State Financial Systems Planning

GAO reviewed the Department of State's Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) initiative and the Agency for International Development's (AID) Worldwide Accounting and Control System (AWACS) initiative, focusing on the agencies' financial capabilities, completion dates, and processes. GAO noted that: (1) State has spent about $8 million in developing IFMS and estimated that it would cost about $50 million to complete; (2) AID has spent about $21.4 million for AWACS and plans to spend about $32.7 million to complete the initiative; (3) both initiatives involve developing and implementing a single agencywide financial management system to link or replace many current systems; (4) IFMS and AWACS encompass similar financial management capabilities and implementation time frames; and (5) one financial management system could facilitate the accounting and administrative needs of both State and AID and could result in significant savings for the federal government.