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Information Management: The National Archives and Records Administration's Fiscal Year 2008 Expenditure Plan

GAO-08-1105 Published: Sep 26, 2008. Publicly Released: Sep 26, 2008.
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Highlights

To preserve and provide access to all types of electronic records, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has been developing an Electronic Records Archive (ERA), including a base system for federal records and a separate system for presidential records, known as the Executive Office of the President (EOP) system. As mandated by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008, NARA must submit an expenditure plan to the Congress that satisfies six conditions. GAO was asked to determine the extent to which NARA's fiscal year 2008 expenditure plan satisfies the conditions and provide any other observations about the plan and the ERA acquisition. To do this, GAO reviewed the expenditure plan, interviewed NARA and contractor officials, and reviewed additional documentation.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
National Archives and Records Administration To ensure that NARA can fulfill its critical responsibilities during the upcoming presidential transition, the Archivist should develop a mitigation plan for indexing and searching the electronic records from the outgoing Bush administration in the event that the EOP system is not complete. The plan should be completed in time to be fully implemented for the January presidential transition.
Closed – Implemented
In September 2008, we reported on the National Archives and Records Administration's (NARA) development of a system to preserve and search electronic presidential records, called the Executive Office of the President (EOP) system. This system was designed initially to receive electronic records from the outgoing Bush administration and to respond to requests for access to these records. We reported that NARA had identified that there was a risk that the EOP system would not be ready in time for the January 2009 transition, and as such, NARA was at risk of not being able to respond to requests for access to the Bush administration's presidential records. We determined that NARA had not yet developed a plan to mitigate this significant risk. Accordingly, we recommended that NARA develop a mitigation plan for indexing and searching the electronic records from the outgoing Bush administration in the event that the EOP system was not complete. In response, NARA developed a mitigation plan to assure acceptance and ingestion of presidential electronic records. This plan stated that NARA would obtain copies of the proprietary software used by the Bush White House and use those programs to answer requests for access to presidential records, until those data could be successfully ingested into the EOP system. Because NARA had successfully ingested only a small percentage of the Bush administration records into the EOP system as of May 2009, it used the replicated systems described in the mitigation plan to answer most requests for electronic presidential records up to that time. By implementing the plan we recommended, NARA was able to fulfill a core mission requirement by responding to requests for presidential records.
National Archives and Records Administration To enhance oversight of the ERA project, the Archivist should ensure that summary measures of project performance against ERA cost and schedule estimates are included in future monthly reports to the Congress.
Closed – Implemented
In September 2008, we reported on the development of the Electronic Records Archive (ERA) system that is being developed for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). This system is intended to preserve and provide access to massive volumes of all types and formats of electronic records, including presidential records. Specifically, we reported that the monthly ERA system status reports that NARA provided to Congress did not include summary measures of the project's performance against cost and schedule estimates. We therefore recommended that NARA ensure that these summary measures are included in future monthly reports to Congress. As we recommended, in July 2008, NARA began including an Earned Value Summary as an appendix to its monthly reports to Congress. This summary data included the ERA system's schedule and cost performance status. Similar data were also included in NARA's subsequent monthly reports. Inclusion of this information can help the Congress to more effectively oversee the ERA program by providing an important perspective on project progress not otherwise available.

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Topics

ArchivesBudget outlaysCongressional oversightElectronic recordsElectronic records archiveElectronic records managementInformation managementInternal controlsLegislative bodiesManagement information systemsPresidential transitionProcurement planningProgram managementRecordsRecords managementRegulatory agenciesReporting requirementsRisk assessmentStrategic information systems planning