              o AOC's contractor needs to     
                                              complete work relating to a     
                                              strategic workforce plan,       
                                              including conducting focus      
                                              groups with managers to         
                                              ascertain the future direction  
                                              of the agency.                  
                                              o AOC needs to complete the     
                                              skills assessment survey. AOC   
                                              plans to continue working with  
                                              the contractor responsible for  
                                              developing the survey to revise 
                                              the survey instrument to        
                                              produce the desired data. Once  
                                              the revisions are completed and 
                                              the survey has been approved by 
                                              the union and AOC managers, AOC 
                                              employees will complete the     
                                              survey online. The results of   
                                              the survey should be used as    
                                              input into the strategic        
                                              workforce planning process to   
                                              identify the skill gaps of      
                                              AOC's current workforce and     
                                              develop strategies to fill      
                                              AOC's future workforce needs.   
                                              o To strengthen its             
                                              organizational capacity and to  
                                              leverage information collected  
                                              in its Retirement Forecasting   
                                              (2005-2009) Report, AOC should  
                                              begin developing a succession   
                                              plan for its workforce. We have 
                                              previously reported that        
                                              leading organizations use       
                                              succession planning efforts     
                                              that (1) receive the active     
                                              support of top leadership; (2)  
                                              link to the agencies' strategic 
                                              planning; (3) identify talent   
                                              from staff at multiple          
                                              organizational levels, early in 
                                              their careers, or identify      
                                              staff with critical skills; (4) 
                                              emphasize developmental         
                                              assignments in addition to      
                                              formal training; and (5)        
                                              address specific human capital  
                                              challenges, such as diversity.  
6. Strengthen AOC's     Implemented     AOC has approved a policy          
human capital policies, (February 2006) development schedule to revise     
procedures, and                         human capital policies as part of  
processes by continuing                 its human capital plan. In         
to develop and                          addition, AOC developed a document 
implement agencywide                    for supervisors, Supervisors'      
human capital policies                  Tools of the Trade, which provides 
and procedures and by                   supplemental guidance on human     
holding management and                  capital policies as needed.        
employees accountable                   Supervisors are rated for          
for following these                     performance in human capital       
policies and                            management as part of AOC's        
procedures.                             evaluation system. However, it is  
                                           important that AOC continue to     
January 2003                            monitor whether supervisors and    
                                           managers are fairly administering  
                                           the policies as the revisions are  
                                           implemented.                       
7. Strengthen AOC's     Implemented     AOC has fulfilled this             
human capital policies, (February 2006) recommendation by holding monthly  
procedures, and                         meetings between the Human         
processes by assessing                  Resources Director, the Equal      
ways in which AOC                       Employment Opportunity and         
management could better                 Conciliation Program Director, the 
gather and analyze data                 chair of the employee advisory     
from the various                        council, the employment council,   
employee relations                      the employee assistance program    
offices and the                         manager, and the Deputy Chief of   
employee advisory                       Staff to review and discuss        
council while                           employee relations data. The group 
maintaining employee                    makes recommendations to senior    
confidentiality.                        management on the basis of         
                                           findings and takes action on the   
January 2003                            items. According to AOC, the       
                                           importance of maintaining employee 
                                           confidentiality is emphasized at   
                                           each meeting.                      
8. To improve           Closed - not    Although AOC has not completed an  
communications with     implemented     assessment of the capacity of      
employees, we recommend                 existing offices to resolve        
that the Architect of                   employee concerns and issues and   
the Capitol direct the                  does not plan to do so, the agency 
COO to conduct an                       has implemented a variety of       
analysis of both AOC                    mechanisms to resolve employee     
management and employee                 concerns and issues. According to  
needs with respect to                   AOC, multiple offices and programs 
resolving employee                      address employee concerns and      
concerns and issues as                  issues, including the Equal        
well as assessing the                   Employment Office, the Employee    
capacity of existing                    Assistance Programs, the standard  
offices to fulfill                      grievance process, and the         
those needs.                            external Office of Compliance      
                                           process. In addition, AOC holds    
August 2004                             monthly meetings between           
                                           representatives of these offices   
                                           to review and discuss employee     
                                           relations data. The group makes    
                                           recommendations to senior          
                                           management on the basis of         
                                           findings and takes action on the   
                                           items. Employees in bargaining     
                                           units are also represented by the  
                                           union and have a process in place  
                                           to resolve individual employee     
                                           issues. In October 2005, AOC       
                                           issued a brochure to all employees 
                                           on all Equal Employment Office     
                                           policies and the available         
                                           programs. In addition, AOC is      
                                           currently developing a proposal    
                                           that would establish a mediation   
                                           program as part of AOC's           
                                           operational business strategy.     
                                           After implementing the pilot       
                                           program, AOC plans to assess its   
                                           use and effectiveness and make any 
                                           needed modifications before making 
                                           it a permanent program and         
                                           expanding the group of trained     
                                           mediators. AOC should continue to  
                                           monitor the effectiveness of the   
                                           programs through employee          
                                           feedback.                          
9. Establish a direct   Implemented     According to AOC, a direct         
reporting relationship  (February 2006) reporting relationship has been    
between the                             established between the            
ombudsperson and the                    ombudsperson and the Architect.    
Architect of the                        Officials noted that the           
Capitol consistent with                 ombudsperson has the ability to    
professional standards.                 speak directly with the Architect  
                                           at any time about any issue that   
January 2003                            the ombudsperson feels necessary   
                                           to bring to the Architect's        
                                           attention.                         

Source: GAO analysis of AOC data.

Financial Management

Since our initial follow-up effort in January 2004, AOC has made
progress--to varying degrees--on key control and accountability
initiatives. AOC has developed agencywide audited financial statements,
implemented a new financial management system, and continued to develop
and implement a risk-based internal control framework and a cost
accounting system that, when fully implemented, should generate meaningful
cost and performance reporting information for managers. However, AOC's
senior management needs to continue supporting the full implementation of
key financial management and accountability efforts that are critical to
AOC's operations. Although AOC senior management has helped to strengthen
AOC's financial accountability by regularly monitoring and overseeing
AOC's efforts to prepare agencywide comprehensive financial statements and
have them audited, it needs to increase focus and attention on completing
the development and implementation of the other three key financial
management improvement initiatives--an internal control framework, a cost
accounting system, and a management reporting system. According to AOC
officials, current staffing shortages and funding constraints will likely
limit meaningful near-term progress on these efforts. To continue AOC's
progress, it will be essential for AOC's senior management to provide the
commitment, attention, and resources needed to ensure the successful
implementation of these important control and accountability initiatives.
See table 3 for more information on the implementation status of our
recommendations on financial management.

Table 3: Current Status of Recommendations on Financial Management

                                  Status                                      
                                  (month/year                                 
GAO recommendation and date of of GAO                                      
the recommendation             report)     Progress and remaining action   
1. Continue to improve AOC's   Making      Progress                        
approach to financial          progress                                    
management by developing                   AOC has reported continued      
strategies to institutionalize             progress on key financial       
financial management practices             management initiatives intended 
that will support budgeting,               to improve budgeting, financial 
financial, and program                     management, and accountability  
management at AOC. Such                    agencywide.                     
strategies could include                                                   
developing performance goals                  o According to AOC, it       
and measures and associated                   follows established          
roles aimed at increasing the                 governmentwide policies and  
accountability of nonfinancial                procedures (OMB Circular     
managers and staff, such as                   A-11) for formulating and    
jurisdictional                                executing its budgets, but   
superintendents, program                      has not formally documented  
managers, and other AOC                       AOC-specific budget policies 
staff--whose support is                       and procedures.              
critical to the success of                    o AOC officials reported     
AOC's financial management                    that with the exception of   
initiatives--and ensuring that                two policies that are being  
these staff received the                      drafted or revised, all      
training needed to effectively                accounting and financial     
carry out their roles and                     reporting policies,          
responsibilities.                             procedures, and operating    
                                                 practices have been          
January 2003                                  documented and implemented.  
                                                 o According to AOC, in       
                                                 January 2006, it completed   
                                                 the final phase of its       
                                                 multiyear implementation of  
                                                 a financial management       
                                                 system with the              
                                                 implementation of its        
                                                 inventory module. AOC        
                                                 reported that the financial  
                                                 management system as         
                                                 implemented satisfies all of 
                                                 the agency's functional      
                                                 system requirements.         
                                                 o AOC has achieved its goal  
                                                 of preparing auditable       
                                                 comprehensive agencywide     
                                                 financial statements with    
                                                 the successful audit of its  
                                                 fiscal years 2005 and 2006   
                                                 financial statements, which  
                                                 received unqualified         
                                                 opinions on all statements   
                                                 audited.                     
                                                 o AOC has initiated a        
                                                 multiphase approach for      
                                                 documenting and implementing 
                                                 a risk-based internal        
                                                 control framework. The       
                                                 approach calls for           
                                                 documenting relevant         
                                                 processes and policies;      
                                                 identifying, analyzing, and  
                                                 implementing needed          
                                                 controls; and monitoring the 
                                                 effectiveness of the         
                                                 controls. Initially, AOC is  
                                                 applying its approach to its 
                                                 three highest-risk           
                                                 areas--procurement (from     
                                                 purchase authorization       
                                                 through payment), payroll,   
                                                 and project management. AOC  
                                                 reported substantially       
                                                 completing the documentation 
                                                 of relevant processes and    
                                                 policies and identification  
                                                 and analysis of needed       
                                                 internal controls for both   
                                                 the procurement and the      
                                                 payroll areas, continuing to 
                                                 develop documentation of the 
                                                 current project management   
                                                 processes, and substantially 
                                                 implementing needed internal 
                                                 controls for the procurement 
                                                 area. AOC reported that it   
                                                 has begun manually           
                                                 monitoring implemented       
                                                 controls and hopes to        
                                                 implement an automated tool  
                                                 to monitor the effectiveness 
                                                 of its internal controls in  
                                                 the near future.             
                                                 o AOC reported making        
                                                 progress on its cost         
                                                 accounting/Management        
                                                 Operations Reporting (MOR)   
                                                 initiative by initiating its 
                                                 cost accounting system.      
                                                 Under this system, employees 
                                                 charge their payroll time to 
                                                 specific activities and      
                                                 project codes in the time    
                                                 and attendance system. AOC   
                                                 also reported rolling out an 
                                                 interim cost reporting       
                                                 structure to all             
                                                 jurisdictions and working    
                                                 with operating units to      
                                                 demonstrate the types of     
                                                 cost, finance, and           
                                                 performance-reporting        
                                                 information that can be      
                                                 generated when the cost      
                                                 accounting system is fully   
                                                 implemented. To make         
                                                 progress on these important  
                                                 initiatives, AOC has relied  
                                                 heavily on support           
                                                 contractors. According to    
                                                 AOC officials, further       
                                                 progress on these important  
                                                 efforts is likely to be      
                                                 limited by staffing          
                                                 shortages and funding        
                                                 constraints.                 
                                                                              
                                              Remaining actions               
                                                                              
                                              While AOC has made considerable 
                                              progress on key financial       
                                              management initiatives since we 
                                              made our recommendation in      
                                              2003, additional actions are    
                                              needed to fully implement two   
                                              important remaining             
                                              initiatives--its risk-based     
                                              internal control framework and  
                                              its cost accounting/MOR         
                                              initiative.                     
                                                                              
                                                 o AOC needs to complete the  
                                                 documentation, analysis,     
                                                 implementation, and          
                                                 monitoring of internal       
                                                 controls associated with     
                                                 project management, payroll, 
                                                 and procurement high risk    
                                                 areas. In addition, AOC      
                                                 needs to identify all other  
                                                 areas of its operations      
                                                 where internal controls need 
                                                 to be documented, analyzed,  
                                                 implemented, and monitored.  
                                                 o AOC needs to continue its  
                                                 development and              
                                                 implementation of its cost   
                                                 accounting/MOR initiative by 
                                                 ensuring that all applicable 
                                                 employees are coding their   
                                                 time charges; by developing  
                                                 mechanisms for rationally    
                                                 assigning applicable         
                                                 indirect costs--those not    
                                                 directly tied to specific    
                                                 project codes; and by        
                                                 working to refine and        
                                                 improve the usefulness of    
                                                 the cost, finance, and       
                                                 performance information      
                                                 available to managers.       
                                                                              
                                              Adequate resources in the form  
                                              of AOC staff or contractor      
                                              support and sustained           
                                              leadership and management       
                                              attention and support are       
                                              needed to help ensure progress  
                                              in institutionalizing these     
                                              important financial management  
                                              improvement initiatives.        
2. To help strengthen and      Making      Progress                        
sustain AOC's emerging         progress                                    
foundation of financial                    AOC senior management reported  
accountability and control, we             supporting the development of   
recommend that the Architect               annual AOC-wide financial       
of the Capitol, the COO, the               statements and an effective     
Chief Financial Officer, and               internal control framework.     
other senior management                                                    
provide strong and visible                    o According to AOC, senior   
support for efforts to prepare                management and the Audit     
auditable financial statements                Committee, which senior      
and implement an effective                    management established, have 
internal control framework by                 provided regular monitoring  
monitoring the implementation                 and oversight of AOC's       
and related milestones for                    efforts to prepare           
each effort, ensuring the                     agencywide comprehensive     
commitment to and support for                 financial statements and     
each effort by participating                  have them independently      
AOC units, and acting to                      audited.                     
resolve any impediments that                  o While these audits have    
may arise.                                    resulted in unqualified      
                                                 opinions on the statements,  
August 2004                                   they also have continued to  
                                                 note material internal       
                                                 control weaknesses that      
                                                 adversely limit AOC's        
                                                 ability to establish a       
                                                 foundation for financial     
                                                 accountability and control.  
                                                 o Because AOC lacks in-house 
                                                 expertise, AOC senior        
                                                 management approved a        
                                                 permanent staff position and 
                                                 funding for contractor       
                                                 support needed to develop    
                                                 and implement an effective   
                                                 internal control framework.  
                                                 AOC is implementing this     
                                                 framework through a          
                                                 multiphased approach that    
                                                 documents processes and      
                                                 policies, identifies and     
                                                 implements needed controls,  
                                                 and establishes mechanisms   
                                                 to monitor the effectiveness 
                                                 of internal controls for its 
                                                 three highest-risk           
                                                 areas--procurement (from     
                                                 purchase authorization       
                                                 through payment), payroll,   
                                                 and project management. In   
                                                 implementing the framework,  
                                                 AOC officials applied        
                                                 available resources to these 
                                                 highest-risk areas.          
                                                 o AOC officials, however,    
                                                 noted that staffing          
                                                 shortages and limited        
                                                 resources have hampered      
                                                 progress in implementing     
                                                 internal controls for the    
                                                 three highest-risk areas.    
                                                 For example, AOC officials   
                                                 reported that they had       
                                                 difficulty finding qualified 
                                                 candidates for the permanent 
                                                 staff position approved by   
                                                 senior management to manage  
                                                 the development of the       
                                                 internal control framework   
                                                 and the contractor support   
                                                 provided for developing and  
                                                 implementing the internal    
                                                 control framework will be    
                                                 affected in fiscal year 2007 
                                                 by current constraints on    
                                                 AOC's annual appropriations. 
                                                 o Senior management support  
                                                 for the internal control     
                                                 framework also included      
                                                 periodic presentations and   
                                                 discussions on ongoing       
                                                 implementation efforts at    
                                                 bimonthly meetings of AOC's  
                                                 Management Council. AOC also 
                                                 reported developing a        
                                                 high-level executive         
                                                 briefing on the internal     
                                                 control framework and        
                                                 training for those with a    
                                                 role or responsibility in    
                                                 designing or operating the   
                                                 controls within the three    
                                                 highest-risk areas.          
                                              Remaining actions               
                                                                              
                                                 o To expedite the            
                                                 implementation of an         
                                                 effective internal control   
                                                 framework, which represents  
                                                 an important accountability  
                                                 initiative, AOC senior       
                                                 management needs to enhance  
                                                 its management, monitoring,  
                                                 and oversight of AOC's       
                                                 current efforts to analyze,  
                                                 implement, and monitor       
                                                 needed internal controls in  
                                                 AOC's three highest-risk     
                                                 areas. As part of this       
                                                 initiative, AOC senior       
                                                 management needs to monitor  
                                                 and oversee efforts to       
                                                 develop and implement        
                                                 actions needed to resolve    
                                                 various material weaknesses  
                                                 identified as part of AOC's  
                                                 annual financial statement   
                                                 audit. AOC officials noted   
                                                 that they are developing a   
                                                 team of top executives and   
                                                 managers to act as a         
                                                 steering committee over      
                                                 internal control issues, but 
                                                 no date has been set for     
                                                 establishing the committee.  
                                                 Through such a committee,    
                                                 AOC senior management could  
                                                 regularly assess the         
                                                 progress on internal         
                                                 control-related efforts and  
                                                 identify and address         
                                                 impediments to planned       
                                                 progress (including those    
                                                 associated with limited      
                                                 staffing and resources).     
                                                 o Once the framework for the 
                                                 three highest-risk areas is  
                                                 fully implemented, AOC       
                                                 management needs to assess   
                                                 the rest of AOC's operations 
                                                 to determine the extent to   
                                                 which other areas need to be 
                                                 included in the risk-based   
                                                 internal control framework.  
3. To enhance the successful   Implemented AOC reported that it has made   
development of useful          (February   considerable progress since     
financial, cost, and           2007)       last year on efforts to develop 
performance reporting for                  useful cost, financial, and     
major operating units and                  performance information;        
appropriate cost accounting,               develop agencywide performance  
we recommend that the                      measures; and start             
Architect of the Capitol                   implementing its cost           
direct the COO and the Chief               accounting system. AOC reported 
Financial Officer to work with             that the Architect and the COO  
operating managers to assess               have taken an active role in    
the usefulness of                          developing of the revised       
financial-statement-level                  strategic plan and related      
information, take an active                agencywide performance measures 
role in AOC near-term efforts              and in supporting the cost      
to develop agencywide                      accounting/MOR initiative.      
performance measures, and                                                  
review all available options                  o As part of its efforts to  
to determine whether                          implement its cost           
substantial work can begin,                   accounting/MOR initiative,   
prior to fiscal year 2006, on                 AOC determined that          
the analyses needed to                        financial-statement level    
identify changes necessary to                 information was of limited   
implement useful cost                         use to jurisdictional        
accounting at AOC.                            managers. As a result, AOC   
                                                 management focused its       
August 2004                                   attention on how it could    
                                                 provide useful cost,         
                                                 financial, and performance   
                                                 information to its           
                                                 operational managers. In so  
                                                 doing, AOC reported that it  
                                                 developed potential formats  
                                                 for MOR information that     
                                                 demonstrates to operating    
                                                 unit managers the types of   
                                                 cost, financial, and         
                                                 performance information that 
                                                 can be generated when the    
                                                 cost accounting system is    
                                                 fully implemented. AOC also  
                                                 reported that it now         
                                                 generates biweekly cost      
                                                 accounting/MOR reports for   
                                                 each jurisdiction and        
                                                 division.                    
                                                 o AOC reported that it       
                                                 recently completed the       
                                                 development of a             
                                                 results-based strategic plan 
                                                 that includes comprehensive  
                                                 agencywide outcome           
                                                 (performance) measures. This 
                                                 effort started with the      
                                                 Architect and the COO        
                                                 revising AOC's Strategic     
                                                 Goals, which were then used  
                                                 to develop the revised       
                                                 strategic plan. The          
                                                 Architect and the COO        
                                                 monitored the plan's         
                                                 development and actively     
                                                 participated in the plan's   
                                                 review and finalization.     
                                                 o AOC reported that during   
                                                 fiscal year 2006, it         
                                                 completed a pilot test of    
                                                 its cost accounting system   
                                                 and began implementing the   
                                                 system, including gathering  
                                                 cost data. In addition, AOC  
                                                 has begun recording          
                                                 salary-related cost          
                                                 information in its cost      
                                                 accounting system by working 
                                                 with all employees to charge 
                                                 their payroll time to        
                                                 specific activity and        
                                                 project codes in the time    
                                                 and attendance system.       
                                                                              
                                              The collective actions taken on 
                                              this recommendation are         
                                              sufficient to close out this    
                                              recommendation.                 
4. To enhance the successful   Making      Progress                        
development of useful          progress                                    
financial, cost, and                          o As previously noted, AOC   
performance reporting for                     reported that it has         
major operating units and                     developed AOC-wide           
appropriate cost accounting,                  performance measures and has 
we recommend that the                         taken actions to develop a   
Architect of the Capitol                      cost accounting system and   
direct the COO and the Chief                  related cost, financial, and 
Financial Officer to have                     performance reporting. AOC   
senior management visibly                     senior management has been   
demonstrate its continuing                    taking an active role in     
commitment to and support for                 supporting these             
making AOC-wide system,                       initiatives. Effectively     
procedural, and cultural                      implementing these           
changes necessary to provide                  initiatives, as well as      
managers with timely                          other important financial    
financial, cost, and                          management improvement       
performance information by                    initiatives has required and 
monitoring the efforts'                       will continue to require     
implementation and related                    AOC-wide system, procedural, 
milestones, ensuring the                      and cultural changes.        
commitment to and support for                                              
the efforts by participating               Remaining action                
AOC units, and acting to                                                   
resolve any impediments that               Implementing effective cost     
may arise.                                 accounting and reporting        
                                              systems--ones that provide      
August 2004                                operating managers with useful  
                                              cost, financial, and            
                                              performance information--will   
                                              require continuing leadership   
                                              attention from AOC senior       
                                              management to help ensure that  
                                              needed system, procedural, and  
                                              cultural changes occur.         
                                                                              
                                                 o To do so successfully, the 
                                                 COO, the Chief Financial     
                                                 Officer, and other AOC       
                                                 senior managers need to      
                                                 continue demonstrating their 
                                                 commitment and support for   
                                                 making the needed changes by 
                                                 working to ensure that these 
                                                 initiatives have sufficient  
                                                 staff and resources, by      
                                                 regularly monitoring         
                                                 progress against established 
                                                 milestones, and by working   
                                                 with senior managers         
                                                 AOC-wide to identify and     
                                                 resolve impediments to       
                                                 successful implementation.   
                                                 For example, AOC's senior    
                                                 management may wish to apply 
                                                 its leadership and attention 
                                                 by establishing a senior     
                                                 management level steering    
                                                 committee, similar to the    
                                                 one planned to monitor and   
                                                 oversee internal control     
                                                 issues, to help ensure that  
                                                 the cost accounting and      
                                                 management reporting         
                                                 initiatives are effectively  
                                                 implemented. Such a          
                                                 committee could regularly    
                                                 review the initiative's      
                                                 progress and work with AOC   
                                                 senior managers to resolve   
                                                 impediments as they arise.   

Source: GAO analysis of AOC data.

Information Technology Management

AOC continues to make progress toward adopting an agencywide approach to
information management and has implemented 2 IT recommendations over the
year. Specifically, AOC has developed, approved, and implemented a
process, including those practices in our IT investment management guide,
for controlling existing projects. AOC also has established the management
structure for developing, implementing, and maintaining an enterprise
architecture (EA) and has made significant progress toward planning for
and implementing the practices in our architecture management guide. These
practices include ensuring that adequate resources (i.e., funding, people,
tools, and technology) are devoted to the program and developing a written
policy for architecture development and maintenance.

In addition, AOC has made progress toward addressing our remaining
recommendations. For example, it has developed a policy that describes the
procedures, practices, and guidelines that govern the management of its IT
systems and the required processes that are to be followed when acquiring
and developing these systems. Furthermore, AOC has taken steps toward
establishing and implementing an effective information security program by
designating a chief information security officer with the authority to
implement an agencywide security program and by certifying and accrediting
its general support systems and major applications. However, more work
remains to fully implement our recommendations. For example, AOC has yet
to prioritize all IT investments, develop an IT investment portfolio, and
oversee each investment using a portfolio approach to ensure that AOC
achieves its cost, benefit, schedule, and risk expectations. Until AOC
completes these activities, it cannot ensure that the investments address
not only the agency's mission and strategic goals and objectives, but also
the impact of the investments on each other. Moreover, AOC has yet to
fully implement key architecture practices, such as defining "as is" and
"to be" architecture descriptions in terms of performance. Without
instituting these practices, AOC risks limiting the quality and utility of
its architecture and may not realize the benefits of a well-managed
architecture program. In addition, the agency has not consistently
demonstrated quality assurance, configuration management, and contract
tracking and oversight processes. Until AOC consistently demonstrates
these key acquisition processes, the agency runs the risk of projects not
performing as intended, being delivered late, and not meeting estimated
cost and schedule goals. AOC also has yet to develop system contingency
plans for all of its systems and implement a security process to monitor
and evaluate policy and control effectiveness. Without instituting these
practices, AOC's data and systems are at risk of inadvertent or deliberate
misuse, fraud, improper disclosure, or destruction, possibly without
detection. See table 4 for more information on the implementation status
of our recommendations on IT management.

Table 4: Current Status of Recommendations on Information Technology
Management

                             Status                                           
GAO recommendation and    (month/year                                      
date of the               of GAO                                           
recommendation            report)     Progress and remaining action        
1. Establish a chief      Implemented AOC has fulfilled this               
information officer or    (January    recommendation by issuing a          
comparable senior         2004)       centralized IT management policy     
executive, with the                   that assigned a senior               
responsibility,                       executive--namely, the Office of     
authority, and adequate               Information and Resource Management  
resources for managing IT             (OIRM) director--the role,           
across the agency, who is             responsibility, and authority for    
a full participant in                 managing IT across the agency,       
AOC's senior                          including the development,           
decision-making processes             management, and oversight of IT. In  
and has clearly defined               addition, the policy made the OIRM   
roles, responsibilities,              director a key participant in        
and accountabilities.                 executive decision making, such as   
                                         serving as the principal adviser to  
January 2003                          the Architect of the Capitol in      
                                         applying IT to improve business      
                                         processes. The OIRM director's role  
                                         also includes controlling AOC's IT   
                                         budget and chairing the IT project   
                                         management board.                    
2. Develop and implement  Implemented AOC has fulfilled this               
IT investment management  (February   recommendation by developing and     
processes with the full   2007)       implementing an IT investment        
support and participation             management process with support and  
of AOC's senior                       participation of AOC's senior        
leadership. Specifically,             leadership and in accordance with    
the Architect of the                  our guidance through the development 
Capitol must develop a                and approval of an IT investment     
plan for developing and               management policy. Consistent with   
implementing the                      best practices, AOC has divided its  
investment management                 investment management process into   
processes, as                         three phases: select, control, and   
appropriate, that are                 evaluate. To effectively control     
outlined in our IT                    existing and future projects through 
investment management                 these phases, AOC established and    
guide. At a minimum, the              assigned specific roles and          
plan should specify                   responsibilities to three boards:    
measurable tasks, goals,              Business Systems Modernization       
time frames, and                      Office (BSMO), Investment Review     
resources required to                 Board (IRB), and Project Review      
develop and implement the             Board (PRB). BSMO provides guidance  
processes. The Architect              during the select phase on items,    
of the Capitol should                 such as the procurement schedule and 
focus first on the                    stakeholder involvement, while the   
management processes                  IRB and the PRB participate during   
associated with                       the select, control, and evaluate    
controlling existing                  phases. In particular, the PRB       
projects and establishing             reviews specific areas of the        
the management structures             project, including status, schedule  
to effectively implement              and system development life-cycle    
an IT management process.             documentation, and the IRB, among    
                                         other things, provides approval and  
January 2003                          advice on items, including           
                                         additional funding and critical      
                                         issues that may arise on the         
                                         project. Membership on these boards  
                                         includes senior-level officials from 
                                         various departments and offices      
                                         throughout the agency.               
                                                                              
                                         AOC has demonstrated this investment 
                                         management process as evidenced by   
                                         our review of two of AOC's           
                                         large-size IT systems--Facilities    
                                         Management Information System (FMIS) 
                                         2005 and Inventory Control System    
                                         (ICS). Both systems were approved by 
                                         the appropriate management           
                                         structures in accordance with AOC's  
                                         IT investment management process.    
                             Status                                           
GAO recommendation and    (month/year                                      
date of the               of GAO                                           
recommendation            report)     Progress and remaining action        
3. Plan for and implement Making      Progress                             
those practices in our IT progress                                         
investment management                    o AOC has begun to plan for and   
guide associated with                    implement those practices in our  
corporate,                               IT investment management guide    
portfolio-based                          associated with corporate,        
investment decision                      portfolio-based investment        
making, such as (1)                      decision making.                  
implementing criteria to                 o AOC has developed criteria to   
select investments that                  select investments that best      
will best support the                    support the organization's        
organization's strategic                 strategic goals, objectives, and  
goals, objectives, and                   mission.                          
mission; (2) using these                 o According to AOC officials, the 
criteria to consistently                 agency has begun the process of   
analyze and prioritize                   outlining an IT portfolio         
all IT investments; (3)                  management program that will      
ensuring that the optimal                arrange IT investments into a     
investment portfolio with                single portfolio and provide      
manageable risks and                     visibility, control, and          
returns is selected and                  decisions on the basis of project 
funded; and (4)                          objectives, such as costs,        
overseeing each                          resources, and risks.             
investment within the                                                      
portfolio to ensure that              Remaining action                     
it achieves its cost,                                                      
benefit, schedule, and                   o AOC has yet to prioritize all   
risk expectations.                       IT investments, develop an IT     
                                            investment portfolio, and oversee 
January 2004                             each investment from a portfolio  
                                            approach to ensure that it        
                                            achieves its cost, benefit,       
                                            schedule, and risk expectations.  
                                                                              
                                         Until AOC completes these activities 
                                         it cannot ensure that the            
                                         investments address not only the     
                                         agency's strategic goals,            
                                         objectives, and mission, but also    
                                         address the impacts that the         
                                         projects have on each other.         
4. Develop, implement,    Implemented AOC has fulfilled this               
and maintain an EA to     (February   recommendation by developing and     
guide and constrain IT    2007)       approving an agencywide IT policy    
projects throughout AOC.              that provides for developing,        
The Architect of the                  implementing, and maintaining an EA. 
Capitol should implement              The agency also has established an   
the practices, as                     EA Executive Steering Committee,     
appropriate, as outlined              composed of senior-level officials   
in the Chief Information              from across the agency, to direct,   
Officer Council's                     oversee, and approve the AOC EA. The 
architecture management               latest version of the EA--EA FY06    
guide. As a first step,               version 1.0--was approved by the     
the Architect should                  executive committee in December      
establish the management              2005. In addition, AOC has assigned  
structure for developing,             responsibility for guiding EA        
implementing, and                     development to the Chief Enterprise  
maintaining an EA by                  Architect. According to program      
implementing the                      officials, the Chief Enterprise      
following actions:                    Architect position was filled in     
                                         February 2007. The chief architect's 
      o developing an                    responsibilities include reviewing   
      agencywide policy                  investments and investment-related   
      statement providing a              projects to ensure that they are in  
      clear mandate for                  compliance with the EA; developing   
      developing,                        and maintaining the EA documents to  
      implementing, and                  ensure that they continue to reflect 
      maintaining the                    the AOC strategic plan, business     
      architecture;                      needs, and technological             
      o establishing an                  advancement; and providing expertise 
      executive body                     to the business systems              
      composed of                        modernization office and AOC         
      stakeholders from AOC              management on EA concepts and        
      mission-critical                   implementation.                      
      program offices to                                                      
      guide the strategy for                                                  
      developing the EA and                                                   
      ensure agency support                                                   
      and resources for it;                                                   
      and                                                                     
      o designating an                                                        
      individual who serves                                                   
      as a chief enterprise                                                   
      architect to develop                                                    
      policy, lead the                                                        
      development of the EA,                                                  
      and manage it as a                                                      
      formal program.                                                         
                                                                              
January 2003                                                               
                             Status                                           
GAO recommendation and    (month/year                                      
date of the               of GAO                                           
recommendation            report)     Progress and remaining action        
5. Plan for and implement Making      Progress                             
the practices in our      progress                                         
architecture management               In April 2003, we published version  
guide associated with                 1.1 of our EA management maturity    
leveraging an EA for                  framework, which is a five-stage     
organizational                        architecture framework for managing  
transformation, such as               the development, maintenance, and    
(1) ensuring that                     implementation of an architecture    
adequate resources are                and understanding the extent to      
devoted to the program                which effective architecture         
(funding, people, tools,              management practices are being       
and technology); (2)                  performed and where an organization  
ensuring that the                     is in its progression toward having  
architecture describes                a well-managed architecture program. 
both the "as is" and the              In short, the framework consists of  
"to be" environments in               31 core elements that relate to      
terms of performance; (3)             architecture governance, content,    
ensuring that                         use, and measurement. These elements 
architecture business,                reflect research by us and others    
performance, information              showing that architecture programs   
and data, applications                should be founded upon institutional 
and services, and                     architecture commitment and          
technology descriptions               capabilities, and measured and       
address security; and (4)             verified products and results.       
ensuring that metrics are                                                  
used to measure EA                       o AOC has made significant        
progress, quality,                       progress toward planning for and  
compliance, and return on                implementing the core elements in 
investment.                              our architecture framework.       
                                            o Specifically, AOC has fully     
January 2004                             satisfied 25 (81%), partially     
                                            satisfied 4 (13%), and has not    
                                            satisfied 2 (6%) of the 31 core   
                                            elements identified in our EA     
                                            management maturity framework.    
                                            o Among the core elements that    
                                            AOC has fully satisfied are       
                                            ensuring that adequate resources  
                                            are devoted to the program        
                                            (funding, people, tools, and      
                                            technology); developing a written 
                                            policy for architecture           
                                            development and maintenance; and  
                                            measuring and reporting progress  
                                            against architecture plans.       
                                            o AOC has developed metrics for   
                                            measuring and reporting EA        
                                            progress, quality, and            
                                            compliance.                       
                                                                              
                                         Remaining actions                    
                                                                              
                                            o AOC has yet to fully implement  
                                            some key elements. Specifically,  
                                            AOC has yet to complete an "as    
                                            is" and "to be" architecture      
                                            description in terms of           
                                            performance that also addresses   
                                            security.                         
                                            o AOC has not yet implemented the 
                                            measuring and reporting of EA     
                                            return on investments and         
                                            reported on the percentage of     
                                            systems in compliance with the    
                                            EA.                               
                                                                              
                                         Without these core elements, AOC may 
                                         face the risk of limiting the        
                                         quality and utility of the           
                                         architecture and may not realize the 
                                         significant benefits of a            
                                         well-managed architecture program.   
                             Status                                           
GAO recommendation and    (month/year                                      
date of the               of GAO                                           
recommendation            report)     Progress and remaining action        
6. Require disciplined    Making      Progress                             
and rigorous processes    progress                                         
for managing the                         o AOC has developed a systems     
development and                          development life-cycle (SDLC)     
acquisition of IT systems                policy that describes the         
and implement the                        procedures, practices, and        
processes throughout AOC.                guidelines that govern the        
Specifically, these                      management of IT systems and      
processes should include                 processes that are to be followed 
the following:                           when acquiring and developing     
                                            these systems. Specifically,      
o quality assurance                      these processes include the       
processes, including                     following:                        
developing a quality                                                       
assurance plan and                               o A quality assurance     
identifying applicable                           process that requires the 
process and product                              development of a quality  
standards that will be                           assurance plan and        
used in developing and                           several quality           
assessing project                                checkpoint reviews during 
processes and products;                          a project's life cycle.   
                                                    o A configuration         
o configuration                                  management process that   
management processes,                            requires a configuration  
including establishing a                         management plan that      
repository or                                    identifies configurations 
configuration management                         at given points in time,  
system to maintain and                           controls changes to the   
control configuration                            configuration, and        
management items;                                maintains the records of  
                                                    all changes.              
o risk management                                o A risk management       
processes, including                             process that requires the 
developing a project risk                        development of a risk     
management plan,                                 management plan; the      
identifying and                                  identification of risks,  
prioritizing potential                           risk assessments, risk    
problems, implementing                           impact and status,        
risk mitigation                                  probability of            
strategies, as required,                         occurrence, and           
and tracking and                                 mitigation strategies;    
reporting progress                               and the tracking and      
against the plans; and                           reporting of progress     
                                                    against the plan. For     
o contract tracking and                          FMIS 2005 and ICS         
oversight processes,                             systems, AOC demonstrated 
including developing a                           its risk process by       
plan for tracking                                developing risk reports   
contractor activities,                           that included the         
measuring contractor                             identification,           
performance and                                  description, owner,       
conducting periodic                              impact, status,           
reviews, and conducting                          probability, and          
internal reviews of                              mitigation of the risks.  
tracking and oversight                                                     
activities.                              o AOC also has developed and      
                                            approved a policy for contract    
January 2003                             administration, which assigns     
                                            authority for administering       
                                            contracts to the contracting      
                                            officer. Further, the agency      
                                            requires a communications plan,   
                                            which directs senior management   
                                            and stakeholders to monitor       
                                            program management activities,    
                                            use a project plan to manage and  
                                            control contract activities and   
                                            requirements, and develop change  
                                            control procedures to manage      
                                            contract changes.                 
                                                                              
                                         Remaining actions                    
                                                                              
                                         AOC has not consistently             
                                         demonstrated quality assurance,      
                                         configuration management, and        
                                         contract tracking and oversight      
                                         processes.                           
                                                                              
                                            o Although AOC developed quality  
                                            assurance plans, not all quality  
                                            checkpoint reviews were completed 
                                            to ensure that the projects met   
                                            the contractual agreements and    
                                            quality standards or complied     
                                            with SDLC processes. According to 
                                            officials, quality checkpoint     
                                            reviews were determined a best    
                                            practice and developed in June    
                                            2006 and, therefore, had occurred 
                                            after the implementation of the   
                                            FMIS 2005 system.                 
                                            o For configuration management,   
                                            although AOC had developed a      
                                            configuration management plan for 
                                            the ICS system, it did not        
                                            develop a plan for the FMIS 2005  
                                            system and did not control and    
                                            maintain project changes for both 
                                            systems.                          
                             Status                                           
GAO recommendation and    (month/year                                      
date of the               of GAO                                           
recommendation            report)     Progress and remaining action        
                                            o Although AOC has a policy for   
                                            contract administration, it has   
                                            not developed and implemented     
                                            contract tracking and oversight   
                                            processes that include measuring  
                                            contractor performance by         
                                            developing and using metrics of   
                                            software and system quality.      
                                            Development and use of such       
                                            metrics is a recognized best      
                                            practice. For example, a          
                                            communications plan was not       
                                            developed for FMIS 2005 and       
                                            metrics were not developed and    
                                            used to measure product quality   
                                            for both FMIS and ICS.            
                                                                              
                                         Until AOC consistently demonstrates  
                                         these key acquisition processes, the 
                                         agency runs the risk of projects not 
                                         performing as intended, being        
                                         delivered late, and not meeting      
                                         estimated cost and schedule goals.   
7. Establish and          Making      Progress                             
implement an information  progress                                         
security program.                        o AOC has designated the chief    
Specifically, the                        information security officer with 
Architect of the Capitol                 the authority to implement an     
should establish an                      agencywide security program and   
information security                     has reported that adequate        
program by taking the                    resources (funding and staff)     
following steps:                         have been assigned to implement   
                                            the program.                      
(1) designate a security                 o AOC designated a chief          
officer and provide him                  information security officer in   
or her with the authority                January 2007.                     
and resources to                         o AOC also has developed a policy 
implement an agencywide                  to perform risk assessments on 50 
security program,                        major applications by March 2008. 
                                            o In March 2006, AOC completed    
(2) develop and implement                its certification and             
policy and guidance to                   accreditation of its general      
perform risk assessments                 support systems and major         
continually,                             applications and, according to    
                                            officials, findings from the risk 
(3) use the results of                   assessment have been placed into  
the risk assessments to                  a plan of action and milestones,  
develop and implement the                as a control measure, to track    
appropriate controls,                    the corrective actions taken by   
                                            the agency.                       
(4) develop policies for                 o According to AOC, it is on      
security training and                    target in certifying and          
awareness and provide the                accrediting mission-critical      
training, and                            applications by March 2007 and    
                                            mission-support and essential     
(5) monitor and evaluate                 applications by March 2008.       
policy and control                       o AOC also has developed and      
effectiveness.                           issued policies for security and  
                                            awareness training, which,        
January 2003                             according to the agency           
                                            officials, has been completed by  
                                            all employees.                    
                                            o Additionally, AOC has developed 
                                            a process to monitor and evaluate 
                                            the effectiveness of policies and 
                                            controls.                         
                             Status                                           
GAO recommendation and    (month/year                                      
date of the               of GAO                                           
recommendation            report)     Progress and remaining action        
                                         Remaining actions                    
                                                                              
                                            o AOC has yet to implement the    
                                            process of monitoring and         
                                            evaluating policy and control     
                                            effectiveness or to provide us    
                                            with evidence that training is    
                                            based on user roles and           
                                            responsibilities, and that        
                                            identified risks are being        
                                            documented in system security     
                                            plans. These practices are        
                                            important because if they are not 
                                            in place, AOC's data and systems  
                                            are at risk of inadvertent or     
                                            deliberate misuse, fraud,         
                                            improper disclosure, or           
                                            destruction, possibly without     
                                            detection.                        
                                            o Additionally, system            
                                            contingency plans have yet to be  
                                            developed for all systems.        

Source: GAO analysis of AOC data.

Project Management

AOC has made progress on several initiatives that should improve project
management and accountability and has implemented 7 project management
recommendations over the year. For example, AOC has established
performance measures, including measures to track the quality and costs of
projects. AOC also has clarified the roles and responsibilities for staff
in the Project Management Division and updated guidance for managing
projects. In addition, AOC is continuing efforts on longer-term
initiatives to improve project management and accountability. For example,
AOC plans to modify its project information system to assist managers in
more proactively managing projects, provide needed cost and schedule data
on projects, and track reasons for changes across all projects. AOC has
developed the requirements for this system, which includes the automation
of AOC's quarterly construction projects progress report, and plans to
begin modifications with available in-house resources in fiscal year 2007.
Additionally, AOC has conducted a review of Construction Division
operations and management in 2006 and is currently implementing the
recommendations from that review, including recommendations to improve
project cost estimating and tracking. However, the new cost accounting
system--a system that will be phased in over several years--must be
completed before AOC can implement all of the recommendations intended to
improve accountability for the Construction Division. Furthermore, AOC is
reviewing its methods for estimating Construction Division project costs,
including contingency costs and allocations for construction management
and administration, to improve the accuracy of project cost estimates. AOC
also is finalizing the Capitol complex master plan and anticipates that a
draft of the plan will be ready for congressional review in the spring of
2007. See table 5 for more information on the implementation status of our
recommendations on project management.

Table 5: Current Status of Recommendations on Project Management

                                 Status                                       
                                 (month/year                                  
GAO recommendation and date   of GAO                                       
of the recommendation         report)     Progress and remaining action    
1. Develop a Capitol complex  Making      Progress                         
master plan and complete      progress                                     
condition assessments of all                 o The Capitol complex master  
buildings and facilities                     plan has three                
under the jurisdiction of                    components--the vision        
AOC.                                         statement, framework          
                                                (concept) plan, and           
January 2003                                 jurisdiction plans.           
                                                o AOC is working with the     
                                                leadership of each            
                                                jurisdiction (e.g., the       
                                                Librarian of Congress and the 
                                                Marshal of the Supreme Court) 
                                                and the consultant working on 
                                                the plan to finalize these    
                                                documents for consultation    
                                                with congressional            
                                                stakeholders.                 
                                                o As we reported last year,   
                                                AOC has completed facility    
                                                condition assessments for all 
                                                facilities within the         
                                                complex, except the Library   
                                                of Congress and the Supreme   
                                                Court.                        
                                                                              
                                             Remaining actions                
                                                                              
                                                o AOC needs to finalize the   
                                                Capitol complex master plan.  
                                                We reported last year that    
                                                the master plan was scheduled 
                                                to be completed at the end of 
                                                2006. AOC told us that the    
                                                plan was delayed to obtain    
                                                additional input from within  
                                                the agency and the new        
                                                congressional leadership. AOC 
                                                estimates that a draft of the 
                                                plan will be ready for        
                                                congressional review in the   
                                                spring of 2007.               
                                                o AOC needs to complete the   
                                                facility condition assessment 
                                                for the Library of Congress   
                                                and has requested funding for 
                                                that assessment in its fiscal 
                                                year 2007 and 2008 budget.    
                                                o AOC needs to complete the   
                                                facility condition assessment 
                                                for the Supreme Court and     
                                                plans to do so when           
                                                renovations of the Supreme    
                                                Court are completed. The      
                                                renovations are estimated to  
                                                be completed in 2009.         
2. To improve Capitol complex Making      Progress                         
master planning efforts, we   progress                                     
recommend that the Architect                 o AOC has involved            
of the Capitol, with support                 congressional stakeholders    
from the COO, lead efforts to                and AOC stakeholders in the   
ensure that congressional and                development of the Capitol    
other stakeholders are                       complex master plan.          
engaged early and throughout                 o AOC's planning team has met 
the development of the                       with Senate Rules committee   
Capitol complex master plan.                 staff and House leadership    
                                                staff to discuss a strategy   
August 2004                                  for communication and         
                                                outreach related to the       
                                                master plan.                  
                                                                              
                                             Remaining action                 
                                                                              
                                                o AOC needs to formulate and  
                                                carry out a communication and 
                                                outreach strategy for vetting 
                                                the master plan. AOC expects  
                                                to formulate this strategy in 
                                                early 2007 and vet the master 
                                                plan between April and June   
                                                2007.                         
3. Develop a process for      Implemented AOC implemented a program        
assigning project priorities  (February   development process in 2003 that 
that is based on clearly      2006)       rated projects in the following  
defined, well-documented,                 five categories: (1) historic    
consistently applied, and                 preservation and stewardship;    
transparent criteria.                     (2) fire, life, safety, and code 
                                             compliance; (3) impact on        
January 2003                              mission; (4) economics; and (5)  
                                             security, with a score from 1 to 
                                             100. In the spring of 2004, AOC  
                                             improved the program development 
                                             process by establishing          
                                             extensive procedures designed to 
                                             ensure that project scopes fully 
                                             met both customer needs and all  
                                             criteria and standards. The      
                                             project evaluation criteria are  
                                             currently being expanded to      
                                             include urgency (such as         
                                             immediate, high, medium, or low) 
                                             and classification of a project  
                                             (such as deferred maintenance or 
                                             capital improvement). This       
                                             expansion of the evaluation      
                                             criteria results from            
                                             information being received from  
                                             facility condition assessments.  
                                             In September 2005, the AOC's     
                                             project prioritization panel     
                                             will evaluate these recommended  
                                             changes.                         
4. To improve the process for Implemented AOC fulfilled this               
prioritizing projects, we     (February   recommendation by taking steps   
recommend that the Architect  2007)       to inform congressional          
of the Capitol, with support              stakeholders on how and why      
from the COO, lead efforts to             specific projects are submitted  
ensure that AOC informs and               for funding. For example, AOC    
obtains agreement from                    has held and continues to hold   
congressional and other                   regular briefings with           
stakeholders on how and why               congressional staff on AOC's     
specific projects are                     funding requests and project     
submitted for funding.                    prioritization process. In       
                                             August and September 2006, AOC   
August 2004                               briefed congressional            
                                             stakeholders on the status and   
                                             results of facility condition    
                                             assessments, its project         
                                             prioritization process, and the  
                                             future direction of AOC's        
                                             facility programs. Congressional 
                                             stakeholders noted that AOC has  
                                             made improvements in developing  
                                             a transparent process for        
                                             understanding how and why        
                                             projects are submitted for       
                                             funding.                         
5. Develop tools to           Implemented AOC has established tools to     
effectively communicate       (February   effectively communicate          
priorities and progress of    2007)       priorities and progress of       
projects, as a part of a                  projects. For example, AOC has   
broader communication                     developed and continues to       
strategy.                                 communicate its project          
                                             prioritization processes through 
January 2003                              regular briefings to             
                                             congressional stakeholders.      
                                             According to feedback from       
                                             congressional and other          
                                             stakeholders, AOC made changes   
                                             to the project prioritization    
                                             process and plans to implement   
                                             those changes in its fiscal year 
                                             2008 budget proposal. AOC        
                                             continues to produce a quarterly 
                                             status report on the budget and  
                                             schedule status of projects that 
                                             are released to congressional    
                                             appropriators.                   
6. Define                     Implemented AOC has defined                  
project-management-related    (February   project-management-related       
performance measures to       2007)       performance measures through its 
achieve mission-critical                  quarterly status report,         
strategic and annual                      dashboard, and performance plan. 
performance goals.                        These measures include the       
                                             status of project schedule,      
January 2003                              budget, cost, and safety. AOC    
                                             also developed and implemented   
                                             surveys on the quality of design 
                                             and construction services. AOC   
                                             could consider tracking the      
                                             safety of its construction       
                                             contractors, as is currently     
                                             being done with the Capitol      
                                             Visitor Center project.          
7. To strengthen the          Implemented AOC fulfilled this               
relationship between AOC and  (February   recommendation by taking steps   
its congressional and other   2007)       to develop and implement a       
stakeholders, we recommend                transparent process for how AOC  
that the Architect of the                 targets its efforts and          
Capitol direct the COO to                 resources to highest project     
work with Congress on the                 priorities. AOC continues to     
design and implementation of              meet with congressional          
a transparent process to                  stakeholders to discuss how it   
facilitate an understanding               targets its resources and        
between AOC and its                       prioritizes projects. On the     
congressional stakeholders                basis of its experience in       
about how AOC targets its                 evaluating projects for the      
efforts and resources to the              fiscal year 2007 budget and      
highest project priorities                input from congressional and     
and how strategic and                     other stakeholders, AOC revised  
tactical decisions and                    its project prioritization       
trade-offs are made.                      process to more clearly          
                                             articulate the criteria for      
August 2004                               assigning project ratings. In    
                                             October 2006, AOC prepared an    
                                             interim project prioritization   
                                             guide to facilitate the          
                                             prioritization of projects for   
                                             the fiscal year 2008 budget      
                                             submission. AOC issued a revised 
                                             guide in February 2007.          
                                             Congressional stakeholders noted 
                                             that AOC has made improvements   
                                             in developing a transparent      
                                             process for understanding how    
                                             and why projects are submitted   
                                             for funding.                     
8. Align project management   Implemented In October 2005, AOC implemented 
staff and resources with      (February   a project management             
AOC's mission-critical goals. 2006)       organization. The organization   
                                             includes 32 personnel with       
January 2003                              responsibilities for project     
                                             management, construction         
                                             management, and inspection. The  
                                             organization is focused on       
                                             "cradle-to-grave" project        
                                             delivery. Duties considered to   
                                             be "collateral," such as design  
                                             reviews, are being reassigned to 
                                             other AOC officials outside of   
                                             the new organization.            
9. Develop a method to        Making      Progress                         
establish and track more      progress                                     
accurate budget targets. This                o AOC has established         
method could include tracking                additional measures that      
and reporting on the                         should help the agency        
following to help AOC refine                 develop and track more        
targets:                                     accurate budget targets for   
                                                projects.                     
      o accuracy of cost                        o In addition to measures for 
      estimates compared with                   (1) the ratio of the          
      bids;                                     government estimate to the    
      o accuracy of budget                      average of the bid amount and 
      compared with final                       (2) the contract award cost   
      project costs;                            versus the government         
      o amount of excess project                estimate, AOC has implemented 
      funds and how funds are                   the use of a project closeout 
      used; and                                 sheet that project managers   
      o cost data for the                       are required to complete at   
      Construction Branch (which                the conclusion of each        
      is within the Construction                project. The sheet includes   
      Division), including                      information on the accuracy   
      current working estimates.                of the budget compared with   
                                                final project costs and the   
September 2005                               disposition of excess project 
                                                funds.                        
                                                                              
                                             Remaining actions                
                                                                              
                                                o AOC must develop the        
                                                capability to better track    
                                                cost data for the             
                                                Construction Division,        
                                                including current working     
                                                estimates for projects        
                                                conducted by the division. A  
                                                peer review group within AOC  
                                                issued recommendations in     
                                                April 2006 designed to        
                                                improve the agency's ability  
                                                to track cost data for the    
                                                division, including           
                                                standardizing the cost        
                                                estimating process.           
                                                o AOC is also reviewing its   
                                                methods for estimating        
                                                Construction Division project 
                                                costs, including contingency  
                                                costs and allocations for     
                                                construction management and   
                                                administration, to improve    
                                                the accuracy of project cost  
                                                estimates.                    
10. Expedite the development  Implemented AOC completed the development of 
of a customer satisfaction    (February   its customer satisfaction survey 
survey for construction       2007)       for construction services in     
services.                                 March 2006.                      
                                                                              
September 2005                                                             
11. Clarify roles and         Implemented AOC defined roles and            
responsibilities of staff,    (February   responsibilities and completed   
including the role of         2007)       position descriptions for the    
jurisdictional executives and             jurisdictional executives,       
responsibility for developing             project managers, and            
Programs of Requirements.                 construction managers. AOC has   
                                             discussed and plans to continue  
September 2005                            discussing these roles and       
                                             responsibilities at its staff    
                                             meetings and individually with   
                                             the jurisdictional executives,   
                                             project managers, and            
                                             construction managers.           
12. Revise project management Implemented AOC has identified revisions for 
manuals to reflect changes in (February   and continuously revises its     
how AOC plans for, designs,   2007)       project management manuals.      
and constructs projects;                  These manuals are made available 
develop management controls               through AOC's internal network.  
to ensure compliance with                 AOC tracks compliance with the   
manuals.                                  manuals through its project      
                                             performance measures.            
September 2005                                                             
13. Develop or modify         Making      Progress                         
information systems to        progress                                     
provide needed cost and                      o AOC currently tracks cost   
schedule data on projects and                and schedule data and reasons 
track reasons for changes                    for changes across all        
across all projects.                         projects in its quarterly     
                                                status report--a report that  
September 2005                               is manually prepared and not  
                                                supported by AOC's current    
                                                information systems.          
                                                o AOC's steering group, the   
                                                Project Information Center    
                                                Business Reengineering Task   
                                                Force, identified AOC's       
                                                project information system    
                                                requirements, which includes  
                                                the automation of AOC's       
                                                quarterly construction        
                                                projects progress report.     
                                                o AOC officials noted that    
                                                reengineering of the project  
                                                information system is one of  
                                                AOC's top project management  
                                                priorities for AOC.           
                                                o AOC requested funding for   
                                                an assessment of the current  
                                                system in its fiscal year     
                                                2007 budget.                  
                                                o In the interim, AOC plans   
                                                to begin modifying the        
                                                current project information   
                                                system with available         
                                                in-house resources in fiscal  
                                                year 2007 and requested       
                                                funding for further           
                                                modifications in its fiscal   
                                                year 2008 budget.             
                                                                              
                                             Remaining action                 
                                                                              
                                                o AOC needs to complete the   
                                                modification of its project   
                                                information system to assist  
                                                managers in more proactively  
                                                managing projects, provide    
                                                needed cost and schedule data 
                                                on projects, and track        
                                                reasons for changes across    
                                                all projects.                 

Source: GAO analysis of AOC data.

Facilities Management

AOC has taken steps to improve how it measures performance and tracks
demand work orders. For example, in May 2006, AOC began implementing a new
facilities management information system that will enhance its tracking
and reporting capabilities. Currently, all jurisdictions are using the new
system to track demand work orders. As implementation continues, AOC plans
to continue analyzing its workload data to develop metrics for the new
system. Additionally, AOC officials plan to benchmark AOC's performance
measures with peer organizations. These officials said that they used the
International Facilities Management Association's key performance
indicators to develop performance measures for AOC's revised strategic
plan. While these are important steps, AOC must complete the development
of its metrics and input its preventive maintenance work orders before it
can more accurately track performance. Furthermore, the new facilities
management information system must be used in conjunction with the new
cost accounting system--a system that will be phased in over several
years--before AOC will be able to fully use data provided by the new
facilities management information system. See table 6 for more information
on the implementation status of our recommendations on facilities
management.

Table 6: Current Status of Recommendations on Facilities Management

                                 Status                                       
GAO recommendation and date   (month/year of  Progress and remaining       
of the recommendation         GAO report)     action                       
1. To improve how AOC         Making progress Progress                     
measures its performance in                                                
the areas of timeliness and                      o To develop more         
cost, the agency should do                       specific timeliness       
the following: develop more                      measures, AOC made        
specific timeliness measures                     timeliness a requirement  
that more accurately reflect                     in the system             
the amount of time required                      specifications for the    
to complete tasks; develop                       new facilities management 
the capability to                                information system--a     
comprehensively and routinely                    system that is currently  
track cost performance                           being implemented.        
measures; and benchmark                          Although this new system  
performance measures against                     currently has the         
those of similar                                 capability to collect     
institutions, such as the                        data as granular as       
Smithsonian Institution and                      needed, AOC has not been  
state capitols.                                  collecting data at a      
                                                    level less than 30 days.  
December 2005                                    AOC plans to assess       
                                                    whether there is a need   
                                                    for data in other         
                                                    timeliness categories.    
                                                    o As part of the          
                                                    implementation process    
                                                    for the new system, AOC   
                                                    officials told us they    
                                                    are collecting and        
                                                    analyzing data on their   
                                                    workload to develop more  
                                                    accurate metrics.         
                                                    o To benchmark            
                                                    performance measures, AOC 
                                                    has plans to reach out to 
                                                    peer organizations,       
                                                    including the Smithsonian 
                                                    Institution and Texas     
                                                    state capital. AOC        
                                                    officials told us that    
                                                    that they used the        
                                                    International Facilities  
                                                    Management Association's  
                                                    operations and            
                                                    maintenance benchmarks to 
                                                    develop performance       
                                                    measures for AOC's        
                                                    revised strategic plan.   
                                                                              
                                                 Remaining actions            
                                                                              
                                                    o AOC needs to continue   
                                                    analyzing its workload    
                                                    data to develop more      
                                                    accurate timeliness and   
                                                    cost metrics.             
                                                    o Although AOC continues  
                                                    to develop more accurate  
                                                    cost metrics, the new     
                                                    facilities management     
                                                    information system must   
                                                    be used in conjunction    
                                                    with the new cost         
                                                    accounting system--a      
                                                    system that will be       
                                                    phased in over several    
                                                    years--before AOC will be 
                                                    able to fully use data    
                                                    provided by the           
                                                    facilities management     
                                                    information system.       
                                                    o AOC needs to continue   
                                                    with its benchmarking     
                                                    efforts with peer         
                                                    organizations.            
2. Use the new facilities     Making progress Progress                     
management information system                                              
to track preventive                              o Currently, all AOC      
maintenance and demand work                      jurisdictions are using   
orders across all                                the new facilities        
jurisdictions, including the                     management information    
time taken to complete work                      system to track demand    
orders.                                          work orders.              
                                                                              
December 2005                                 Remaining action             
                                                                              
                                                    o AOC needs to input its  
                                                    preventive maintenance    
                                                    work orders into the new  
                                                    facilities management     
                                                    information system to     
                                                    improve the tracking of   
                                                    these work orders across  
                                                    all jurisdictions.        
                                                    According to AOC, these   
                                                    work orders will be       
                                                    implemented case by case, 
                                                    on the basis of funding   
                                                    and data availability.    

Source: GAO analysis of AOC data.

Worker Safety

AOC has taken steps to improve worker safety and has implemented 1 worker
safety recommendation over the past year. Specifically, AOC has
implemented 7 of 34 specialized safety policies,2 completed a job hazard
analysis process to identify hazards, and implemented a system to track
investigations of incidents and follow-up. AOC also has selected a data
management system that will track and record employee training, licensing,
and certification and clarified the role of the Office of the Attending
Physician (OAP), including having OAP provide reports to AOC jurisdictions
when employees are due or past due for their medical surveillance
examinations. Overall, AOC's injury and illness rate declined from 17.9 in
fiscal year 2000 to 4.9 in fiscal year 2006. However, several critical
actions remain to further improve worker safety. For example, AOC will not
be able to fully achieve its goal of long-term cultural change until it
fully implements the specialized safety policies, which current draft
plans indicate will not occur until the end of fiscal year 2009. AOC also
needs to align its training system with its system to track and identify
corrective actions for hazards and incidents in order to target training
needs to address high-risk areas. Finally, although AOC added worker
safety as a standard topic in its biennial employee focus group script,
AOC needs a more rigorous (and anonymous) approach to measuring employee's
perceptions of AOC's safety climate, which may identify successful
strategies to expand and areas that need focused attention to improve. See
table 7 for more information on the implementation status of our
recommendations on worker safety.

While AOC is making progress in improving worker safety, in March 2006,
the utility tunnel workers sent a letter to Congress complaining of unsafe
working conditions in the tunnels, including falling concrete, asbestos,
and extreme heat. In February 2006, the Office of Compliance (OOC) filed a
complaint against AOC concerning hazards in the tunnels, including falling
concrete, an inadequate communication system for these confined spaces,
and inadequate escape exits. AOC has taken steps to address these
issues--including establishing safety and access procedures for the
tunnels and upgrading 15 tunnel entry and exit points--and continues to
work with the tunnel workers and the OOC to address these issues.

2AOC reduced the number of specialized safety policies from 43 to 34.

Table 7: Current Status of Recommendations on Worker Safety

GAO recommendation and  Status                                             
date of the             (month/year of                                     
recommendation          GAO report)    Progress and remaining actions      
1. Identify performance Making         Progress                            
measures for safety     progress                                           
goals and objectives,                     o As of December 2006, AOC's     
including measures for                    plan is to consolidate           
how AOC will implement                    individual safety policies into  
the 43 specialized                        a safety manual (with a          
safety programs and how                   tentative completion date of     
superintendents and                       December 31, 2007). The          
employees will be held                    individual safety policies,      
accountable for                           which now number 34, remain at   
achieving results.                        various stages of                
                                             implementation. Seven policies   
January 2003                              have been implemented; AOC has   
                                             identified draft implementation  
                                             dates for the remaining          
                                             policies, ranging from September 
                                             2007 to September 2009. In       
                                             addition to these 34, AOC has    
                                             implemented 2 additional safety  
                                             policies covering safety         
                                             meetings among senior management 
                                             officials (Safety, Health, and   
                                             Environment Council (SHEC)) and  
                                             jurisdiction-level officials     
                                             (Jurisdiction Occupational       
                                             Safety and Health Committees).   
                                             o AOC has developed workbooks to 
                                             help AOC staff implement the     
                                             safety policies. AOC employee    
                                             evaluations contain a broad      
                                             safety evaluation criterion,     
                                             which can be customized to       
                                             individual employees.            
                                                                              
                                          Remaining action                    
                                                                              
                                             o AOC has yet to fully implement 
                                             the safety policies. AOC plans   
                                             to complete its safety manual by 
                                             the end of calendar year 2007.   
                                             It has developed draft plans to  
                                             finish implementing the policies 
                                             by the end of fiscal year 2009.  
2. Establish clearly    Implemented    AOC has completed a job hazard      
defined and documented  (February      analysis (JHA) process including    
policies and procedures 2007)          describing the steps associated     
for reporting hazards                  with each job task, identifying     
similar to those that                  potential hazards associated with   
apply to injury and                    each task, developing the           
illness reporting.                     appropriate controls to eliminate   
                                          or reduce the hazards, developing a 
January 2003                           training program to perform JHAs,   
                                          and assisting first-line            
                                          supervisors with performing         
                                          qualitative JHAs. In addition, AOC  
                                          has completed a "step-by-step plan" 
                                          that provides a general approach    
                                          for jurisdictions to manage their   
                                          implementation of the JHA process.  
                                          Finally, AOC has included a         
                                          telephone number for reporting      
                                          hazards in its monthly safety       
                                          newsletters, which are distributed  
                                          AOC-wide. The Architect has         
                                          approved the Hazard Assessment and  
                                          Control Policy.                     
3. Establish a          Implemented    AOC has fulfilled this              
consistent AOC-wide     (February      recommendation with the approval of 
system for conducting   2006)          its interim incident notification,  
investigations and                     investigation, and reporting        
follow-up.                             policy. AOC also implemented the    
                                          incident analysis module, a         
January 2003                           component of the facility           
                                          management assistant program. This  
                                          module provides an electronic       
                                          recordkeeping approach to track the 
                                          investigation of incidents          
                                          associated with AOC personnel and   
                                          property. In addition, the module   
                                          interfaces with the facility        
                                          management assistant program by     
                                          creating a deficiency report when   
                                          corrective actions associated with  
                                          an incident are identified.         
                                          Moreover, an AOC-wide incident      
                                          investigation form has been         
                                          implemented across the              
                                          jurisdictions. Finally, lessons     
                                          learned are shared in a number of   
                                          ways, including through AOC's       
                                          safety support group.               
4. Establish a          Implemented    AOC has fulfilled this              
safety-training         (February      recommendation in establishing      
curriculum that fully   2006)          training that supports the goals of 
supports all of the                    the current safety policies. For    
goals of the safety                    example, during the implementation  
program and further                    review process, AOC revalidated     
evaluate the                           training requirements against       
effectiveness of the                   regulatory requirements. Moreover,  
training provided.                     Safety Policy Managers have worked  
                                          with the Human Resources Management 
January 2003                           Division to ensure that training    
                                          required by upcoming policies has   
                                          been identified. In addition, AOC   
                                          has completed a training workbook   
                                          exercise to assess the overall      
                                          impact of required safety policy    
                                          training on its budget. Also,       
                                          central staff safety professionals  
                                          continue to audit training courses  
                                          and provide feedback to course      
                                          instructors. Finally, AOC has been  
                                          using injury and illness data to    
                                          identify training needs.            
5. Assign clear         Making         Progress                            
responsibility for      progress                                           
tracking and recording                    o AOC has chosen a data          
training received by                      management system--AVUE--that    
AOC employees,                            will, among other things, track  
including maintaining                     and record employee training,    
an inventory of                           licensing, and certification.    
employees'                                Safety personnel have met with   
certifications and                        AVUE designers to ensure that    
licenses.                                 the designers fully understand   
                                             AOC's safety training needs.     
January 2003                                                               
                                          Remaining action                    
                                                                              
                                             o AOC needs to develop AVUE's    
                                             capacity to track employee       
                                             training. AOC expects to         
                                             implement the first phase of     
                                             AVUE in July 2007. This phase    
                                             would establish an automated     
                                             training request and approval    
                                             process. The second phase of     
                                             AVUE implementation will expand  
                                             the system's capacity to track   
                                             required training, licenses, and 
                                             certification, but AOC has not   
                                             set a specific completion date   
                                             for the second phase.            
6. Clarify and explore  Implemented    AOC has fulfilled this              
the possibility of      (February      recommendation by working with OAP  
expanding the role of   2006)          to ensure that the lists of medical 
the Office of the                      surveillance program participants   
Attending Physician                    are current. In addition, OAP is    
(OAP) in helping AOC                   providing reports to AOC            
meet its safety goals,                 jurisdictions when employees are    
consistent with the                    either (1) due or (2) past due for  
broad responsibilities                 their medical surveillance          
laid out in the 1998                   examinations. AOC is also drafting  
Memorandum of                          a document on the scope of medical  
Understanding between                  surveillance services to better     
AOC and OAP.                           define and communicate the agency's 
                                          requirements to OAP to ensure a     
January 2003                           common understanding and set of     
                                          expectations.                       
7. Establish a senior   Implemented    AOC has fulfilled this              
management work group   (August 2004)  recommendation by developing        
that will routinely                    performance measures to assess the  
discuss workers'                       long-term impact and trends of      
compensation cases and                 workers' compensation injuries and  
costs, and develop                     costs. In addition, through SHEC,   
strategies to reduce                   safety and human resource officials 
these injuries and                     are exchanging information and data 
costs.                                 to control workers' compensation    
                                          injuries and costs. Finally,        
January 2003                           through SHEC, the relationship      
                                          between safety and workers'         
                                          compensation injuries and illnesses 
                                          is being promoted.                  
8. To enhance worker    Making         Progress                            
safety performance      progress                                           
measures at AOC, the                      o AOC has added worker safety as 
Architect of the                          a standard topic in its biennial 
Capitol should direct                     focus group script, indicated it 
the COO to expand upon                    conducts daily shop safety       
its safety perception                     meetings, and included a         
survey by developing a                    telephone number for reporting   
more rigorous                             hazards in its monthly safety    
methodological approach                   newsletters.                     
and collecting such                                                        
information on a more                  Remaining action                    
regular basis.                                                             
                                             o AOC needs to adopt a more      
August 2004                               rigorous (and anonymous)         
                                             approach to measuring employee's 
                                             perceptions of AOC's safety      
                                             climate--perceptions, for        
                                             example, of management           
                                             commitment, discipline policies, 
                                             and hazard corrections--that     
                                             could help AOC identify          
                                             successful strategies for        
                                             application to other areas as    
                                             well as areas that need focused  
                                             attention to improve.            

Source: GAO analysis of AOC data.

Capitol Power Plant Management

AOC has made progress in improving CPP management3 and efficiently
staffing the modernized power plant, but more work remains. For example,
AOC took interim steps to modify existing positions--as they have been
vacated--to reflect the additional skill sets required to successfully
operate and maintain the modernized plant. Since October 2005, AOC has
been working with a consultant to develop a new workload analysis and
staffing implementation plan and received the results of the analysis and
recommendations in November 2006. On the basis of these results, AOC is
developing a reorganization plan to reflect the recommendations, which it
expects to submit to Congress for approval in March 2007. In anticipation
of the staffing changes, AOC has been using attrition to reduce and
realign the CPP workforce and is currently keeping seven vacated positions
vacant, four of which will be filled by internal candidates and will not
impact the staffing numbers. See table 8 for more information on the
implementation status of our recommendations on CPP management.

Table 8: Current Status of Recommendations on CPP Management

GAO recommendation and  Status                                             
date of the             (month/year of                                     
recommendation          GAO report)     Progress and remaining action      
1. By the end of fiscal Making progress Progress                           
year 2005, AOC should                                                      
develop an                                 o AOC evaluates and adjusts     
implementation plan for                    fuel sources on an ongoing      
adopting its                               basis to use the most           
consultant's November                      economically priced fuel.       
2004 recommendations                       o AOC has worked with a         
without decreasing                         contractor to develop a new     
system reliability or                      workload analysis and staffing  
violating environmental                    implementation plan. The        
air permits that are in                    workload analysis, completed in 
effect. The                                November 2006, recommends a     
consultant's report                        reduction in staff, and AOC is  
recommended that AOC                       developing a reorganization     
                                              plan.                           
      o use the most                          o AOC also has been using       
      economically priced                     attrition to reduce and realign 
      fuel to operate the                     the CPP workforce in            
      steam boilers and                       anticipation of recommended     
      o reduce current CPP                    changes. For example, seven     
      staff from 88                           vacated positions are currently 
      positions to 46                         being kept vacant, four of      
      positions.                              which will be filled by         
                                              internal candidates and will    
April 2005a                                not affect CPP's staffing       
                                              numbers.                        
                                                                              
                                           Remaining action                   
                                                                              
                                              o AOC needs to develop and      
                                              implement a staffing plan that  
                                              is based on the recommendations 
                                              from the recent consultant's    
                                              study.                          
2. AOC should not wait  Implemented     AOC fulfilled our recommendation   
to implement prudent    (February 2007) to implement prudent operational   
operational and                         and incremental organizational     
incremental                             changes in anticipation of a more  
organizational changes                  permanent organization when the    
in anticipation of a                    West Refrigeration Plant Expansion 
more permanent                          project is complete. In January    
organization when the                   2007, the CPP took use and         
West Refrigeration                      possession of the new West         
Plant Expansion project                 Refrigeration Plant Expansion      
is complete. If                         chiller systems to support the     
carefully planned,                      campus cooling loads. The West     
anticipated workforce                   Refrigeration Plant Expansion      
reductions can be                       project is scheduled to finish in  
managed in a manner                     June 2007, but the construction    
that minimizes adverse                  contract will remain open until    
impacts. Workforce                      the Boiler House Distributed       
planning can result in                  Control System project is          
CPP employees being                     completed in January 2008. To      
placed in other AOC                     implement incremental              
organizations and can                   organizational changes, AOC        
account for natural                     indicated that it has taken steps  
attrition by                            to modify existing positions--as   
considering the                         they have been vacated--to reflect 
retirement eligibility                  the additional skill sets required 
of current employees.                   to successfully operate and        
                                           maintain the modernized plant.     
April 2005a                             These steps are intermediate to    
                                           permanent staffing changes that    
                                           are expected to be made once AOC   
                                           implements the staffing plan       
                                           outlined in its November 2006      
                                           consultant's report. Moreover, the 
                                           completion of AOC's staffing       
                                           study, which includes a phased     
                                           implementation plan to achieve     
                                           CPP's permanent organizational     
                                           structure, supersedes the need to  
                                           make interim changes. Accordingly, 
                                           we expect AOC to take no further   
                                           action to implement this           
                                           recommendation.                    
3. To ensure that CPP   Making progress Progress                           
is staffed efficiently                                                     
and that CPP personnel                     o AOC has worked with a         
are trained to operate                     consultant to develop a new     
the modernized power                       workload analysis and staffing  
plant safely, we                           implementation plan. The        
recommend that the                         consultant issued the results   
Architect of the                           of the study in November 2006.  
Capitol                                    On the basis of these results,  
                                              AOC is developing a             
      o develop and                           reorganization proposal, which  
      implement a staffing                    it expects to deliver to        
      plan for CPP that is                    Congress for approval in March  
      based on the results                    2007.                           
      of its most recent                      o The consultant also evaluated 
      consultant's study                      the operator training program   
      and                                     and is preparing its evaluation 
      o evaluate the                          report. AOC expects to receive  
      training provided to                    the results of the evaluation   
      CPP operators and                       by early March 2007.            
      use the evaluation                                                      
      results in                           Remaining action                   
      implementing the                                                        
      staffing plan.                          o AOC needs to develop and      
                                              implement a staffing plan for   
February 2006b                             CPP and incorporate the results 
                                              of the training evaluation.     

3As previously reported, we also reported on CPP's 2004 master plan during
this same time period. Due to its security sensitive nature, we did not
include it in this report.

Source: GAO analysis of AOC data.

aGAO, Capitol Power Plant: Actions Needed to Improve Operating Efficiency
(Washington, D.C.: Apr. 8, 2005), issued as unnumbered correspondence.

bGAO, Architect of the Capitol: Addressing Staffing and Training Issues Is
Important for Efficient and Safe West Refrigeration Plant Operations,
[42]GAO-06-321R (Washington, D.C.: Feb. 10, 2006).

Recycling

AOC has implemented the recommendations related to developing a strategic
approach to recycling. In January 2006, AOC finalized its recycling
program mission, goals, and performance measures. The performance measures
are also in AOC's revised strategic plan and the Senate and House business
plans. To monitor performance, AOC reports on the status of its recycling
performance measures in the quarterly Safety, Health, and Environmental
Council meetings. Additionally, AOC formed a Legislative Branch recycling
group that met for the first time in September 2006. This group plans to
meet quarterly to discuss common issues and best management practices. To
clarify responsibilities and hold staff accountable for achieving
recycling goals, AOC has included recycling tasks in its position
descriptions and included recycling responsibilities for recycling
managers and supervisors in its evaluation system. For example, the
performance evaluation system includes recycling objectives in the ratings
of Senate and House recycling managers to hold them accountable for
program results. See table 9 for more information on the implementation
status of our recommendations on recycling.

Table 9: Current Status of Recommendations on Recycling

                                 Status                                       
GAO recommendation and date   (month/year of  Progress and remaining       
of the recommendation         GAO report)     action                       
1. Develop a clear mission    Implemented     AOC drafted a mission        
and goals for AOC's recycling (February 2006) statement, goals, and        
program with input from key                   performance measures for its 
congressional stakeholders as                 recycling program and shared 
part of its proposed                          this draft with              
environmental master plan.                    congressional stakeholders.  
AOC may want to establish                     The mission for the          
reasonable goals on the basis                 recycling program is to      
of the total waste                            foster an environment that   
stream--information it plans                  encourages recycling by the  
to obtain as part of its                      legislative branch staff     
long-term environmental                       through convenient and       
management plan--that could                   efficient programs,          
potentially be recycled.                      resulting in the diversion   
                                                 of wastes from the solid     
January 2003                                  waste stream. AOC            
                                                 established three main goals 
                                                 for its recycling program:   
                                                 (1) increase overall         
                                                 recycling rates by diverting 
                                                 office wastes, (2) increase  
                                                 overall recycling tonnage by 
                                                 diverting nonoffice wastes,  
                                                 and (3) improving            
                                                 communication and            
                                                 coordination among           
                                                 interested legislative       
                                                 branch agencies by           
                                                 establishing a recycling     
                                                 working group by the end of  
                                                 fiscal year 2006.            
2. To further assist AOC in   Implemented     AOC relied on input from     
developing a more strategic   (February 2006) internal and external        
approach for its recycling                    stakeholders, including      
programs and to ensure that                   congressional stakeholders,  
congressional input is                        to assist in the development 
obtained when it would be                     of the mission, goals, and   
most useful, we recommend                     performance measures as part 
that the Architect of the                     of its recycling program.    
Capitol direct the COO to                                                  
obtain preliminary input from                                              
congressional stakeholders on                                              
its environmental program                                                  
plan--particularly as the                                                  
plan relates to the mission                                                
and goals of AOC's recycling                                               
programs--prior to the                                                     
completion of the plan.                                                    
                                                                              
August 2004                                                                
3. Develop a performance      Implemented     AOC has established a        
measurement, monitoring, and  (February 2007) performance measurement,     
evaluation system that                        monitoring, and evaluation   
supports accomplishing AOC's                  system that supports its     
recycling mission and goals.                  recycling mission and goals. 
                                                 AOC finalized its recycling  
January 2003                                  program mission, goals, and  
                                                 performance measures in      
                                                 January 2006. These          
                                                 performance measures are in  
                                                 AOC's revised strategic plan 
                                                 and the Senate and House     
                                                 business plans. To monitor   
                                                 performance, AOC reports on  
                                                 the status of its recycling  
                                                 performance measures in the  
                                                 Safety, Health, and          
                                                 Environmental Council        
                                                 meetings. Additionally, AOC  
                                                 formed a Legislative Branch  
                                                 recycling group that met for 
                                                 the first time in September  
                                                 2006. This group plans to    
                                                 meet quarterly to discuss    
                                                 common issues and share best 
                                                 management practices.        
4. Examine the roles and      Implemented     AOC included recycling tasks 
responsibilities of AOC's     (February 2007) in its position descriptions 
recycling program staff to                    and included recycling       
ensure that they are                          responsibilities for         
performing the right jobs                     recycling managers and       
with the necessary authority,                 supervisors in its           
and holding the staff                         evaluation system. For       
accountable for achieving                     example, the performance     
program and agency results                    evaluation system includes   
through AOC's performance                     recycling objectives in the  
management system.                            ratings of Senate and House  
                                                 recycling managers to hold   
January 2003                                  them accountable for program 
                                                 results.                     

Source: GAO analysis of AOC data.

Appendix II: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments

GAO Contact

Terrell G. Dorn, (202) 512-6923, or [email protected]

Staff Acknowledgments

In addition to the individual named above, key contributors to this report
were Shirley L. Abel, Mark Bird, John C. Craig, Elizabeth Curda, Amr
Desouky, Elizabeth R. Eisenstadt, Elena P. Epps, Brett S. Fallavollita,
Jeanette M. Franzel, Mary Hatcher, Randolph C. Hite, Heather Krause,
Neelaxi Lakhmani, Steven G. Lozano, Valerie Melvin, David Merrill, Susan
Michal-Smith, Sara Ann Moessbauer, Stephanie Sand, Natalie Schneider,
Bernice Steinhardt, John J. Reilly, Jr., Sarah E. Veale, Sara Vermillion,
and Merry Woo.

(545048)

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Highlights of GAO-07-407, a report to congressional requesters

February 2007

ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL

Committed, Sustained Leadership Needed to Continue Progress

The Architect of the Capitol (AOC) is responsible for the operation,
maintenance, renovation, and new construction of the Capitol Hill complex,
including the U.S. Capitol, the Library of Congress, and the Senate and
House Office Buildings. In 2003, at the request of Congress, GAO issued a
management review of AOC that contained recommendations designed to help
AOC become more strategic and accountable. Subsequently, Congress directed
GAO to monitor AOC's progress in implementing recommendations. This is the
fourth status report on AOC's progress and summarizes GAO's assessment of
AOC's overall progress and remaining actions in becoming more strategic
and accountable, including AOC's responses to specific recommendations GAO
made in January 2003 and subsequently. To assess AOC's progress, GAO
analyzed AOC documents; interviewed AOC officials; and relied on the
results of related GAO reviews, including reviews of the Capitol Visitor
Center (CVC).

AOC generally agreed with GAO's assessment of its progress, but noted that
2 additional recommendations--1 on financial management practices and 1 on
collecting worker safety data--should be considered implemented. GAO
acknowledges AOC's efforts in these areas, but maintains that further
steps are necessary to fully implement these recommendations.

AOC has made progress in becoming more strategic and accountable, but
critical actions are needed to sustain and build on this progress. To
date, AOC has filled key leadership positions, revised its strategic plan,
improved communication, and continued initiatives to improve internal
controls and accountability. AOC is thus establishing a foundation for
becoming more strategic and accountable. However, completing the
transition to new leadership--including the transition to a new Architect
of the Capitol (a position that is now vacant)--and other actions remain
to bring about lasting improvements in performance. For example, AOC must
integrate nine new managers into the agency while ensuring its continued
progress. In addition, the Chief Operating Officer faces the challenge of
performing the Architect of the Capitol's responsibilities and his own
during the CVC project's completion and AOC's management transition.
Furthermore, although AOC has revised its strategic plan to better focus
on its mission and goals, it has not determined whether it can better
deliver the services that support its mission and goals through
outsourcing or in-house resources. Finally, a continued focus on
communication and other areas that are key to greater internal control and
accountability--including financial, information technology, and project
management--is needed to sustain and further AOC's progress to date. For
example, full implementation of AOC's cost accounting system--a key
financial management initiative--is needed to more accurately track
facilities management cost measures. Improvements in project management
could be achieved, in part, by applying lessons learned in managing the
CVC project.

Appendix I of this report summarizes AOC's progress on recommendations
that GAO has made since January 2003 to help AOC establish a strong
strategic management and accountability framework. This year, AOC has
implemented 21 recommendations. For example, AOC implemented 6 of the
strategic management recommendations, including the development of
congressional protocols and the involvement of stakeholders in developing
the revised strategic plan. For project management, AOC implemented 7
recommendations, including the development of performance measures.
Implementing these 21 recommendations brings the total number of
implemented or closed recommendations to 43 out of 64.

AOC's Progress in Implementing GAO's Recommendations

Issue area                     Implemented or closed Total recommendations 
                                        recommendations                       
Strategic management                              13                    14 
Human capital                                      7                     9 
management                                                                 
Financial management                               1                     4 
Information technology                             3                     7 
management                                                                 
Project management                                 9                    13 
Facilities management                              0                     2 
Worker safety                                      5                     8 
Capitol Power Plant                                1                     3 
management                                                                 
Recycling                                          4                     4 
Total                                             43                    64 

Source: GAO analysis of AOC data.

References

Visible links
  29. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-231
  30. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-290
  31. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-966
  32. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-299
  33. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-227R
  34. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-231
  35. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-321R
  36. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-02-847T
  37. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-231
  38. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-227R
  39. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-299
  40. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-966
  41. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-456RNI
  42. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-321R
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