April 6, 2000
Donna E. Shalala
Secretary of Health and Human Services
Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20201
Dear Secretary Shalala:
As you know, Congress is focused on ensuring
that the government effectively and efficiently manages its
information technology (IT) resources. The Clinger-Cohen Act of
1996 was enacted, in part, in response to concerns about how the
federal government was acquiring IT. The Act mandates that,
among other things, executive agencies design and implement
processes for IT capital planning and investment control,
implement specified IT-related actions to enhance performance
and results-based management, and establish Chief Information
Officers with certain defined duties and responsibilities. In
addition, the Act requires the agencies to identify IT
acquisition programs that have significantly deviated from their
cost, performance, or schedule goals. The Act also requires the
agencies to use, to the maximum extent practicable, modular
contracting for major IT system acquisitions.
The Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs
played a large role in the passage of the Clinger-Cohen Act, and
we maintain a high level of interest in compliance with its
provisions. As part of our oversight agenda, we have developed a
series of questions to ascertain the status of Clinger-Cohen Act
compliance in the agencies and departments subject to its
mandates. Your response to these questions will serve as the
basis for our further oversight on information technology
management issues.
As you prepare your responses to the following
questions, we ask that you provide sufficient documentation and
examples to support the answers you are providing to the
Committee.
Effectively Using Agency Chief Information
Officer
1. Please provide the name and official title of
the individual currently serving as Chief Information
Officer (CIO). If the individual is serving in an
"acting" capacity, please explain the steps you are
taking to finalize an appointment to this position.
(a) Since CCA enactment in February 1996,
how many individuals have served in the CIO position for
Department of Health and Human Services, and what were the
periods of their service?
(b) Does the CIO have a direct reporting
relationship to you? If not, to whom does the CIO directly
report on a day-to-day basis?
(c) Is the CIO a member of formal
executive-level strategic planning, budget, and program-area
process re-design committees, groups, or councils
established in Department of Health and Human Services? (1)
What are the responsibilities of the CIO on these committees
and groups? (2) Has the CIO made, or played a vital role in
making, strategic business decisions for the
department/agency? Please provide several noteworthy
examples.
(d) What, if any, additional duties or
responsibilities does the official designated as Department
of Health and Human Services CIO have other than information
resources management?
(e) Do the component organizations that
comprise Department of Health and Human Services also have
designated CIOs? If so, (1) how are they selected, (2) to
whom do they report, and (3) how is their decisional
authority defined by agency policy?
(f) In accordance with CCA, has your CIO
provided annual reports to you on improvements in
information resources and technology management
capabilities? If so, please provide copies.
(g) What percentage of Department of Health
and Human Services total information management and
technology expenditures are controlled or approved by the
Department of Health and Human Services CIO?
Achieving Benefits From Capital Planning and
Investment Control Processes
2. Has Department of Health and Human Services
implemented complete and comprehensive IT capital planning and
investment management processes, as required by CCA section
5122(a) and (b)? If not, what remains to be done and what is the
focus of current efforts?
(a) Please provide the Committee with
Department of Health and Human Services definition
for what constitutes an IT investment for purposes of this
CCA section.
(b) Approximately how much, and what
percentage, of Department of Health and Human
Services total IT budget is subject to the IT capital
planning and investment management processes established in
your department/agency (including, as always, its
major components)?
(c) Please identify Department of Health and
Human Services top ten investment initiatives (in terms of
total acquisition dollars) that were approved by the IT
capital planning and investment approval process and are
currently in development or acquisition. Also, for each of
these initiatives, please (1) describe how Department of
Health and Human Services assessed cost, risk, and return on
investment in winning approval and (2) provide a 1-page
exhibit that summarizes the cost, risk, and
return-on-investment data that were used for the investment
decision. (3) How confident are you in the quality of these
data for decision-making?
(d) If uses an executive management level IT
capital planning and investment control group (e.g.,
investment review board, IT investment committee, etc.),
does this group recommend or does it make final IT funding
decisions for the Department of Health and Human Services?
If the group does not make the final decisions, who does?
(e) What means has your agency provided, in
accordance with CCA section 5122(b)(6), for senior
management personnel to obtain timely information on the
progress of information system investments? (1) To what
extent do these means include a system of milestones for
measuring progress, on an independently verifiable basis, in
terms of cost, capability of the system to meet specified
requirements, timeliness,and quality? (2) How confident are you that the
data being
used for measuring progress are accurate,
reliable, and up-to-date?
(f) Has Department of Health and Human
Services, as required by CCA section 5127, identified in its
strategic information resources management plan any and all
major IT acquisition programs--or any phase or increment of
such programs--that have significantly deviated from the
cost, performance, or schedule goals established for the
program? (1) If so, which major IT acquisition program(s)?
If not, why not? (2) Whether or not your agency has
identified such significant deviations in its strategic IRM
plans, how does your agency define, for purposes of CCA
section 5127, (i) "major IT acquisition program"
and (ii) "significant deviation"?
Managing IT for Overall Performance and Results
3. As you are aware, CCA requires that executive
agencies measure how well IT is being used to support their
programs. For each of the top ten investment initiatives (in
terms of total acquisition dollars) currently in either
development, acquisition, or operation in Department of Health
and Human Services, please provide specific data on realized and
expected benefits to major operational or programmatic goals
outlined in your latest Government Performance and Results Act
strategic plan or annual performance plan. Also include the same
type of data for any other investments, currently in
development, acquisition, or operation, that you consider
critically important.
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As required by section 5123 of
CCA,
please provide the Committee with a copy of your last three
annual reports on progress in achieving goals for improving
the efficiency and effectiveness of Department of Health and
Human Services operations and, as appropriate, its delivery
of services through the effective use of information
technology.
Improving Work Processes
4. Since enactment of
CCA, has Department
of Health and Human Services, in accordance with CCA
section 5123, (1) analyzed its missions and (2) based on the
analysis, revised its mission-related processes and
administrative processes, as appropriate, before making
significant investments in IT to be used in support of the
performance of those missions?
Acquiring IT Incrementally (Modular Contracting)
5. What progress has Department of Health
and Human Services made, and what obstacles still remain, in
implementing modular contracting, in accordance with CCA section
5202?
(a) What criteria does Department of Health
and Human Services use for determining whether a modular
contracting approach is appropriate or not?
(b) Since CCA’s enactment, what percentage
of Department of Health and Human Services major IT
systems investments have used modular contracting? Also,
please indicate which systems and the dollar value of the
contracts.
Contracting for IT
6. Approximately how much did Department of
Health and Human Services obligate through contract actions for
IT products or services during each of the following fiscal
years: 1997, 1998, and 1999?
-
For each of the three fiscal years, what
percentage of the total dollars were obligated by (1)
issuing orders under existing indefinite delivery,
indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts (such as
government-wide contracts (GWACs), federal supply schedule
contracts, etc.) and (2) awarding new contracts or issuing
modifications to those contracts?
Because of upcoming oversight hearings planned
by the Committee in this area, it is critical that the Committee
receive your response by May 18, 2000. After receiving your
response, our staff may want to meet with your representatives
to discuss the information provided. If you or your staff would
like to
discuss this request further, please contact
Ellen B. Brown or Susan Marshall of the majority staff at (202)
224-4751 or Debbie Lehrich of the minority staff at (202)
224-2627.
Thank you in advance for your attention to this
issue.
Sincerely,
Fred
Thompson
Chairman
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Joseph I. Lieberman
Ranking Minority Member
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FT/sgm
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