The problems NASA has encountered trying to produce an
unqualified audit opinion — something most federal
agencies have managed to do — are not uncommon,
according to the report.
It said, “many federal financial system modernization
efforts have exceeded budgeted cost and scheduled
delivery dates without providing the anticipated system
functionality.”
In a related report, GAO said NASA is making some
progress toward implementing recommendations it made
for improving the space agency’s integrated financial
management program.
Still, it called on NASA to develop “an integrated
enterprise master schedule and milestones – including
improvement activities and plans, dates for completion,
performance measures, and clear accountability.”
GAO has reported in the past that NASA has fundamental
problems with financial management that undermine
external financial reporting abilities and hamper
efforts to manage operations effectively and oversee
major programs.
In 2000 NASA initiated the Integrated Financial Management
Program, to be completed in 2008, but three years into it
GAO issued four reports detailing weaknesses in the agency’s
acquisition and implementation strategy.
For example, GAO said it had not been following best
practices and was at risk of making a huge investment
and falling short of its goal of providing meaningful,
reliable, and timely information to support daily program
management and external financial reporting.
GAO made 45 recommendations in the four reports issued in
April and November of 2003 covering system component
integration, enterprise architecture development and use,
risk mitigation, system requirements definition, requirements
management and testing, external financial reporting, and
program cost and schedule control, according to GAO-05-799R.
It said that since then NASA has been focused on trying to
stabilize the core financial module, “the backbone of IFMP,”
and that “overall progress has been slow — particularly
with respect to establishing an enterprise architecture,
which is critical for guiding and constraining NASA’s
investment in IFMP.”
However, GAO said NASA is showing progress enhancing the
core financial module to provide better project management
information and that the agency has closed three
recommendations and implemented 13 of them partially, while
29 remain open.
