Federal Manager's Daily Report

Development and use of benchmarks for measuring federal building utilization are among new recommendations. Image: singh_lens/Shutterstock.com

The GAO’s latest list of high-priority recommendations for OMB removes several items related to acquisition management but adds four, lowering the total from 40 to 37.

GAO meanwhile told OMB that “we encourage your attentiveness to three of the 33 priority recommendations focused on reducing improper payments and fraud, including the need for improved monitoring of governmentwide systems and a more strategic approach toward internal controls for disaster relief funding.”

The acquisition-related recommendations no longer considered high priority involved one on guidance on reverse auctions and two on standardizing a definition for bridge contracts. GAO also credited OMB with taking action on single audit guidance that reflected improved collaboration with the audit community, developing a process for identifying and securing high-value IT assets, adopting a government-wide workforce plan related to the cybersecurity workforce, and launching the Federal Program Inventory website.

The additions relate to the need for guidance to help ensure that agencies consistently track and report the costs of IT cloud services, the development and use of benchmarks for measuring federal building utilization, and two recommendations related to estimating and reducing governmentwide fraud.

The recommendations fall into the categories of: Fully developing a federal program inventory; improving government performance; increasing availability and transparency of government data; improving acquisition management and reducing costs; reducing government-wide improper payments and fraud; strengthening cybersecurity; establishing controls for disaster relief; improving federal real property asset management; and improving information management.

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