Summary

Timely, accurate, and complete information is essential if the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) is to effectively manage and sell the assets of failed savings and loans. Critical to this endeavor are three key automated systems--the Real Estate Owned Management System, the Loans and Other Assets Inventory System, and the Asset Manager System--expected to cost about $45 million through 1992. This report summarizes the findings of the four reports listed above, which detail limitations and concerns with RTC's systems development efforts and contractor reporting requirements. RTC's efforts to develop automation systems continue to disappoint. Major systems are plagued by basic problems, including unclear or changing requirements, inaccurate and incomplete data, poor response times, and software that is not user friendly. Although RTC has partially deployed the three automated systems, their intended benefits--such as supporting the disposal of real estate and loans or monitoring the performance of firms under contract to manage and sell assets--are yet to be realized. These systems development problems point to a larger issue that RTC still needs to resolve: the lack of a corporate information strategy. Without guidance from the top, RTC risks operating without information vital to managing assets and overseeing contractors.

GAO found that RTC: (1) requires SAMDA contractors to provide to RTC oversight managers up to 20 monthly reports and 7 quarterly, annual, or final reports for each asset management contract; (2) oversight managers did not consistently use the contractually required reports and sometimes required additional reports to meet their oversight needs; (3) oversight managers questioned the usefulness and did not know the purpose of some reports; (4) requires oversight managers to monitor the submission of the required reports, but does not provide them with guidance about the reports' purposes; (5) attributed some of the burdensome reporting requirements to legislative requirements, but could not identify which requirements were unreasonable; and (6) requires SAMDA contractors to safeguard asset data, but lacks guidance on how contractors can protect asset data in their automated systems. GAO also found that, to improve contractor oversight, RTC: (1) has formed user groups to address information requirements; (2) plans to use its Asset Manager System and Real Estate Owned Management System to automate many of the required reports; and (3) has contracted for a review of contractor internal controls.