The Census Bureau has implemented key practices for IT management,
but more actions are needed, the Government Accountability Office has said.
It said the bureau – responsible for producing the reams of data
used to determine legislative districts and distribute hundreds of
billions of dollars each year – has a history of problems in developing,
acquiring and implementing its IT systems.
GAO did offer some praise of the bureau’s IT management efforts,
however, saying it has developed policies and procedures and
initiated key practices in many of the areas that are important
to successfully managing IT, including investment management,
enterprise architecture management, information security, and
human capital management.
The bureau’s five-year strategic IT plan identifies 10 major
investments currently estimated to cost about $4 billion through
2009 – three of them representing about $2.7 billion are in support
of the 2010 decennial census, according to GAO report GAO-05-661.
It said the bureau plans to invest about $1.8 billion in a 2010
testing and design program, aimed at redesigning procedures and
increasing the use of automation.
However, said GAO, “many of these practices are not fully and consistently
performed.”
It said the bureau has established investment boards at the executive
level, but that “it lacks written procedures” outlining how the panels
are to operate and ensuring a consistent and repeatable approach to
investment management and decision making.
As a result, the bureau is at risk of cost and schedule overruns and
performance shortfalls, and given its plans to spend billions on IT
in preparation for the 2010 census, it needs to take further action
now to ensure sound IT practices at this relatively early stage,
according to GAO.
