OMB and agencies need to prioritize coordination on geospatial information to reduce duplications, GAO has said.
It said that while the White House and OMB have established policies and procedures for coordinating investments in geospatial data, government-wide committees and federal departments and agencies have not effectively implemented them.
The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), tasked with coordinating geospatial data nationwide, has developed and endorsed key standards and established a clearinghouse of metadata, but the clearinghouse is not being used by agencies to identify planned geospatial investments to promote coordination and reduce duplication, according to GAO-13-94.
It said the FGDC has not yet planned or implemented an approach to manage geospatial data as related groups of investments to allow agencies to more effectively plan geospatial data collection efforts and minimize duplicative investments.
Further, the three federal departments GAO reviewed – Commerce, Interior and Transportation – are not preparing and implementing a strategy for advancing geospatial activities within their respective departments, the report said.
FGDC agreed to develop a national strategy for coordinating geospatial investments while there was some agreement among the three to follow federal guidance for managing geospatial investments. OMB also agreed to develop a mechanism to identify and report on geospatial investments.
