Summary
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the third largest department in federal procurement spending in fiscal year 2006, has faced ongoing cost, schedule, and performance problems with major acquisitions and procurement of services. In December 2005, DHS established an acquisition oversight program to provide insight into and improve components' acquisition programs. In 2006, GAO reported that DHS faced challenges in implementing its program. Congress mandated that DHS develop an oversight plan and tasked GAO with analyzing the plan. GAO (1) evaluated actions DHS and its components have taken to implement the acquisition oversight plan and (2) identified implementation challenges. GAO also identified opportunities for strengthening oversight conducted through the plan. GAO reviewed relevant DHS documents and GAO and DHS Inspector General reports and interviewed officials in the office of the Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) and nine DHS components.
The CPO has taken several actions to implement DHS's acquisition oversight plan--which generally incorporates basic principles of an effective and accountable acquisition function. The plan monitors acquisition performance through four recurring reviews: self-assessment, operational status, on-site, and acquisition planning. Each component has completed the first self-assessment, which has helped components identify and prioritize acquisition weaknesses. In addition, each component has submitted an initial operational status report to the CPO and on-site reviews are being conducted. Despite this progress, the acquisition planning reviews are not sufficient to determine if components adequately plan their acquisitions--in part because a required review has not been implemented and the CPO lacks visibility into components' planning activities. DHS faces two key challenges in implementing its acquisition oversight plan. First, the CPO has had limited oversight resources to implement plan reviews. However, recent increases in staff have begun to address this challenge. Second, the CPO lacks sufficient authority to ensure components comply with the plan--despite being held accountable for departmentwide management and oversight of the acquisition function. GAO has previously recommended that DHS provide the CPO with sufficient enforcement authority to enable effective acquisition oversight. In addition to these challenges, GAO identified two opportunities to strengthen internal controls for overseeing the plan's implementation and for increasing knowledge sharing. Specifically, independent evaluations of DHS's oversight program could help ensure that the plan maintains its effectiveness over time. Sharing knowledge and lessons learned could provide DHS's acquisition workforce with the information needed to improve their acquisition processes and better achieve DHS's mission.
Recommendations
Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change
from "In process" to "Implemented" or "Not implemented" based on our follow up work.
Director:
Team:
Phone:
John P. Hutton
Government Accountability Office: Acquisition and Sourcing Management
(202) 512-7773
Recommendations for Executive Action
Recommendation: To improve oversight of component acquisition planning processes and the overall effectiveness of the acquisition oversight plan, the Chief Procurement Officer, Department of Homeland Security, should reevaluate the approach to oversight of acquisition planning reviews and determine whether the mechanisms under the plan are sufficient to monitor component actions and improve component acquisition planning efforts.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security: Office of the Chief Procurement Officer
Status: In process
Comments: In providing comments on this report, DHS concurred with this recommendation. Upon discovery of the limited data availability on the Website hosting the Advanced Acquisition Planning database, as reported in GAO-07-900, the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer (OCPO) directed that the database be modified to ensure that full year and archived data are available. Such data are now available through the Website at FIDO.gov. DHS has not yet taken other actions necessary to implement this recommendation, however, in its letter to OMB and the Congress, the agency stated that Acquisition Oversight Office will review a sample of acquisition plans in Fiscal Year (FY) 2009. Based on the extent to which OCPO comments are adequately addressed in these contract files, OCPO will assess the extent to which training and/or an annual reporting requirement is needed.
Recommendation: To improve oversight of component acquisition planning processes and the overall effectiveness of the acquisition oversight plan, the Chief Procurement Officer, Department of Homeland Security, should request a periodic external assessment of the oversight plan implementation and ensure findings are communicated to and addressed by appropriate officials.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security: Office of the Chief Procurement Officer
Status: In process
Comments: In providing comments on this report, the agency concurred with this recommendation but has not yet taken any actions necessary to implement it. In its letter to OMB and the Congress, the agency reiterated that the first priority of the Acquisition Oversight Office for Fiscal Year (FY) 08 was to complete initial comprehensive on-site reviews of each component. However, it also stated that as part of its FY 2009 annual review plan, the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer (OCPO) plans to explore the use of an external assessment of the Acquisition Oversight Office.
Recommendation: To improve oversight of component acquisition planning processes and the overall effectiveness of the acquisition oversight plan, the Chief Procurement Officer, Department of Homeland Security, should develop additional opportunities to share lessons learned from oversight reviews with DHS components.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security: Office of the Chief Procurement Officer
Status: In process
Comments: In providing comments on this report, the agency concurred with this recommendation but has not yet taken actions necessary to implement it. In its letter to OMB and the Congress, the agency stated it plans to develop a database that tracks the findings of its reviews, including "Best Practices" identified during the reviews. DHS states that the Best Practices, as well as any system issues identified during the reviews, will be provided to the components beginning in fall of 2008.
