Summary

GAO discussed the Veterans Administration's (VA) Department of Veterans Benefits (DVB) efforts to improve management of its information resources. GAO found that VA: (1) plans to earmark $101 million out of about $480 million in fiscal year 1988 funds obligated for information technology; (2) designated its Administrator as the authority for all matters relating to control and oversight of information resources; (3) completed the first 2 points of its 12-point modernization plan in defining goals and objectives and identifying constraints; (4) plans to implement 13 interim, short-term projects to meet critical DVB needs during modernization; (5) completed cost-benefit, requirements, and needs analyses, which delineated the need for the interim projects; and (6) estimated the projects would cost $52 million and provide an estimated $83 million in benefits from personnel reduction and $128 million in secondary benefits from improved information handling.