The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s fiscal 2013 IT expenditure plan satisfied two sets of statutory conditions contained in the fiscal 2013 appropriations act, GAO has said, which bodes well for the agency as it attempts to modernize its infrastructure and systems and implement management controls to overcome shortcomings in its capabilities.
Its plan identified for each project the functional and performance capabilities to be delivered, mission benefits, life-cycle costs, and key milestones, according to GAO-14-283.
For example, it said that for the Federal Housing Administration Transformation’s Portfolio Evaluation Tool project, the plan identified functional capabilities such as the ability to produce on-demand reports to assess financial impacts and risks.
The plan also satisfied the second set of conditions by demonstrating that each project was in compliance with HUD’s enterprise architecture, was being managed in accordance with applicable life-cycle policies and guidance, conformed to capital planning and investment control requirements, and was supported by an adequately staffed project office, according to GAO.
It said however that the plan did not discuss the scope, implementation strategy, or schedule for HUD’s modernization efforts or related projects beyond fiscal year 2013 funding. (HUD says it was focused on satisfying the statutory conditions and considered modernization priorities insignificantly changed.)
HUD agreed with recommendations to establish a means for evaluating progress toward institutionalizing management controls and define its overall modernization approach to effectively oversee the efforts.