The government still does not have a reliable inventory of all of its programs and the related budgetary and performance information that was called for in the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010, GAO has said, attributing the shortcoming to the discretion OMB allowed to agencies that led to a variety of approaches for defining programs and inconsistencies among the types of information reported.
Further, agencies have not always followed an expected consultation process, making it more difficult to identify similar programs in different agencies. GAO for example was unable to identify, in the first inventory produced last year covering 24 agencies, a majority of the science, technology, engineering and mathematics education and nuclear nonproliferation programs identified in past GAO studies, with only nine of the 179 programs matching exactly.
GAO said that OMB provided the discretion because a pilot project determined that a one-size-fits-all approach does not work well and agencies use the term “program” in different ways.
The report further said that lack of budget and performance information “limits the usefulness of the inventories to various decision makers, including Congress and stakeholders.” OMB generally agreed with GAO’s recommendations for revised guidance that directs agencies to collaborate when defining and identifying programs that contribute to a common outcome, among other steps.
The report is here: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-15-83