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Report to Congressional Requesters:
February 2006:
Architect of the Capitol:
Management Challenges Remain:
[Hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-290]:
GAO Highlights:
Highlights of GAO-06-290, a report to congressional committees:
Why GAO Did This Study:
The Architect of the Capitol (AOC) is responsible for the maintenance,
renovation, and new construction of the Capitol Hill complex, which
comprises more than three dozen facilities and consists of nine
jurisdictions, such as the U.S. Capitol and the Senate and House Office
Buildings. In 2003, at the request of Congress, GAO issued a management
review of AOC that contained recommendations in seven areas to help AOC
become more strategic and accountable. GAO reported on AOC’s progress
in implementing those recommendations in January and August 2004. In
2005 and 2006, GAO briefed Congress on AOC’s recent progress in
implementing GAO’s recommendations and on issues related to AOC’s
project and facilities management. This report summarizes GAO’s (1)
assessment of AOC’s progress in implementing previous GAO
recommendations and in improving project and facilities management and
(2) delineation of remaining management challenges.
What GAO Found:
Overall, AOC is making progress in implementing GAO’s previous
recommendations and in improving project and facilities management. For
example, AOC has implemented 21 of 54 recommendations, established a
central organization for managing major projects, and completed
assessments of nearly all of the agency’s facilities, for use in
developing a comprehensive facility maintenance and building renewal
plan. AOC has also begun initiatives to develop meaningful performance
measures and to restructure its project management information systems
to provide better data for monitoring and reporting. These initiatives,
though encouraging, are in their early stages, and it is too early to
determine their success. In recent briefings provided to AOC management
and congressional staff, GAO made additional recommendations to improve
the accountability and effectiveness of AOC’s project and facilities
management initiatives.
AOC has made progress in some areas, but still has a significant amount
of work ahead to achieve its ultimate goal of establishing a strong
strategic management and accountability framework. Specifically, it has
not completed initiatives to address two critical issues—communication
with external stakeholders and development of internal
controls—identified in previous GAO recommendations or in independent
audits of AOC’s 2003 and 2004 balance sheets. These issues affect a
wide range of AOC operations. For example, communication with
congressional stakeholders is essential to establish and clarify
service and expectation levels. Internal controls, such as a reliable
cost accounting system, sound procurement practices, and a
comprehensive information security program, are necessary to,
respectively, improve project and facilities management, strengthen the
integrity of AOC’s procurement processes, and effectively safeguard
AOC’s data and information assets.
Leadership support is vital to ensure that needed improvements are
given urgent attention; this support is also essential to ensure that
improvements that have already been made are continuously evaluated and
refined as needed. However, the key leadership positions of Chief
Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Administrative
Officer, Director of the Capitol Power Plant, Director of Congressional
and External Relations, and Director of Planning and Project Management
are currently vacant. Furthermore, the term for the current Architect
of the Capitol will expire in less than a year. AOC is at a critical
juncture in its efforts to become more strategic and accountable.
Quickly filling the vacant management positions with qualified people
is essential for AOC to sustain and extend its recent improvements and
to have a cohesive management team in place in the event of a turnover
in the Architect of the Capitol position. AOC is now attempting to fill
the vacant leadership positions, and, to mitigate the impact of these
vacancies, it recently appointed an Acting Chief Operating Officer--who
is also temporarily serving as the Acting Chief Financial Officer—and
an Acting Chief Administrative Officer to help guide the agency’s
improvement efforts.
What GAO Recommends:
The implementation status of recommendations made in our previous
reports along with recommendations made following our recent reviews of
project and facilities management is summarized in this report. In
commenting on this report, AOC generally agreed with its content.
www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-290.
To view the full product, including the scope and methodology, click on
the link above. For more information, contact Patricia A. Dalton at
(202) 512-2834 or daltonp@gao.gov.
[End of section]
Contents:
Letter:
Results in Brief:
Progress Made on Prior Recommendations but AOC Has Not Implemented Some
Key Recommendations in Critical Areas:
Progress and Challenges in Project Management:
Progress and Challenges in Facilities Management:
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:
Appendixes:
Appendix I: Summary of AOC's Progress on General Management Review
Recommendations:
Appendix II: Progress and Challenges in Improving Project Management:
Recommendations in September 2005 Briefing:
Appendix III: Progress and Challenges in Improving Facilities
Management:
Recommendations Made in December 2005 and January 2006 Briefings:
Appendix IV: Status of AOC's Progress on Recommendations:
Appendix V: Major Contributors:
Table:
Table 1: Current Status of Recommendations:
Abbreviations:
AOC: Architect of the Capitol:
CAFM: computer-aided facility management:
CAO: chief administrative officer:
CFO: chief financial officer:
COO: chief operating officer:
CPP: capitol power plant:
CVC: capitol visitor center:
EA: enterprise architecture:
FCA: facility condition assessment:
FTE: full-time equivalent:
IT: information technology:
OIRM: Office of Information and Resource Management:
Letter February 21, 2006:
The Honorable Jerry Lewis:
Chairman:
The Honorable David Obey:
Ranking Minority Member:
Committee on Appropriations:
United States House of Representatives:
The Honorable Wayne Allard:
Chairman:
The Honorable Richard Durbin:
Ranking Minority Member:
Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch:
Committee on Appropriations:
United States Senate:
The Honorable Trent Lott:
Chairman:
The Honorable Christopher J. Dodd:
Ranking Minority Member:
Committee on Rules and Administration:
United States Senate:
The Architect of the Capitol (AOC) is responsible for the maintenance,
renovation, and new construction of the Capitol Hill complex, which
comprises more than three dozen facilities, nearly 15 million square
feet of space, and 370 acres of ground developed over 200 years.
Organizationally, AOC consists of a centralized staff that perform
administrative functions and staff who oversee nine "jurisdictions" or
operational units that handle their own day-to-day operations. AOC's
jurisdictions include the buildings and grounds of the U.S. Capitol,
the Library of Congress, and the Supreme Court; the House and Senate
Office Buildings; the Capitol Power Plant (CPP); the Botanic Garden,
and Security Programs. AOC operates in a challenging environment: the
agency must preserve and modernize these high-profile, historic
buildings while meeting the needs of Congress--including its
leadership, committees, individual members, and staffs--and the
visiting public. AOC has managed major projects at the Library of
Congress, the Supreme Court, and CPP, and is currently managing the
construction of the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC)--the largest increment
of growth in the history of the Capitol. However, Senate and House
Appropriations Committees have raised concerns about management
shortcomings at AOC. For example, in 2001, the Senate Appropriations
Committee cited several management issues, including a lack of
strategic planning, inadequate financial and project management
controls, and an unacceptably high level of worker injuries.[Footnote
1]
To address congressional concerns, AOC has been working for several
years to transform itself into a more strategic and accountable
organization and to improve worker safety. This transformation is a
long-term effort that involves a fundamental change in AOC's culture.
For example, AOC faces the challenge of how best to marshal its
jurisdiction-based resources to address the strategic planning and
other functional issues that cut across the organization. AOC also
faces the challenge of how to shift from reacting to problems as they
arise to proactively preventing problems by identifying and addressing
their root causes. Changes of this magnitude require the sustained
commitment of the agency's top leadership.
In January 2003, at the request of Congress, we issued a management
review of AOC that contained recommendations that were intended to
assist AOC in establishing a strategic management and accountability
framework to drive its agency transformation efforts and address long-
standing program issues, such as project management and worker
safety.[Footnote 2] In February 2003, Congress further directed us to
monitor AOC's progress in implementing these recommendations and to
assess the plan prepared by AOC's Chief Operating Officer (COO) for
describing the policies, procedures, and actions to carry out the
responsibilities of that position.[Footnote 3] In response to these
mandates, we issued two reports in January 2004 and August 2004, which
concluded the following:
* AOC was making progress on all recommendations. For example, to
improve project management, AOC created a clearly defined, well-
documented, and transparent process for evaluating and prioritizing
projects. To improve worker safety, AOC developed several broad
performance measures, including two measures of the extent to which
unsafe conditions exist within AOC and two measures to assess
employees' perception of safety.
* AOC's progress on individual recommendations, while commendable,
represented only initial steps toward the agency's goal of becoming a
more strategic and accountable organization. Substantial work remained
to achieve sustained, long-term management improvements, and greater
effort would be needed to expedite these improvements.
* Sustained commitment and assertive involvement of AOC's leadership
would be key to addressing AOC's long-standing weaknesses and
instilling lasting change.
* The COO's plan--issued in December 2003--included action items
related to several critical areas of improvement, such as strategic
planning, organizational management and structure, project management,
customer service, and communications. However, the plan was not
sufficiently detailed to guide and communicate the agency's performance
and progress in these areas.
Our most recent efforts to monitor AOC's progress included an
evaluation of (1) the agency's overall progress in responding to our
recommendations in seven areas--strategic management, human capital
management, project management, worker safety, recycling, financial
management, and information technology (IT) management; (2) issues
related to project management, including the extent to which AOC meets
its original budget and schedule targets for major construction
projects (i.e, projects over $250,000), and the initiatives that AOC is
implementing to improve project management;[Footnote 4] and (3) issues
related to facilities management, including the extent to which AOC
tracks facilities management performance and the initiatives that AOC
is implementing to improve facilities management. We provided briefings
to our congressional requesters on the results of our work in September
and December 2005 and January 2006. This report summarizes those
briefings and supplements the information presented in the briefings
with examples from our other recent work related to AOC's CVC project
and financial management efforts.
To evaluate AOC's progress in responding to our recommendations, we
interviewed AOC officials responsible for implementing the
recommendations and analyzed documents related to AOC's actions. To
assess AOC's progress and challenges in improving project management,
we interviewed AOC officials, analyzed project budget and schedule
data, and conducted seven project case studies.[Footnote 5] To assess
AOC's progress and challenges in improving facilities management, we
interviewed AOC officials, interviewed officials from comparable
organizations (including the Smithsonian Institution, the state capitol
complexes of Iowa and Virginia, and the University of Virginia),
compared the performance measures for facilities management that AOC
currently tracks with those used by industry associations and similar
institutions, and analyzed information about facilities management
initiatives at AOC. We conducted our work on the three reviews from
December 2004 through January 2006 in accordance with generally
accepted government auditing standards.
Results in Brief:
Overall, AOC is making progress in fulfilling some previous
recommendations and in improving project management and facilities
management. For example, AOC has implemented 21 of 54 recommendations
made in previous reports (primarily related to strategic management,
human capital management, worker safety, and recycling, although work
remains to be done in each of these areas), established a central
organization dedicated to managing major projects, and completed
assessments of nearly all of the agency's facilities, which will enable
AOC to better monitor the condition of its facilities and develop a
comprehensive plan for facility maintenance and building renewal.
Furthermore, AOC has initiatives for additional improvements planned or
underway, such as a "Strategic Performance Initiative"--a year-long
effort to develop and implement meaningful performance measures and
link these measures to daily activities and resource requirements. AOC
is also evaluating its project management information systems to
provide better data and replacing the existing computer-aided facility
management (CAFM) system to enhance tracking and reporting
capabilities. AOC's progress is encouraging but, since these
initiatives are in their early stages, it is too early to determine
their success.
Despite progress in some areas, AOC still has a significant amount of
work ahead to reach its ultimate goal of establishing a strong
strategic management and accountability framework. Specifically, two
critical issues--communication with external stakeholders and internal
controls--underlie challenges that have been highlighted in previous
GAO recommendations or in independent audits of AOC's 2003 and 2004
balance sheets, such as:
* developing and implementing an effective communication strategy with
congressional stakeholders;
* establishing a strong foundation of financial accountability and
control, including an effective internal control framework and cost
accounting system;
* establishing sound procurement practices; and:
* improving IT management, including information security.
These issues affect a wide range of AOC operations. For example,
communication with congressional stakeholders is essential to establish
and clarify service and expectation levels and to obtain input on AOC's
initiatives. An effective cost accounting system is necessary for
several project and facilities management improvements, such as
developing a method to more accurately account for project costs and
establishing and tracking performance measures for facilities
management costs. Sound procurement practices are critical to improve
the integrity of AOC's project management and other procurement
processes. Finally, improved IT management is necessary to effectively
safeguard AOC's data and information assets.
Leadership support is vital to ensure that needed improvements are
given urgent attention; this support is also essential to ensure that
improvements that have already been made are continuously evaluated and
refined, as needed. However, the senior leadership positions of COO,
the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), the Chief Administrative Officer
(CAO), and the Director of the CPP are currently open. Other key
management positions have been created recently, but are currently
vacant, such as the Director of Congressional and External Relations
and the Director of Planning and Project Management. Furthermore, the
term for the current Architect of the Capitol will expire in less than
one year. The agency is at a critical juncture in its transformation
efforts. It is essential for AOC to quickly fill the management
positions that are currently vacant to sustain improvements that have
already been achieved, support further transformation efforts, and have
a cohesive management team in place in the event of a turnover in the
position of the Architect of the Capitol. AOC is in the process of
hiring for the positions that are currently open. To help mitigate the
impact of so many vacancies in key leadership positions, AOC recently
appointed an Acting COO--who is also temporarily serving as the Acting
CFO--and an Acting CAO to help guide the agency until the positions are
filled. Once a permanent COO is in place, it will be particularly
important for this person to provide strategic direction for AOC,
including updating the COO action plan to help guide and communicate
the agency's transformation efforts.
We provided a draft of this report to AOC for review and comment. AOC
officials provided oral comments in which they generally agreed with
the content of this report that includes the implementation status of
recommendations made to AOC in our previous reports and those
recommendations made based on our recent reviews of project management
and facilities management. AOC also provided technical corrections,
which we have incorporated, as appropriate.
The following summarizes our three briefings, augmented with examples
from other recent work.
Progress Made on Prior Recommendations but AOC Has Not Implemented Some
Key Recommendations in Critical Areas:
AOC has implemented 21 of 54 recommendations that span seven areas--
strategic management, human capital management, project management,
worker safety, recycling, financial management, and IT management. The
agency is making progress primarily in the areas of strategic
management, human capital management, project management (covered in
the next section), worker safety, and recycling. For example, to
improve strategic management, AOC released accountability reports in
fiscal years 2003 and 2004, developed a summary document to track key
performance goals, established processes for obtaining employee and
customer feedback, and initiated several new methods for communicating
with employees. However, AOC has not implemented a key recommendation
related to communicating with external stakeholders--to develop
protocols that establish and clarify service and expectation levels
with congressional stakeholders. AOC's Acting COO recognizes the
importance of communication with congressional members and staff. Since
October 2005, the Acting COO has met regularly with congressional
stakeholders, including Appropriations Committee staff, and is
developing further strategies to improve communication with
congressional stakeholders. AOC is also hiring a Director of
Congressional and External Relations who will be responsible for
developing and maintaining positive relations with congressional
members and staff.[Footnote 6]
In addition, to strengthen human capital management, AOC has, among
other things, linked its employee evaluation system to mission-critical
goals, established monthly management meetings to share and assess data
from employee relations offices, and identified a number of ways to
collect, report, and analyze workforce data. However, with a large
portion of employees with knowledge in specific trades eligible for
immediate retirement, AOC leadership needs to ensure progress continues
to identify current and future workforce gaps and develop strategies to
address these gaps. To improve worker safety, AOC has made progress in
developing safety policies, implementing a system to track
investigations of incidents and follow up, completing a job hazard
analysis process to report hazards, and establishing a safety-training
curriculum that fully supports the goals of the safety policies. From
fiscal year 2000 to 2005, AOC's injury and illness rate declined from
17.9 to 5.7 injuries or illnesses per 100 employees. However, until
AOC's safety policies are fully implemented, the agency will not have a
comprehensive picture of safety hazards. To improve recycling, AOC has
significantly expanded the recycling program; developed a clear
mission, goals, and performance measures for the program; and issued an
environmental program plan. However, the agency still needs to evaluate
the impact of the new performance measures on its current evaluation
criteria and make any necessary changes.
While AOC has made progress in financial management, substantial work
remains to fulfill recommendations related to this area. For example,
AOC had independent audits of its balance sheets for fiscal years 2003
and 2004 conducted.[Footnote 7] AOC received an unqualified or "clean"
opinion of the balance sheets, but the audits identified a number of
material weaknesses related to internal controls. For example, the
audit for fiscal year 2004 found that AOC's procurement system lacked
controls to ensure that contract modifications were properly executed
prior to initiation of the work, project costs were properly
classified, and contract executed amounts were compared to contract
value. Similarly, our separate, ongoing monitoring of the CVC project
showed that AOC needed to take additional steps to ensure that it was:
(1) receiving reasonable prices for proposed contract modifications,
(2) obtaining adequate support for contractors' requests for
reimbursement of incurred costs, (3) adequately overseeing its
contractors' performance, and (4) taking appropriate steps to see that
contractors were not doing work before it was appropriately authorized
under approved contractual arrangements.[Footnote 8] AOC is working to
correct these weaknesses.
To further improve financial management, AOC is developing an
agencywide internal control framework and a cost accounting system,
which are essential to improving accountability across all AOC
operations. The internal control framework initiative is scheduled to
be implemented by June 30, 2006, while the cost accounting system is
scheduled to be implemented by September 30, 2006. However, this
schedule is likely to be delayed by a lack of funding and qualified
staffing resources. At the beginning of fiscal year 2006, AOC requested
the contractors leading these initiatives to significantly scale back
their development efforts, citing a lack of fiscal year 2006 funding
resources. At that time, the Office of the CFO estimated that 10
positions--including senior manager level positions to help lead these
initiatives--would be needed to implement the initiatives on schedule.
AOC recently transferred authority to fill some of the positions from
within AOC and reprogrammed funds to help continue these initiatives;
as of January 2006, the contractors have resumed their development
efforts. However, AOC transferred authority for only 4 of the estimated
10 positions, none of which were at the senior manager level.[Footnote
9] As of February 8, 2006, AOC had posted vacancy announcements to fill
three of the four positions, but filling these positions could take
several months.[Footnote 10] Leadership support--especially from the
Architect, COO, and CFO--is critical to ensure that these important
initiatives are appropriately funded, staffed, and monitored. Until
these initiatives are implemented and operating effectively, AOC faces
substantial risk in financial management.
AOC also has begun several initiatives to improve IT management, but
substantial work remains, particularly in information security. To
improve information security, AOC has issued a policy and a plan for
performing risk assessments, issued and implemented an IT security
training policy, and developed a plan to monitor and evaluate the
effectiveness of IT security policies and controls. However, AOC has
yet to establish and implement key information security practices, such
as completing risk assessments on all of its major applications,
documenting the identified risks in system security plans, and
developing and implementing appropriate security controls to mitigate
the risks--including developing contingency plans for all systems and
applications. Until AOC implements key information security practices,
it will be challenged to effectively safeguard its data and information
assets.
As part of our review of AOC's progress in responding to previous
recommendations, we followed up on our recommendation related to the
COO action plan--issued by AOC's previous COO in December 2003. In
August 2004, we found that the plan was not sufficiently detailed to
guide and communicate the agency's performance and progress and
recommended that the Architect of the Capitol and the COO consult with
members of Congress and key committees on the specific information
regarding AOC's plans, policies, procedures, actions, and proposed
organizational changes in order to enhance the usefulness of the COO
action plan. The COO subsequently departed AOC and, despite the absence
of a permanent COO, the agency has been continuing to follow the steps
laid out in the action plan. For example, AOC has made progress in
addressing elements of AOC project management that were recommended to
be included in the action plan and has consulted with congressional
stakeholders on project management initiatives, such as prioritizing
projects and establishing a new project management organization.
According to AOC officials, the action plan will be updated when a
permanent COO is in place.
Appendix I provides a more complete summary of AOC's progress in
responding to recommendations. Appendix IV lists all 54 recommendations
from previous reports--as well as recommendations from the recent
project management and facilities management reviews--and details AOC's
progress on each recommendation.
Progress and Challenges in Project Management:
According to AOC, 84 major construction projects (all 41 projects that
were completed since January 1, 2003, in addition to all 43 active
projects) were meeting budget targets as of September 2005. However, in
some cases, AOC's budget targets included higher construction
contingency allowances than are typical for industry or AOC's guidance.
Furthermore, the budget status of projects constructed "in house" by
AOC's Construction Branch (rather than by contractors) could not be
accurately determined because overhead costs for the branch may not
have been charged to the appropriate project. AOC officials believe
they are using appropriate contingency allowances, but acknowledged
that estimating and accounting for the costs of projects could be
improved. AOC also reported that about half of the projects were behind
schedule based on the original estimated contract completion date, in
part because of scope changes and unforeseen conditions. However,
additional measures that reflect the customer's needs, such as the
"beneficial occupancy date," could provide a more complete picture of
AOC's schedule performance.
AOC has initiatives--such as establishing an organization dedicated to
managing major construction projects and reinstating a quarterly report
on the budget and schedule progress of projects--that should improve
project management and related communications with congressional
stakeholders. However, AOC's major construction projects generally take
between 5 and eight years to complete, so it is too early to determine
the results of AOC's initiatives to improve project management.
Meanwhile, better internal controls are needed to improve management
and accountability, particularly in establishing and tracking budget
targets, revising guidance manuals, and implementing controls
concerning the quality of reports. We made recommendations aimed at
improving internal controls in these areas, and AOC has made progress
on these recommendations since we provided the briefings in September
2005. For example, AOC has begun an internal review of its Construction
Branch operations and included a "beneficial occupancy date" in
tracking project schedules.
Appendix II provides a more complete summary of AOC's progress in
improving project management.
Progress and Challenges in Facilities Management:
AOC tracks performance measures for the quality and timeliness of its
facilities management services, but does not track comprehensive cost
measures or evaluate ("benchmark") its performance against that of any
similar facilities management organizations. AOC's current measures
show that AOC's customers are satisfied with the quality of AOC's
services and that AOC is meeting or exceeding the targets for its
timeliness measures. However, the timeliness measures could be improved
to better represent the amount of time required for--and spent on--
specific tasks. Industry best practices that would improve
accountability and provide useful information on trends in costs
include developing and tracking cost performance measures and
benchmarking performance against that of other organizations. AOC
officials plan to develop cost measures after the completion of the new
cost accounting system and the installation of a new CAFM system.
To improve facilities management, AOC has several initiatives,
including assessing the condition of its facilities to develop a
comprehensive plan for facility maintenance and building renewal and
switching to a new CAFM system that should enhance AOC's tracking and
reporting capabilities. These initiatives can help improve AOC's
ability to develop facilities management cost measures to facilitate
the benchmarking of performance, as well as improve overall facilities
management. However, assessing facility conditions has brought to light
the magnitude of AOC's deferred maintenance and other projects--at
least $2.6 billion over nine years as initially estimated by an AOC
contractor (and now being validated by AOC)--and the challenge of
funding these projects. In addition, the new CAFM system will not be
fully effective until, among other things, it is linked to the planned
cost accounting system, the development and implementation of which has
been delayed. In our briefings in December 2005 and January 2006, we
made recommendations aimed at improving AOC's facilities management
performance measures and the effectiveness of the new computer system.
Appendix III provides a more complete summary of AOC's progress in
improving facilities management.
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:
We provided the Architect of the Capitol a draft of this report for
review and comment. We received oral comments from AOC officials
stating that they generally agreed with the content of the information
presented in this report--including the implementation status of
recommendations made to AOC in our previous reports and recommendations
based on our recent reviews of project and facilities management. AOC
officials emphasized that GAO's findings regarding project management
largely reflected past problems and that AOC's new Project Management
Organization (now a division within AOC) is proceeding with a number of
initiatives that are targeted to correct past problems and has plans to
start additional initiatives. AOC officials also provided technical
corrections to the report, which we have incorporated, as appropriate.
We are sending copies of this report to the appropriate congressional
committees. We are also sending this report to the Architect of the
Capitol. We will make copies available to others upon request. In
addition, this report will be available at no cost on the GAO Web site
at [Hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov]. Contact points for our Offices of
Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last
page of this report. If you or your staff have any questions about this
report, you may contact me at (202) 512-2834 or at [Hyperlink,
daltonp@gao.gov], or Sara Vermillion at (202) 512-9913 or at
[Hyperlink, vermillions@gao.gov]. Major contributors to this report are
listed in appendix V.
Signed by:
Patricia A. Dalton:
Managing Director, Physical Infrastructure Team:
[End of section]
Appendixes:
Appendix I: Summary of AOC's Progress on General Management Review
Recommendations:
Under the congressional mandate to monitor the Architect of the
Capitol's (AOC) progress, we evaluated AOC's response to 54
recommendations in seven areas: strategic management, human capital
management, project management, worker safety, recycling, financial
management, and information technology (IT) management. We provided
briefings on our work in September 2005. Appendix IV lists all 54
recommendations and details AOC's progress on each recommendation.
Appendix IV also includes the most recent recommendations resulting
from our review of AOC's project management and facilities management.
AOC has implemented 21 of 54 recommendations and is making progress
primarily in the areas of strategic management, human capital
management, project management (discussed in detail in app. II), worker
safety, and recycling, although work remains in all of these areas.
While AOC has also made progress in financial management and IT
management, substantial work remains to fulfill recommendations related
to these areas, particularly in financial management. Many of the
recommendations that have not been implemented require significant
organizational changes; leadership support for these changes is vital
to ensure their success as well as the continued success of initiatives
that AOC has in place.
Strategic Management:
Strategic management recommendations were designed to help AOC improve
strategic planning efforts and organizational alignment, establish
meaningful performance measures, obtain feedback from employees and
customers, improve internal and external communications, and strengthen
the relationship between AOC and congressional stakeholders. In
response, AOC released accountability reports for fiscal years 2003 and
2004 and developed a summary document to track performance for each of
its strategic goals. The agency has also established processes for
obtaining feedback from employees and customers, which should improve
communications with these groups. To further improve communication with
employees, AOC has implemented a variety of communication methods to
convey information to employees, including a weekly newsletter on
project updates, policy announcements, management and communication
tips, and other agencywide messages. However, AOC still needs to
improve communication with external stakeholders. For example, AOC has
not fully implemented protocols to establish and clarify service and
expectation levels with congressional stakeholders. Without such
protocols, neither AOC nor congressional stakeholders can be assured
that agency efforts and resources are targeted to their highest
priorities. The Acting Chief Operating Officer (COO) recognizes the
importance of communication with congressional members and staff. Since
October 2005, the Acting COO has been meeting regularly with
congressional stakeholders, including Appropriations Committee staff,
and is developing further strategies to improve communication with
congressional stakeholders. AOC is also in the process of hiring a
Director of Congressional and External Relations who will be
responsible for developing and maintaining positive relations with
congressional members and staff. In addition, AOC has not developed a
comprehensive set of outcome-based and performance-based measures that
would enable AOC and Congress to assess AOC's progress. AOC has
developed a document--the "AOC dashboard"--that includes several high-
level indicators to track performance for each of its strategic goals
as well as a target goal for each indicator. The dashboard is a
positive step that needs further development as AOC revises its goals
and objectives and assign measures to each area in fiscal year 2006.
Human Capital Management:
Human capital management recommendations were aimed at strengthening
AOC's human capital policies and performance. In response, AOC
implemented a performance management approach by developing strategic
goals and measuring performance and linked its employee evaluation
system to mission-critical goals. In addition, AOC management has
improved the way it gathers and assesses data from employee relations
offices by holding monthly meetings to share and discuss data, make
recommendations, and take action. AOC has also identified a number of
ways to collect, report, and analyze workforce data and has developed a
report that forecasts future workforce needs. However, with a large
portion of employees with knowledge in specific trades eligible for
immediate retirement, AOC leadership needs to ensure progress continues
to complete ongoing efforts to identify gaps in current and future
workforce needs and develop strategies to address these gaps.
Completing these efforts should further improve its employee evaluation
system and AOC's ability to strategically plan for future workforce
needs.
Worker Safety:
Worker safety recommendations were designed to enhance AOC's ongoing
efforts to establish a strategy for the worker safety program by
developing performance measures for safety goals and objectives,
establish policies for reporting hazards, establish a system for
conducting investigations and follow-up, and implement a safety-
training curriculum. In response, AOC has developed 23 of 35
specialized safety policies; implemented a system to track
investigations of incidents and follow-up; completed a job hazard
analysis process to report hazards; and established training that
supports the goals of the safety policies. Overall, AOC's injury and
illness rate declined from 17.9 in fiscal year 2000 to 5.7 in fiscal
year 2005. However, until AOC fully implements the specialized safety
policies, particularly a policy on hazard assessment and control, the
agency will not be able to develop a comprehensive picture of AOC
hazards. During our Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) monitoring work, we
noted that worker injury rates for the CVC construction site were
higher than the rates for comparable sites and that gaps existed in the
management of worker safety at the CVC site. AOC has taken action to
address this issue; the injury and illness rate for the CVC project
declined from 9.1 in 2003 and 12.2 in 2004, to 5.9 for the first 10
months of 2005--below the 2003 industry average of 6.1.
Recycling:
Recycling recommendations were designed to help AOC adopt a strategic
approach to recycling by developing a mission and goals for the
recycling program, establishing performance measures for the program,
examining the roles and responsibilities of recycling staff, and
holding staff accountable for achieving goals. In response, AOC has
developed a clear mission, goals, and performance measures for AOC's
recycling program and issued an environmental program plan. AOC has
also included recycling tasks in recycling staff position descriptions
and recycling objectives in AOC's evaluation system for recycling
managers. However, AOC still needs to evaluate the impact of the new
performance measures on its current evaluation criteria and make any
necessary changes.
According to AOC officials, the AOC recycling program has undergone
significant expansion over the past five years, while at the same time
becoming more efficient. Initially consisting of recycling of paper,
cans, bottles, and scrap metal, the AOC recycling program has now been
expanded to include items such as toner cartridges, carpeting,
concrete, ceiling tiles, batteries, pallets, wooden spools, hard
plastics, and electronic wastes such as computers. The program has also
been expanded by increasing the number of locations at which recycling
is taking place. The paper recycling program has maintained a "zero
percent off-specification" (formerly referred to as "contamination")
rate for the past two years, down from historical contamination rates
as high as 50 percent.
Financial Management:
Financial management recommendations were aimed at helping AOC improve
financial management by institutionalizing sound financial management
practices; strengthening accountability and control through senior
management's visible support for efforts to prepare auditable financial
statements and implement internal controls; and enhancing the
successful development of appropriate cost accounting and meaningful
financial, cost, and performance reporting. AOC made progress in
financial accountability by issuing its initial agencywide
accountability reports in December 2004 and February 2006, in which the
results of audits covering AOC's fiscal year 2003 and 2004 balance
sheets, respectively, were presented; requesting a full-scope audit of
a complete set of its financial statements and related note disclosures
for fiscal year 2005; and beginning development of an AOC-wide internal
control framework and a cost accounting system. While these initiatives
reflect progress, until they are implemented AOC will continue to face
significant risk in financial management and program operations.
The AOC received an unqualified or "clean" opinion on its balance sheet
for fiscal year 2003 and its comparative balance sheet for fiscal years
2003/2004. However, the Independent Auditor's Report on Internal
Control for fiscal year 2003 noted a number of internal control
weaknesses that AOC has been working to correct, including weaknesses
in the areas of: capitalizing work-in-process expenses, allocating
overhead to project costs, accounts payable cutoff, capital and
operating leases, payroll record retention, and IT controls. As
reported in AOC's 2004 Accountability Report, the AOC has fully
addressed six out of seven material weaknesses identified in the fiscal
year 2003 auditor's report. The fiscal year 2004 auditor's report
identified weaknesses in the areas of: internal control assessments,
annual leave processing, timekeeping controls, procurement system
controls for contracts, procurement processes for capital and operating
leases, and IT security.
To further improve financial management, AOC is developing an
agencywide internal control framework and a cost accounting system,
which are essential to improving accountability across all AOC
operations; however, it is unlikely that these initiatives will be
completed by their scheduled implementation dates of June 30, 2006, and
September 30, 2006. During fiscal year 2005, AOC approved the
establishment of an AOC-wide internal control framework. AOC began
developing a process to formally evaluate, document, and recommend
improvements on the effectiveness of the design and operations of its
internal control structure. In developing this framework, AOC has begun
to identify key financial and operational processes, updating process
documentation and flowcharts, perform risk analyses, update and
benchmark controls, and document any identified deficiencies. In
addition, in an effort to move AOC's financial system from a budget-
based system to a performance-based system, AOC is developing a cost
accounting system, which would align goals, activities, and outputs; it
would also improve systems and reporting across the agency, including
project management and facilities management. AOC plans to implement
the new performance-based system in phases to make an orderly
transition from the current budget-based financial system. Those plans
include pilot deployment of an interim cost structure for managers
through fiscal year 2006, followed by the development of a structure
for general and administrative cost reporting, and the development of a
structure for jurisdictional services in fiscal year 2007. However,
AOC's schedule for implementing these key initiatives is likely to be
delayed by a lack of funding and qualified staff resources. At the
beginning of fiscal year 2006, AOC requested the contractors leading
the internal control and cost accounting initiatives to significantly
scale back their development efforts, citing a lack of fiscal year 2006
funding resources. At that time, the Office of the Chief Financial
Officer (CFO) estimated that 10 positions--including senior manager
level positions to help lead these initiatives--would be needed to
implement the initiatives on schedule. AOC recently transferred
authority to fill some of the positions from within AOC and
reprogrammed funds to help continue these initiatives; as of January
2006, the contractors have resumed their development efforts. However,
AOC transferred authority for only four of the estimated 10 positions-
-none were at the senior manager level.[Footnote 11] As of February 8,
2006, AOC had posted three of the four vacancy announcements (two
Senior Accountant positions and one Junior Accountant position), but
filling these positions could take several months. Leadership support-
-especially from the Architect of the Capitol, COO, and CFO--is
critical to ensure that these important initiatives are appropriately
funded, staffed, and monitored. Until these initiatives are implemented
and operating effectively, AOC faces substantial risk in financial
management.
In total, the extent of progress on the financial management reporting
improvement efforts has been limited. Successful completion of the
development and implementation of these important financial management
initiatives will require additional AOC funding and qualified staff,
close monitoring, and strong and visible support of these initiatives
by AOC leadership. AOC will continue to face significant risk in
financial management and its program operations until these key
accountability and management control initiatives are fully
implemented.
IT Management:
IT management recommendations were designed to help AOC adopt an
agencywide approach to information management by: developing and
implementing IT investment management processes to support informed
executive decision making; developing, implementing, and maintaining an
enterprise architecture[Footnote 12] to guide and constrain IT
investments throughout AOC; and establishing and implementing an
information security program. In response, AOC established a Director
of the Office of Information and Resource Management to manage IT
across the agency. AOC has also taken important initial steps to
address the management and structure needed to establish a sound IT
investment management process, such as assigning roles,
responsibilities, and the authority needed to manage its IT investment
portfolio. AOC, moreover, is in the process of instituting an approval
process and mechanism to screen all proposed IT projects using
standardized criteria. Further, AOC has established the management
structure for developing, implementing, and maintaining an enterprise
architecture, such as designating a chief enterprise architect to guide
architecture development and maintenance and developing an updated
version of its architecture that was approved by the senior policy
committee, which includes senior representatives from across the
agency. In addition, AOC has established some aspects of an effective
information security program, such as issuing a policy and a plan for
performing risk assessments; issuing and implementing an IT security
training policy; and developing a plan to monitor and evaluate the
effectiveness of IT security policies and controls.
However, more work remains to be done to fully implement our
recommendations. In particular, AOC has yet to fully develop and
implement important key steps in their IT investment management
process, such as developing an overall approach to portfolio management
that incorporates existing and proposed projects into the investment
decision making process and documenting and implementing a sound
investment control process to monitor all current and proposed IT
investments. Furthermore, AOC has yet to establish and implement key
practices associated with developing, implementing, and maintaining an
enterprise architecture, such as ensuring that the architecture
addresses security and ensuring that metrics are used to measure
progress, quality, compliance, and return on investment. Moreover, as
stated above, the agency has yet to establish and implement key
information security practices, such as completing risk assessments on
all of its major applications, documenting the identified risks in
system security plans, and developing and implementing appropriate
security controls to mitigate the risks--including developing
contingency plans for all systems and applications. Until AOC completes
and implements plans for improvement that are consistent with all our
recommendations, it will be challenged in its ability to effectively
use IT to optimize mission performance.
COO Action Plan:
As part of our progress review, we followed up on our recommendation
related to the COO action plan--issued by AOC's previous COO in
December 2003--which recommended that the Architect of the Capitol and
the COO consult with members of Congress and key committees on the
specific information regarding AOC's plans, policies, procedures,
actions, and proposed organizational changes in order to enhance the
usefulness of the COO action plan. The agency has been continuing to
follow the steps laid out in the action plan, despite the absence of a
permanent COO. For example, AOC has made progress in addressing
elements of AOC project management that were recommended to be included
in the action plan. According to AOC officials, the action plan will be
updated when a permanent COO is in place.
[End of section]
Appendix II: Progress and Challenges in Improving Project Management:
To evaluate AOC's efforts to improve project management, we (1)
determined the extent to which AOC is meeting it original budget and
schedule targets for major construction projects (projects costing over
$250,000, not including four construction projects--building the CVC,
modernizing the Supreme Court, expanding the West Refrigeration Plant,
and increasing Perimeter Security) and (2) identified initiatives that
AOC is implementing to improve project management and challenges that
remain. We provided briefings on this work in September 2005.
At the time of our briefings, AOC reported that all recent major
projects were meeting budget targets. However, AOC's budget targets are
based on cost estimates that include construction contingencies that
are sometimes 5 percent higher than both industry standards and AOC's
own guidance.[Footnote 13] Although higher budget targets reduce the
need for AOC to request additional funds to complete projects, higher
targets could also reduce the incentive for AOC to prudently manage
project funds and tie up excess funds that could be used for other
capital projects. For example, 41 projects completed from January 2003
to April 2005 had excess funding totaling about $5.5 million. In
addition, the overhead costs of projects constructed "in house" by
AOC's Construction Branch (rather than by contractors) may not have
been accurately charged to the correct project because these charges do
not receive the same level of review as those of outside contractors.
According to AOC officials, using a contingency higher than 10 or 15
percent requires documented rationale for why the percentage is higher
than prescribed by AOC guidance. AOC officials stated that they believe
that their contingency allowances are appropriate for the environment
in which AOC operates, but acknowledged that estimating and accounting
for the costs of projects could be improved.
AOC also reported that about half of recent projects were behind
schedule based on the original estimated contract completion date, in
part because of scope changes, unforeseen conditions, and changes in
jurisdictions' (the customers') priorities. However, additional
measures that reflect the customers' needs, such as the "beneficial
occupancy date" could provide a more complete assessment of AOC's
schedule performance. Since our briefings, AOC has tracked the
beneficial occupancy date, as well as the original estimated contract
completion date.
AOC has initiatives in several areas--planning, project management
organization and accountability, and communication--that are designed
to improve project management. For example, AOC continues to refine its
planning process to identify, develop, and prioritize capital projects.
The most recent refinements include adding the results of completed
facility condition assessments and using two new criteria to evaluate
projects--"urgency" and "type of project." AOC also implemented a
Project Management Organization to align project and construction
management to provide "cradle to grave" project oversight. Under this
new organization, AOC is:
* using "jurisdictional executives" as liaisons with jurisdictions;
* tracking performance measures for budget and completion dates and
quality of project design;
* using a governmentwide system to evaluate and record contractor
performance;
* maintaining central files for key project documentation to improve
access and accountability; and:
* enforcing liquidated damages against contractors on delayed projects
to motivate them to meet contract commitments.[Footnote 14]
Finally, AOC has reinstated a quarterly report to Congress to
communicate the budget and schedule status of ongoing projects.
While these initiatives are promising, AOC faces the challenge of
developing better internal controls to improve management oversight and
accountability. Meeting this challenge will improve the chances of
success for AOC's initiatives. For example, AOC's planning process
would benefit from more complete information on the initial scope of
projects. For the new Project Management Organization, AOC has not
implemented a customer satisfaction survey to track the quality of
construction services, fully clarified staff roles and
responsibilities, or updated guidance manuals. The quarterly report
does not accurately reflect the performance of projects constructed by
AOC's Construction Branch because the agency does not have a method for
calculating current working estimates for this branch. Furthermore, the
quarterly report must be compiled manually because AOC's information
systems do not adequately support project management and reporting
needs.
Recommendations in September 2005 Briefing:
To improve internal controls related to project management, we
recommended that AOC:
* develop a method to establish and track more accurate budget targets,
which could include tracking and reporting on the accuracy of cost
estimates compared with bids, the accuracy of project budgets compared
with final project costs, the amount of excess project funds and how
these funds are used, and cost data for the Construction Branch;
* expedite the development of a customer satisfaction survey for
construction services;
* clarify the roles and responsibilities of staff in the new Project
Management Organization;
* revise project management guidance manuals; and:
* develop or modify information systems to provide needed cost and
schedule data on projects and track reasons for changes across all
projects.
AOC generally agreed with our recommendations and, since September
2005, has made progress in addressing these recommendations by:
* developing and tracking new cost measures on a monthly basis,
* piloting the use of a project closeout sheet to verify reallocation
of excess funds,
* initiating an internal review of AOC's Construction Branch's
operations,
* initiating the development of a customer satisfaction survey for
construction services,
* communicating and clarifying staff roles through regular staff
meetings, and:
* analyzing the Project Management Organization's information needs to
determine the requirements for a new or revised information system.
[End of section]
Appendix III: Progress and Challenges in Improving Facilities
Management:
To evaluate AOC's efforts to improve facilities management, we reviewed
(1) the extent to which AOC tracks facilities management performance
and (2) the initiatives AOC is implementing to improve facilities
management and the challenges that remain.[Footnote 15] We provided
briefings on our work in December 2005 and January 2006.
AOC tracks performance measures for quality and timeliness of facility
management services; these measures indicate that AOC's customers are
satisfied with the quality of AOC's services and that AOC is providing
the services in a timely manner. For example, in 2004, all but one of
AOC's quality ratings were above 80 percent and almost half were above
90 percent. AOC is also meeting or exceeding its timeliness targets.
For example, in September 2005, AOC closed 88 percent of the demand
work orders that were closable that month and completed 95 percent of
the orders in less than 30 days.[Footnote 16] However, AOC's timeliness
measures could be improved to better represent the amount of time
required for specific tasks. AOC uses a standard timeliness measure of
30 days for all tasks, even though many tasks take less time to
complete. For example, the Senate jurisdiction allots 24 hours for
decorative paint repair, 1 week to paint an entire area, and 2 weeks to
refinish furniture. The Smithsonian Institution, an organization with
characteristics similar to AOC, tracks multiple time frames that are
more relevant for specific tasks, such as 24 hours, 3 days, and within
30 days. Not tracking more specific timeliness measures hinders AOC in
accurately determining whether tasks are completed in a timely manner,
and identifying which tasks may need additional resources.
AOC does not track comprehensive cost performance measures or evaluate
(or "benchmark") its performance with that of similar facilities
management organizations. While AOC has the capability to track a
limited number of annual complex-wide cost measures, it does not
comprehensively and routinely track specific cost measures, such as the
cost per square foot of cleaning or maintenance and repairs. By not
tracking these performance measures, AOC cannot understand how those
costs compare with those of similar institutions, or identify how its
costs may be increasing or decreasing over time. However, to track cost
performance measures, AOC must first develop and implement a cost
accounting system. As discussed earlier in this report, development and
implementation of this cost accounting system has been delayed due to
lack of adequate resources and personnel. Furthermore, while AOC
internally compares the performance of individual jurisdictions in
areas such as customer satisfaction and timeliness, the agency does not
benchmark its performance against that of external organizations. Even
though AOC's facilities are somewhat unusual, benchmarking could help
identify areas where costs may be high or cost trends differ. AOC
officials told us that the agency has implemented cost accounting pilot
initiatives in several jurisdictions and acknowledge that benchmarking
performance against that of comparable external organizations would be
beneficial.
AOC has several initiatives under way that should help improve its
ability to develop and track cost performance measures and benchmark
performance.
* Conducting facility assessments to develop a comprehensive plan for
facility maintenance and building renewal: The Facility Condition
Assessment (FCA) initiative establishes an ongoing process for
monitoring facility conditions and enables AOC to develop a
comprehensive plan for facility maintenance and building renewal. FCAs
help AOC prioritize projects for budget requests and increase AOC's
accountability, since they enable AOC to directly link facility needs
and budget plans. AOC has completed all but two FCAs--for the Library
of Congress Building and Grounds and the Supreme Court. While FCAs have
enabled AOC to develop a comprehensive plan for facility maintenance
and building renewal, the assessments have also documented the
magnitude of AOC's deferred maintenance and other projects--$2.6
billion over nine years--and the challenge of funding these projects.
Funding for only a limited number of these projects has been integrated
into AOC's Capital Improvement Plan process. According to AOC
officials, they plan to discuss funding needs with appropriators as
part of the Capital Improvement Plan process, using the FCA results to
help appropriators better understand the funding needs.
* Switching to a new Computer-Aided Facility Management (CAFM) system
to enhance tracking and reporting capabilities: AOC uses its current
CAFM system to track demand work orders, but does not consistently
track preventive maintenance work orders (even though the current
system is capable of tracking these work orders).[Footnote 17] By not
tracking preventive maintenance work orders, AOC cannot compare how
much preventive maintenance jurisdictions are performing with how much
is recommended. AOC is replacing its existing CAFM system because the
vendor is phasing out support for that system. According to AOC
officials, the new system will have improved tracking and reporting
capabilities, which will make it easier for the jurisdictions to use
the system to track preventive maintenance work orders, as well as
develop cost performance measures. However, the new CAFM system must be
used in conjunction with a new cost accounting system (as noted above,
development and implementation of this system has been delayed) before
AOC will be able to fully utilize data provided by the new CAFM system.
* Consolidating service contracts to save money on contract
administration: AOC jurisdictions consolidate contracts for some
services, such as elevator maintenance and hazardous waste disposal.
Currently, 20 percent of services conducted in multiple jurisdictions
are under consolidated contracts. Contract consolidation can save money
because the administrative functions for the contract are centralized;
AOC could also gain from additional economies of scale. AOC officials
acknowledge that there are additional opportunities for consolidation,
including window cleaning and fire alarm testing and certification.
* Standardizing facility inspection practices to make inspections
consistent across jurisdictions: AOC has a comprehensive,
jurisdictionwide inspection program. For example, over 95 percent of
AOC's assets are being inspected through modes such as FCAs and Night
Custodial Inspections. Although jurisdictions currently conduct
inspections independently using their own procedures, AOC plans to
evaluate the inspections and merge them into a comprehensive inspection
manual that standardizes the preferred inspection procedures across
jurisdictions. According to AOC officials, the standardization of
inspections across jurisdictions will help ensure that inspections are
performed consistently across jurisdictions and that they are completed
as efficiently as possible using a minimum of resources.
Recommendations Made in December 2005 and January 2006 Briefings:
To improve how AOC measures its performance in the areas of timeliness
and cost, the agency should:
* develop and track more specific timeliness measures that more
accurately reflect the amount of time required to complete tasks;
* develop the capability to comprehensively and routinely track cost
measures; and:
* benchmark appropriate existing and new performance measures against
those of similar institutions, such as the Smithsonian Institution and
state capitols.
AOC should use the new CAFM system to track preventive maintenance and
demand work orders across all jurisdictions, including the time taken
to complete work orders.
AOC generally agreed with our findings and the areas identified for
improvement, such as developing cost measures, benchmarking, and
tracking preventive maintenance work orders. AOC officials noted that
they also had identified these areas and have taken steps toward
implementing improvements.
[End of section]
Appendix IV: Status of AOC's Progress on Recommendations:
The following table includes all recommendations made as part of our
general management review. In addition, the table includes new
recommendations resulting from our reviews of project management and
facilities management. For recommendations that have been implemented,
the "status" column includes the month and year of the GAO report that
acknowledges the completion of that recommendation.
Table 1: Current Status of Recommendations:
Strategic management:
GAO Recommendation: 1. Improve strategic planning and organizational
alignment by involving key congressional and other external
stakeholders in AOC's strategic planning efforts and in any
organizational changes that may result from these efforts; Jan. 2003;
Status: Making progress: AOC has involved congressional and other
stakeholders in strategic planning efforts and organizational changes.
For example, AOC sought input and guidance from congressional
stakeholders and GAO on its efforts to align its activities, core
processes, and resources with its mission and strategic goals, which
resulted in a revised organizational structure. In addition, AOC has
shared its strategic plan and its performance plan with its
congressional and other stakeholders and has received guidance on how
to improve future reports. AOC has also worked with congressional and
other stakeholders on several management changes such as instituting a
Capitol Visitor's Center Executive Director and a Director of
Congressional and External Relations. In a November 2005 letter to
appropriators, the Architect of the Capitol provided an update on
several key strategic planning efforts and plans for fiscal year 2006.
The Acting COO currently provides periodic briefings to congressional
stakeholders including information on updates to the strategic plan.
AOC is in the process of hiring a permanent COO, who will be
responsible for continuing to consult with Congress on AOC's strategic
planning efforts and organizational changes.
GAO Recommendation: 2. To strengthen the relationship between AOC and
its congressional and other stakeholders, we recommend that the
Architect of the Capitol direct the COO to actively consult with
Congress on the design and implementation of meaningful outcome-based
and performance-based measures that are useful to both AOC and
Congress. This will enable AOC and Congress to assess AOC's progress;
Aug. 2004;
Status: Making progress: Although AOC has not developed a comprehensive
set of performance measures, the agency has developed a document--the
AOC dashboard--that summarizes performance in each of its strategic
focus areas: project management, facilities management, human capital
management, and organizational excellence. The dashboard includes
several high-level indicators to track performance for each of the
strategic goals as well as a target goal for each indicator. AOC plans
to revise goals and objectives and assign measures to each area in
fiscal year 2006. AOC is in the process of hiring a permanent COO, who
will be responsible for consulting with Congress and communicating
AOC's progress on the design and implementation of a comprehensive set
of outcome-based and performance-based measures.
GAO Recommendation: 3. Develop a comprehensive strategy to improve
internal and external communications by providing opportunities for
routine employee input and feedback; Jan. 2003;
Status: Implemented February 2006: AOC has established a process for
obtaining employee input and feedback and finalized a process manual
for employee feedback. The process manual provides guidance for
obtaining employee feedback using a four-step approach: identifying
concerns, obtaining data, giving feedback, and following up on results.
The process manual also details responsibilities for staff and provides
an implementation plan. While AOC has provided opportunities for
routine employee feedback, it is important for AOC to collect a
consistent and comprehensive set of data on a regular basis in order to
monitor progress against an established baseline.
GAO Recommendation: 4. Gather and analyze employee feedback from focus
groups or surveys before fiscal year 2005, as well as communicate how
it is taking actions to address any identified employee concerns; Jan.
2004;
Status: Implemented February 2006: AOC held focus group sessions in
September 2004 and has communicated planned actions to employees by
issuing three brochures. According to AOC, it has begun to implement
several of the planned actions and will continue to communicate with
employees as each action plan is implemented. In addition, AOC has
issued a focus group guide that outlines procedures for conducting
focus groups and reporting on the results.
GAO Recommendation: 5. To improve communications with employees, we
recommend that the Architect of the Capitol direct the COO to fully and
effectively implement the basic framework as defined in its
communications plan and process manuals, and finalize its draft
employee feedback manual to assure that the current progress already
made is maintained; Aug. 2004;
Status: Implemented February 2006: AOC implemented the basic framework
in its communications plan through a variety of communication methods
to convey information to employees including a weekly newsletter on
project updates, policy announcements, management and communication
tips, and other agencywide messages. AOC has also distributed a process
manual for employee feedback.
GAO Recommendation: 6. Develop a comprehensive strategy to improve
internal and external communications by completing the development of
congressional protocols by involving stakeholders; Jan. 2003;
Status: Making progress: According to AOC officials, the protocols that
AOC drafted were not considered to be viable by congressional
stakeholders. AOC is developing an alternative to formal protocols by
documenting internal procedures for communicating with congressional
staff such as returning calls within 24 hours and written requests
within 5 days. AOC's Acting COO/CFO explained that this effort would
help clarify service and expectation levels.
GAO Recommendation: 7. Conduct a pilot of its congressional protocols
in one or more of its jurisdictions to determine how well its
protocols; would work in addressing customer requests for service,
while balancing the need of multiple requests with the strategic plan
and corresponding project priorities of the agency; Jan. 2004.
GAO Recommendation: 8. Develop a comprehensive strategy to improve
internal and external communications by improving annual accountability
reporting through annual performance planning and reporting; Jan. 2003;
Status: Implemented February 2006: AOC has fulfilled our recommendation
through the release of its fiscal year 2003 accountability report and
its plans to publish its fiscal year 2004 accountability report and
fiscal year 2005 performance and accountability report. In addition,
AOC released a performance plan in April 2005 that details steps to
achieve its strategic goals and objectives. AOC staff, AOC Audit
Committee staff, GAO, and other congressional stakeholders are involved
in the development of these reports. AOC plans to monitor the progress
toward meeting milestones outlined in its performance plan through
monthly assessment meetings.
GAO Recommendation: 9. Develop a comprehensive strategy to improve
internal and external communications by continuing to regularly measure
customer satisfaction AOC-wide; Jan. 2003;
Status: Implemented January 2004[A]: AOC fulfilled our recommendation
by implementing the annual building services customer satisfaction
survey. Information from the survey will be incorporated into AOC's
business plan and will be useful in monitoring the quality of AOC's
services and the progress of AOC's improvement initiatives.
GAO Recommendation: 10. To strengthen the relationship between AOC and
its congressional and other stakeholders, we recommend that the
Architect of the Capitol direct the COO to expedite the release of the
2003 building services customer satisfaction survey, as a transparency
and accountability mechanism and to provide Congress and other
stakeholders assurance that actions are being taken in response to
their feedback; Aug. 2004;
Status: Implemented February 2006: AOC has fulfilled our recommendation
by releasing the results of the 2003 building services customer
satisfaction survey in its 2004 report. The report tracked customer
satisfaction between 2002 and 2004. In addition, AOC provided customers
with letters detailing actions planned to address their concerns.
GAO Recommendation: 11. Establish action-oriented implementation goals
over the long term and a time line with milestone dates to track the
organization's progress towards achieving those implementation goals.
The Architect of the Capitol should work with key congressional and
other stakeholders to develop plans; Jan. 2003;
Status: Implemented January 2004[A]: AOC fulfilled our recommendation
by issuing its draft performance plan in March 2003, which was prepared
to satisfy a congressional requirement for the development of a
management improvement plan. This draft performance plan for fiscal
years 2003- 2007 established action-oriented implementation goals over
the long term and a time line with milestone dates to track the
organization's progress toward achieving those goals.
GAO Recommendation: 12. To enhance the usefulness of the COO action
plan, we recommend that the Architect of the Capitol and the COO
consult with members of Congress and key committees on the specific
information regarding AOC's plans, policies, procedures, actions, and
proposed organizational changes. As part of this effort, the Architect
and the COO should work with Congress to determine Congress's
information needs and the timing and format of delivery of that
information that will best meet Congress's needs. Furthermore,
consistent with our findings and recommendations with respect to
congressional and other stakeholder involvement in general and the
Capitol complex master plan in particular, as well as our original
January 2003 management review, specific emphasis should be placed on
AOC's project management. Particular issues to be discussed could
include how: AOC's projects' priorities are determined; AOC monitors
and controls project cost, quality, and timeliness; AOC uses lessons
learned from projects and seeks to incorporate best practices; project
management accountability is assigned and managed; and; AOC determines
the best mix of in-house and contractor support when designing
projects; Subsequent COO action plans and status reports will likely be
most helpful to Congress to the extent that they are rigorously
specific as to the problem or issue that needs to be addressed, the
actions that are being taken in response, the progress to date, and
milestones for additional actions; Aug. 2004;
Status: Making progress: AOC cannot fully implement this recommendation
until a permanent COO is in place. In the interim, AOC has made initial
progress in addressing elements of AOC project management that were
recommended to be included in the action plan. For example, AOC has
implemented a process to prioritize projects. To monitor projects, AOC
has issued quarterly reports to Congress on the cost and schedule of
active projects, including real-time performance metrics and budgetary-
risk forecasting, based on feedback from congressional staff. To
benefit from lessons learned, AOC has developed a design services
survey and has plans to implement a construction services survey. To
improve accountability, AOC has established a project management
organization with a project manager dedicated to each project from
start to finish. AOC's Director of Project Management holds periodic
briefings with congressional staff in order to better understand their
information needs as it relates to project reporting. In addition,
project performance measures are included in a document called the AOC
dashboard that summarizes performance in each of its strategic focus
areas; Once a permanent COO is in place, AOC leadership needs to
complete an action plan that addresses items outlined in this
recommendation. Time frames, action items, issues, progress, and
milestones on each of these items should be included as key elements in
the action plan. GAO continues to believe that it is critical for the
new COO to actively consult with members of Congress and key committees
on the development and implementation of this plan, including providing
specific information on AOC's plans, policies, procedures, actions, and
proposed organizational changes.
GAO Recommendation: 13. Further refine its employee feedback efforts by
establishing a method(s) to collect consistent and comprehensive
information on a regular basis and to allow AOC to track results over
time against an established baseline; Oct. 2005;
Status: Making progress: AOC has established the results of its 2004
focus groups as a baseline for its work environment assessment.
According to AOC, its Quality Management group will issue a specific
guide to consistently follow up the work environment assessment as a
separate effort from the regular annual employee feedback research. AOC
does not plan to follow up on its focus groups for at least three
years.
GAO Recommendation: 14. Improve its communications strategy for
employee feedback (as documented in its employee feedback manual) to
ensure that employees and external stakeholders receive an adequate
level of detail about employee feedback initiative results and related
agency actions in a timely manner. The communications strategy should
also emphasize the need to summarize the documents and provide a
consistent level of detail; Oct. 2005;
Status: Making progress: AOC's Quality Management group has prepared a
second version of the employee feedback process manual to reflect GAO
recommendations on stakeholder communication. As of December 2005, the
manual is undergoing review by the quality council prior to being
submitted for signature.
Human Capital Management:
GAO Recommendation: 15. Strengthen performance measurement and
strategic human capital management by developing annual goals and
measuring performance; Jan. 2003;
Status: Implemented February 2006: AOC has implemented a performance
management approach that includes strategic planning, annual
performance planning and reporting, and assessment of AOC's progress in
meeting agencywide milestones and measures. AOC has identified four
strategic goals: facilities management, project management, human
capital management, and organizational excellence. AOC has also
identified a number of measures to monitor and evaluate performance,
and these measures will serve as the basis for employees' annual
performance goals as well as the assessment of AOC's overall success in
meeting its strategic goals. The measures include quality facility
management; projects delivered on time, on budget, and of high quality;
highly skilled and motivated employees; and effects of managerial
oversight. In addition, AOC has developed a document--the AOC
dashboard--that summarizes performance in each of its strategic focus
areas: project management, facilities management, human capital
management, and organizational excellence. The dashboard includes
several high-level indicators to track performance for each of the
strategic goals as well as a target goal for each indicator.
GAO Recommendation: 16. Strengthen performance measurement and
strategic human capital management by creating "a line of sight"
linking AOC's senior executive and employee performance management
systems to mission-critical goals; Jan. 2003;
Status: Implemented February 2006: AOC has fulfilled this
recommendation. AOC's senior executive performance management system
and its employee performance evaluation system are linked to AOC's
mission-critical goals. Employees are expected to ensure completion of
a performance plan that outlines performance standards for each
critical task related to the employee's position. The employee's
performance is evaluated against the established performance plan as it
relates to AOC's strategic goals and objectives. The employee is given
a rating of "outstanding," "fully successful," or "unsuccessful" for
each element, as well as a summary rating.
GAO Recommendation: 17. Strengthen performance measurement and
strategic human capital management by establishing agencywide core and
technical competencies and holding employees accountable for these
competencies as a part of the performance management system; Jan. 2003;
Status: Making progress: AOC has identified core competencies for all
positions. AOC is in the process of developing competencies for all AOC
employees through the use of a skills survey. AOC's Workforce Planning
and Management Office will compare the survey results with established
competencies before including the competencies in its evaluation
system.
GAO Recommendation: 18. Strengthen performance measurement and
strategic human capital management by developing the capacity to
collect and analyze workforce data; Jan. 2003;
Status: Making progress: AOC's Workforce Planning and Management Office
has identified numerous ways to collect, report, and analyze workforce
data. Several data sources have been identified and used for analysis,
resulting in reports on the agency's workforce, such as retirement
reports. AOC plans to use the information in these reports for
agencywide planning. AOC has developed a system to report and monitor
full-time equivalents (FTEs). However, GAO continues to have concerns
about the reliability of the data AOC is collecting, particularly
related to AOC's ability to estimate, track, and report on FTEs.
GAO Recommendation: 19. Strengthen performance measurement and
strategic human capital management by identifying current and future
workforce needs and developing strategies to fill gaps; Jan. 2003;
Status: Making progress: AOC's Workforce Planning and Management Office
recently developed a report on agencywide retirement that forecasts
future workforce needs on the basis of anticipated retirements,
turnover trends, and historical hiring practices. AOC plans to use the
report's findings to identify gaps in current and future workforce
needs. AOC needs to develop strategies to address workforce gaps.
GAO Recommendation: 20. Strengthen AOC's human capital policies,
procedures, and processes by continuing to develop and implement
agencywide human capital policies and procedures and holding management
and employees accountable for following these policies and procedures;
Jan. 2003;
Status: Implemented February 2006: AOC has approved a policy
development schedule to revise human capital policies as part of its
human capital plan. In addition, AOC developed a document for
supervisors, Supervisors' Tools of the Trade, which provides
supplemental guidance on human capital policies as needed. Supervisors
are rated for performance in human capital management as part of AOC's
evaluation system. However, it is important that AOC continue to
monitor whether supervisors and managers are fairly administering the
policies as the revisions are implemented.
GAO Recommendation: 21. Strengthen AOC's human capital policies,
procedures, and processes by assessing ways in which AOC management
could better gather and analyze data from the various employee
relations offices and employee advisory council while maintaining
employee confidentiality; Jan. 2003;
Status: Implemented February 2006: AOC has fulfilled this
recommendation by holding monthly meetings between the Human Resources
Director, Equal Employment Opportunity and Conciliation Program
Director, the chair of the employee advisory council and the employment
council, and the employee assistance program manager and the Deputy
Chief of Staff to review and discuss employee relations data. The group
makes recommendations to senior management based on findings and takes
action on the items. According to AOC, the importance of maintaining
employee confidentiality is emphasized at each meeting.
GAO Recommendation: 22. To improve communications with employees, we
recommend that the Architect of the Capitol direct the COO to conduct
an analysis of both AOC management and employee needs with respect to
resolving employee concerns and issues, as well as assessing the
capacity of existing offices to fulfill those needs; Aug. 2004;
Status: Closed
- not implemented: Although AOC has not completed an assessment of the
capacity of existing offices to resolve employee concerns and issues
and does not plan to do so, the agency has implemented a variety of
mechanisms to resolve employee concerns and issues. According to AOC,
multiple offices and programs address employee concerns and issues,
including the Equal Employment Office, the Employee Assistance
Programs, the standard grievance process, and the external Office of
Compliance process. In addition, AOC holds monthly meetings between
representatives of these offices to review and discuss employee
relations data. The group makes recommendations to senior management
based on findings and takes action on the items. Employees in
bargaining units are also represented by the union and have a process
in place to resolve individual employee issues. In October 2005, AOC
issued a brochure to all employees on all Equal Employment Office
policies and the available programs. In addition, AOC is currently
developing a proposal that would establish a mediation program as part
of AOC's operational business strategy. After implementing the pilot
program, AOC plans to assess its use and effectiveness and make any
needed modifications before making it a permanent program and expanding
the group of trained mediators. AOC should continue to monitor the
effectiveness of the programs through employee feedback.
GAO Recommendation: 23. Establish a direct reporting relationship
between the ombudsperson and the Architect of the Capitol consistent
with professional standards; Jan. 2003;
Status: Implemented February 2006: AOC has not had an ombudsperson on
staff for several years. According to AOC, if an ombudsperson is
needed, a direct reporting relationship between the ombudsperson and
the Architect would be established once hired.
GAO Recommendation: Worker safety.
GAO Recommendation: 24. Identify performance measures for safety goals
and objectives, including measures for how AOC will implement the 43
specialized safety programs and how superintendents and employees will
be held accountable for achieving results.[A]; Jan. 2003;
Status: Making progress: Although AOC has made significant progress to
develop written safety policies, full implementation of the safety
policies has not occurred. As of December 2005, 23 of AOC's 35 safety
policies have been written and approved by the Architect's office. The
AOC has developed workbooks to help AOC staff implement the safety
policies. AOC plans to include a schedule for releasing the remaining
safety policies in the Office of Safety and Health Program Plan. GAO
will continue to monitor the progress of the safety policies.
GAO Recommendation: 25. Establish clearly defined and documented
policies and procedures for reporting hazards similar to those that
apply to injury and illness reporting; Jan. 2003;
Status: Making progress: AOC has completed a job hazard analysis (JHA)
process including describing the steps associated with each job task,
identifying potential hazards associated with each task, developing
appropriate controls to eliminate or reduce the hazards, developing a
training program to perform JHAs, and assisting first-line supervisors
with performing qualitative JHAs. In addition, AOC has completed a
"step-by-step plan" that provides a general approach for jurisdictions
to manage implementation of the JHA process. Finally, AOC has included
a telephone number for reporting hazards in its monthly safety
newsletters, which are distributed AOC- wide. AOC is currently in the
process of finalizing its hazard assessment and control policy for
distribution to agency reviewers.
GAO Recommendation: 26. Establish a consistent AOC-wide system for
conducting investigations and follow-up; Jan. 2003;
Status: Implemented February 2006: AOC fulfilled this recommendation
with the approval of its interim incident notification, investigation,
and reporting policy. AOC also implemented the incident analysis
module, a component of the facility management assistant program. This
module provides an electronic recordkeeping approach to track the
investigation of incidents associated with AOC personnel and property.
In addition, the module interfaces with the facility management
assistant program by creating a deficiency report when corrective
actions associated with an incident are identified. Moreover, an AOC-
wide incident investigation form has been implemented across the
jurisdictions. Finally, lessons learned are shared in a number of ways,
including through AOC's safety support group.
GAO Recommendation: 27. Establish a safety-training curriculum that
fully supports all of the goals of the safety program and further
evaluate the effectiveness of the training provided; Jan. 2003;
Status: Implemented February 2006: AOC has fulfilled this
recommendation in establishing training that supports the goals of the
current safety policies. For example, during the implementation review
process, AOC revalidated training requirements against regulatory
requirements. Moreover, Safety Policy Managers have worked with the
Human Resources Management Division (HRMD) to ensure that training
required by upcoming policies has been identified. In addition, AOC has
completed a training workbook exercise to assess the overall impact of
required safety policy training on its budget. Also, central staff
safety professionals continue to audit training courses and provide
feedback to course instructors. Finally, the AOC has been using injury
and illness data to identify training needs.
GAO Recommendation: 28. Assign clear responsibility for tracking and
recording training received by AOC employees, including maintaining an
inventory of employees' certifications and licenses; Jan. 2003;
Status: Making progress: AOC has chosen a data management system--AVUE--
that will, among other things, track and record the training,
licensing, and certification requirements received by employees. Safety
personnel have met with AVUE designers to ensure that the designers
fully understand AOC's safety training needs. AOC is working with AVUE
to obtain a delivery schedule.
GAO Recommendation: 29. Clarify and explore the possibility of
expanding the role of the Office of the Attending Physician (OAP) in
helping AOC meet its safety goals, consistent with the broad
responsibilities laid out in the 1998 Memorandum of Understanding
between AOC and OAP; Jan. 2003;
Status: Implemented February 2006: AOC has fulfilled this
recommendation by working with OAP to ensure that the lists of medical
surveillance program participants are current. In addition, OAP is
providing reports to AOC jurisdictions when employees are either (1)
due or (2) past due for their medical surveillance exams. AOC is also
drafting a document on the scope of medical surveillance services to
better define and communicate the agency's requirements to OAP to
ensure a common understanding and set of expectations.
GAO Recommendation: 30. Establish a senior management work group that
will routinely discuss workers' compensation cases and costs, and
develop strategies to reduce these injuries and costs; Jan. 2003;
Status: Implemented August 2004[B]: AOC has fulfilled this
recommendation by developing performance measures to assess the long-
term impact and trends of workers' compensation injuries and costs. In
addition, through the Safety, Health, and Environment Council (SHEC),
safety and human resource officials are exchanging information and data
in order to control workers' compensation injuries and costs. Finally,
through SHEC, the relationship between safety and workers' compensation
injuries and illnesses is being promoted.
GAO Recommendation: 31. To enhance worker safety performance measures
at AOC, the Architect of the Capitol should direct the COO to expand
upon its safety perception survey by developing a more rigorous
methodological approach and collecting such information on a more
regular basis; Aug. 2004;
Status: Making progress: AOC plans to include safety-related questions
as part of an agencywide work environment assessment. AOC's Quality
Management group is currently developing a guide for conducting the
work environment assessment. The worker safety questions should be
designed to elicit full and honest views on worker safety.
Recycling:
GAO Recommendation: 32. Develop a clear mission and goals for AOC's
recycling program with input from key congressional stakeholders as
part of its proposed environmental master plan. AOC may want to
establish reasonable goals based on the total waste stream--information
it plans to obtain as part of its long-term environmental management
plan--that could potentially be recycled; Jan. 2003;
Status: Implemented February 2006: AOC has fulfilled this
recommendation. AOC drafted a mission statement, goals, and performance
measures for its recycling program and shared this draft with
congressional stakeholders. The mission for the recycling program is to
foster an environment that encourages recycling by the legislative
branch staff through convenient and efficient programs, resulting in
the diversion of wastes from the solid waste stream. AOC established
three main goals for its recycling program: (1) increase overall
recycling rates by diverting office wastes, (2) increase overall
recycling tonnage by diverting non-office wastes, and (3) improving
communication and coordination among interested Legislative Branch
agencies by establishing a recycling working group by the end of fiscal
year 2006.
GAO Recommendation: 33. To further assist AOC in developing a more
strategic approach for its recycling programs and to ensure that
congressional input is obtained when it would be most useful, we
recommend that the Architect of the Capitol direct the COO to obtain
preliminary input from congressional stakeholders on its environmental
program plan--particularly as the plan relates to the mission and goals
of AOC's recycling programs--prior to the completion of the plan; Aug.
2004;
Status: Implemented February 2006: AOC has fulfilled this
recommendation. AOC relied on input from internal and external
stakeholders, including congressional stakeholders, to assist in the
development of the mission, goals, and performance measures as part of
its recycling program.
GAO Recommendation: 34. Develop a performance measurement, monitoring,
and evaluation system that supports accomplishing AOC's recycling
mission and goals; Jan. 2003;
Status: Making progress: AOC submitted performance measures that
support the recycling program mission and goals to congressional
stakeholders on November 3, 2005. AOC plans to evaluate the impact of
the new performance measures on its current evaluation criteria and
will make changes as needed in 2006. Recycling managers are currently
rated in AOC's evaluation system for success in several recycling-
related tasks. In addition, AOC has an environmental services
indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract that, according to
AOC, will allow for the quick procurement of consultant services and
other services in support of the implementation plan.
GAO Recommendation: 35. Examine the roles and responsibilities of AOC's
recycling program staff to ensure that they are performing the right
jobs with the necessary authority, and holding the staff accountable
for achieving program and agency results through AOC's performance
management system; Jan. 2003;
Status: Making progress: AOC has included recycling tasks in position
descriptions and has included recycling responsibilities for
supervisors in its evaluation system. For example, the performance
evaluation system includes recycling objectives in the ratings of
recycling managers. In addition, AOC has included recycling as an
objective in its business plan for the House and Senate. AOC plans to
evaluate the impact of the new performance measures on its current
evaluation criteria and will make changes as needed in 2006.
Financial management:
GAO Recommendation: 36. Continue to improve AOC's approach to financial
management by developing strategies to institutionalize financial
management practices that will support budgeting, financial, and
program management at AOC. Such strategies could include developing
performance goals and measures and associated roles aimed at increasing
the accountability of nonfinancial managers and staff, such as
jurisdictional superintendents, program managers, and other AOC staff-
-whose support is critical to the success of AOC's financial management
initiatives--and ensuring that these staff received the training needed
to effectively carry out their roles and responsibilities; Jan. 2003;
Status: Making progress: AOC continues to make progress
institutionalizing financial management best practices to support
efforts to improve budgeting, financial management, and program
management. AOC continued its efforts to annually produce audited
financial statements and took action in March 2005 to authorize the
development of an AOC-wide internal control framework. To date, AOC
reports that it has partially completed the development of this
framework. Also, important work has begun to identify changes to
systems, procedures, and reporting methods needed to implement a new
financial, cost, and performance reporting system (the cost accounting
system), which is intended to provide operating managers with timely
and useful information to enhance their management and oversight.
However, AOC's progress has been slower than originally anticipated and
insufficient resources have delayed implementation of these
initiatives. As a result, significant work remains to be done to
successfully implement many of the initiatives and, collectively, to
institutionalize the range of financial management best practices
envisioned by this recommendation. To do so, it is imperative that
adequate resources be continually identified and provided to implement
and maintain these improvement efforts. The initiatives represent
significant cultural and operational changes that will directly affect
many of AOC's operations. Successfully dealing with these changes will
require strong and visible senior management support to help ensure
that the initiatives' implementation is effectively monitored and that,
if necessary, actions are taken to keep the implementation on track.
The Office of the CFO has thus far relied extensively on contractor
support to plan and initiate actions needed to implement many of these
initiatives. By not having AOC staff resources actively involved in the
planning stages of these important accountability initiatives serves to
limit the transfer of institutional knowledge that was developed by the
contractor to the AOC staff.
GAO Recommendation: 37. To help strengthen and sustain AOC's emerging
foundation of financial accountability and control, we recommend that
the Architect of the Capitol, the COO, the Chief Financial Officer, and
other senior management provide strong and visible support for efforts
to prepare auditable financial statements and implement an effective
internal control framework by monitoring the implementation and related
milestones for each effort, ensuring the commitment to and support to
for each effort by participating AOC units, and acting to resolve any
impediments that may arise; Aug. 2004;
Status: Making progress: Organizationally, AOC made progress in
strengthening its foundation of financial accountability and control by
issuing its first and second agency-wide accountability reports in
December 2004 and 2005, in which the results of audits covering AOC's
fiscal year 2003 and 2004 balance sheets, respectively, were presented;
requesting a full scope audit of a complete set of financial statements
and related footnote disclosures for fiscal year 2005; beginning the
development of an AOC-wide internal control framework; However, the
extent of this progress has been limited because (1) the scope of the
follow-up financial audit, which was originally planned to cover all of
AOC's financial statements, was again limited to AOC's balance sheet,
(2) the internal control framework, which was initially planned to be
designed and authorized by the start of fiscal 2005, was authorized for
development in March 2005, and (3) due to a lack of fiscal year 2006
resources, development and implementation work on the internal control
framework has been delayed. Based on what we have learned, we believe
AOC's schedule for full implementation of this framework (June 2006)
will likely slip. While these initiatives reflect a degree of progress,
until they are implemented AOC will continue to face increased risk in
financial management and in its program operations; The AOC received an
unqualified or "clean" opinion on its balance sheets for fiscal years
2003 and 2004. However, both of these audits identified a number of
internal control weaknesses that AOC has been working to correct, the
2003 auditor's report included weaknesses in the areas of: capitalizing
work-in-process expenses, allocating overhead to project costs,
accounts payable cutoff, capital and operating leases, payroll record
retention, and information technology controls. As reported in AOC's
2004 Accountability Report, the AOC has fully addressed six out of
seven material weaknesses reported in the 2003 report. In the fiscal
year 2004 auditor's report, the auditor's reported weaknesses in the
areas of: (1) Internal Control Assessments - AOC lacks a formal and
systematic process to assess and evaluate the design and operation of
internal controls, (2) Annual Leave - AOC lacks controls to ensure
differences in leave balances across systems were identified, manual
adjustments were approved, monitored, and reversed upon system posting,
and leave earning rates were consistent with years in service, (3)
Timekeeping Controls - AOC did not have effective controls over time
and attendance processing to detect time charge modifications after
supervisory approval had been made, to require employees and
supervisors to regularly sign and attest to the accuracy of timesheets,
(4) Construction Work-In-Process (this weakness was also reported in
the fiscal year 2003 audit report of the CVC Base Building) - AOC does
not maintain a formal system that ensures execution of a contract or
modification before the initiation of work, (5) Capital and Operating
Leases - AOC does not have an effective policy to timely identify the
execution or modification of lease agreements and perform the requisite
analyses to determine if they are capital or operating leases for
financial reporting, and (6) Information Technology Controls - AOC does
not have an effective information system security program resulting in
weaknesses in their information system control environment; With regard
to the specific focus of this recommendation--the need for visible and
strong senior management support for audit and internal control
initiatives--senior management will need to increase its focus on
managing and overseeing these important accountability and control
initiatives that are in process in order to help ensure their success.
GAO Recommendation: 38. To enhance the successful development of useful
financial, cost, and performance reporting for major operating units
and appropriate cost accounting, we recommend that the Architect of the
Capitol direct the COO and the Chief Financial Officer to work with
operating managers to assess the usefulness of financial-statement-
level information, take an active role in AOC near-term efforts to
develop agencywide performance measures, and review all available
options to determine whether substantial work can begin, prior to
fiscal year 2006, on the analyses needed to identify changes necessary
to implement useful cost accounting at AOC; Aug. 2004;
Status: Making progress: Organizationally, AOC has made progress in
developing a cost accounting system and useful financial and
performance reports for major operating units. The Office of the CFO
reports progress in conducting analyses designed to identify the
changes needed to improve cost and performance-based management,
systems, and reporting methods. The analyses--performed by outside
contractors--assessed the current cost and reporting systems and made
recommendations related to defining common lines of business and
activities, identifying activity-related outputs, and linking
activities and outputs to strategic goals and performance outcomes.
Acknowledging that financial-statement-level information was not
directly useful to line managers, the Office of the CFO has met with
the jurisdictions to identify financial-related information and reports
that managers can use to enhance their operational management and
oversight; AOC management was briefed on the results of the analyses
and related recommendations and plans to implement the new performance-
based system in phases to make an orderly transition from the current
budget-based financial system. Those plans include pilot deployment of
an interim cost structure for managers through fiscal year 2006,
followed by the development of a structure for General and
Administrative cost reporting, and development of a structure for
jurisdictional services in fiscal year 2007. Currently, due to lack of
fiscal year 2006 resources all work being performed by the contractor
has been delayed. AOC plans to resume work using in- house staff whose
positions have been funded and approved, but currently these positions
remain unfilled. AOC plans to request fiscal year 2007 funds to
continue involvement of the contractor to work with this staff going
forward on an "as needed" basis. It is likely that this shortage of
resources will delay the scheduled date (9/30/2006) for full system
implementation. With regard to the focus of this recommendation--that
the COO and the CFO work with operating managers on each of these
initiatives--the Acting COO/CFO will need to closely monitor and
oversee the development of these initiatives and work to ensure that
managers use the information to improve their operational management
and oversight.
GAO Recommendation: 39. To enhance the successful development of useful
financial, cost, and performance reporting for major operating units
and appropriate cost accounting, we recommend that the Architect of the
Capitol direct the COO and the CFO to have senior management visibly
demonstrate its continuing commitment to and support for making AOC-
wide system, procedural, and cultural changes necessary to provide
managers with timely financial, cost, and performance information by
monitoring the efforts' implementation and related milestones, ensuring
the commitment to and support for the efforts by participating AOC
units, and acting to resolve any impediments that may arise; Aug. 2004;
Status: Making progress: As noted in our analysis of AOC's progress in
implementing the previous recommendation, AOC has made progress in
efforts to develop cost accounting and useful financial, cost, and
performance reporting for major operating units. However, with regard
to the focus of this recommendation--the need for senior management to
visibly demonstrate its continuing commitment to and support for the
changes needed to implement these important management initiatives by
monitoring implementation efforts, ensuring the commitment and support
of participating AOC units, and acting to resolve any impediments that
may arise--AOC senior management will need to take concerted action to
visibly demonstrate its commitment and support to making the AOC-wide
system, procedural, and cultural changes necessary to provide managers
with timely financial, cost, and performance information needed to
improve their oversight and management of operations; With many of
AOC's top leadership positions currently vacant, including the COO, the
CFO, the Director of Congressional and External Relations, and the
Director of Planning and Project Management, AOC will have difficulties
in the short-term effectively achieving the level of leadership called
for by this recommendation. Furthermore, the term for the current
Architect of the Capitol will expire in less than a year. In an attempt
to mitigate the impact of so many vacancies in key leadership
positions, AOC recently appointed an Acting COO, and asked this
individual to also temporarily fill the position of the Acting CFO to
guide the agency's transformation efforts until qualified permanent
candidates can be hired. It is essential for AOC to quickly fill the
management positions that are currently vacant to sustain improvements
that have already been achieved, support further transformation
efforts, and have a cohesive management team in place in the event of a
turnover in the position of the Architect of the Capitol.
Information technology management:
GAO Recommendation: 40. Establish a chief information officer or
comparable senior executive, with the responsibility, authority, and
adequate resources for managing IT across the agency, who is a full
participant in AOC's senior decision making processes and has clearly
defined roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities; Jan. 2003;
Status: Implemented January 2004[A]: AOC fulfilled this recommendation
by issuing a centralized IT management policy that assigned a senior
executive--namely, the Office of Information and Resource Management
(OIRM) director--the role, responsibility and authority for managing IT
across the agency, including the development, management, and oversight
of IT. In addition, the policy made the OIRM director a key participant
in executive decision making, such as serving as the principal adviser
to the Architect of the Capitol in applying IT to improve business
processes. The OIRM director's role also includes controlling AOC's IT
budget and chairing the IT project management board.
GAO Recommendation: 41. Develop and implement IT investment management
processes with the full support and participation of AOC's senior
leadership. Specifically, the Architect of the Capitol must develop a
plan for developing and implementing the investment management
processes, as appropriate, that are outlined in our IT investment
management guide. At a minimum, the plan should specify measurable
tasks, goals, time frames, and resources required to develop and
implement the processes. The Architect of the Capitol should focus
first on the management processes associated with controlling existing
projects and establishing the management structures to effectively
implement an IT management process; Jan. 2003;
Status: Making progress: The AOC IT investment review board charter was
approved by the Deputy Chief of Staff in July 2004. This board includes
senior-level managers across the agency. AOC reports that it is in the
process of implementing a project review board to oversee all IT
projects and to monitor schedules, costs, and risks. AOC recently
approved a new IT investment management policy which describes the
roles and authority of the boards involved in overseeing IT investments
such as the Enterprise Architecture Executive Steering committee and
the Business Systems Modernization Office. The IT investment management
policy also describes the process for requesting funding and monitoring
such investments. AOC has taken important initial steps to address the
management and structure needed to establish a sound IT investment
management process, such as assigning roles, responsibilities and the
authority needed to manage its IT investment portfolio. However, the
agency has yet to provide a plan that lays out its efforts to implement
the processes and to control existing investments which includes
specifying the measurable tasks, goals, time frames, and resources.
GAO Recommendation: 42. Plan for and implement those practices in our
IT investment management guide associated with corporate, portfolio-
based investment decision making, such as (1) implementing criteria to
select investments that will best support the organization's strategic
goals, objectives, and mission, (2) using these criteria to
consistently analyze and prioritize all IT investments, (3) ensuring
that the optimal investment portfolio with manageable risks and returns
is selected and funded, and (4) overseeing each investment within the
portfolio to ensure that it achieves its cost, benefit, schedule, and
risk expectations; Jan. 2004;
Status: Making progress: AOC reports that, to prioritize investments,
it is using an IT request form to quantify investment requests by their
urgency, value, and risk. Although AOC is in the process of instituting
an approval process and mechanism to screen all proposed IT projects
using standardized criteria, it has yet to fully develop and implement
important key steps in their IT investment process. For example, AOC
has yet to develop an overall approach to portfolio management that
incorporates existing and proposed projects into the investment
decision-making process and document and implement a sound investment
control process to monitor all their current and proposed IT
investments.
GAO Recommendation: 43. Develop, implement, and maintain an enterprise
architecture (EA) to guide and constrain IT projects throughout AOC.
The Architect of the Capitol should implement the practices, as
appropriate, as outlined in the Chief Information Officer Council's
architecture management guide. As a first step, the Architect of the
Capitol should establish the management structure for developing,
implementing, and maintaining an EA by implementing the following
actions: developing an agencywide policy statement providing a clear
mandate for developing, implementing, and maintaining the architecture;
establishing an executive body composed of stakeholders from AOC
mission-critical program offices to guide the strategy for developing
the EA and ensure agency support and resources for it; and; designating
an individual who serves as a chief enterprise architect to develop
policy, lead the development of the EA, and manage it as a formal
program; Jan. 2003;
Status: Making progress: AOC has (1) developed a written and approved
agencywide IT policy that provides for developing, implementing, and
maintaining an EA; (2) assigned responsibility for guiding EA
development and obtaining approval of the EA from the agency's senior
leadership team, which includes senior representatives from across the
agency, such as the Director of Congressional and External Relations,
the Chief Administrative Officer, and the superintendents of the House
and Senate offices and of the Capitol buildings; (3) designated a chief
enterprise architect, who is responsible for EA development and
maintenance; and (4) developed an architecture that was approved by the
senior leadership team on November 1, 2004. However, the EA is not yet
complete, although AOC's plans call for evolving the architecture
through a series of incremental versions. According to AOC officials,
the other practices needed to effectively develop, implement, and
maintain the architecture, contained in relevant guidance, such as
GAO's enterprise architecture management maturity framework, have not
yet been implemented. For example, AOC has not developed and
implemented, among other things, communications, configuration,
quality, and risk management plans; employed an independent
verification and validation (IV&V) contractor; or developed metrics for
measuring and reporting EA compliance. According to AOC, it has
recently awarded a contract to a qualified vendor to work with its
Chief Enterprise Architect and Business Systems Modernization Office in
performing an IV&V of AOC's EA against GAO's framework for assessing
and improving enterprise architecture. Work under the contract began,
according to AOC, in January 2006 and will continue through April 2006.
GAO Recommendation: 44. Plan for and implement the practices in our
architecture management guide associated with leveraging an EA for
organizational transformation, such as (1) ensuring that adequate
resources are devoted to the program (funding, people, tools, and
technology); (2) ensuring that the architecture describes both the "as
is" and the "to be" environments in terms of performance; (3) ensuring
that architecture business, performance, information and data,
applications and services, and technology descriptions address
security; and (4) ensuring that metrics are used to measure EA
progress, quality, compliance, and return on investment; Jan. 2004;
Status: Making progress: According to AOC, in December 2005, the
executive steering committee approved its updated EA (EAFY06). In
developing the architecture, AOC used the federal enterprise
architecture framework and this version contains both an "as is" and a
"to be" architectural description and a sequencing plan. However, the
architecture does not include all the elements of a well-defined
architecture. For example, the "as is" and "to be" descriptions do not
address security as laid out in AOC's security plan. AOC officials
stated that the alignment between the EA and security system
development life cycle is in progress. AOC also stated that it plans to
continue to refine and expand on the architecture, based on the
agency's goals, objectives, and business needs. Further, AOC stated
that, once selected, the verification and validation contractor will
measure EA progress, quality, compliance, and return on investment
using metrics.
GAO Recommendation: 45. Require disciplined and rigorous processes for
managing the development and acquisition of IT systems and implement
the processes throughout AOC. Specifically, these processes should
include the following: quality assurance processes, including
developing a quality assurance plan and identifying applicable process
and product standards that will be used in developing and assessing
project processes and products; configuration management processes,
including establishing a repository or configuration management system
to maintain and control configuration management items; risk management
processes, including developing a project risk management plan,
identifying and prioritizing potential problems, implementing risk
mitigation strategies, as required, and tracking and reporting progress
against the plans; and; contract tracking and oversight processes,
including developing a plan for tracking contractor activities,
measuring contractor performance and conducting periodic reviews, and
conducting internal reviews of tracking and oversight activities; Jan.
2003;
Status: Making progress: In August 2005, AOC completed its new IT
investment management policy. In the policy, AOC states that the system
development lifecycle is used throughout the investment management
process to provide guidance and documentation support for the project.
In addition, AOC officials said that its draft system development
lifecycle guidelines address acquisition processes such as
configuration management and risk management and that its quality
assurance processes have been developed and are being refined to ensure
the use of standardized project documentation. However, we have not
received evidence that these acquisition processes have been
implemented throughout the agency.
GAO Recommendation: 46. Establish and implement an information security
program. Specifically, the Architect of the Capitol should establish an
information security program by taking the following steps: designate a
security officer and provide him or her with the authority and
resources to implement an agencywide security program; develop and
implement policy and guidance to perform risk assessments continually;
use the results of the risk assessments to develop and implement
appropriate controls; develop policies for security training and
awareness and provide the training; and; monitor and evaluate policy
and control effectiveness; Jan. 2003;
Status: Making progress: AOC has (1) designated a security officer with
the authority to implement an agencywide security program; developed a
security plan (dated September 2004); and, according to AOC officials,
assigned resources (funding and staff) to implement the security
program; (2) developed and issued a policy for performing risk
assessments as well as a plan for performing risk assessments on its 50
major applications by March 2008; (3) acquired risk assessment
technology to assess and manage the technical controls on all AOC
general support system; (4) developed and issued a policy for IT
security training and completed the annual awareness training for all
employees, but has not implemented training based on user roles and
responsibilities; and (5) developed a plan to monitor and evaluate the
effectiveness of policies and controls; However, AOC does not have any
systems certified and accredited and has not completed risk assessments
on all of its major applications; documented the identified risks in
system security plans; and developed controls to mitigate the risks,
such as developing contingency plans for all systems. According to AOC,
its certification and accreditation process has been planned,
resourced, and initiated and phase I, which addresses the general
support systems and mission critical applications, is expected to be
completed by the second quarter of fiscal year 2006. However, in the
interim, AOC's internal systems and applications remain potentially
vulnerable and AOC has not developed and implemented a risk-mitigation
strategy to carry it through this interim period. AOC stated that they
believe that their strong perimeter defenses (i.e., firewalls) and
polices will help carry the agency through the interim while they
mitigate internal risks. According to AOC, it cannot evaluate the
effectiveness of IT security controls until it determines if its
security policies meet the minimum security standards established by
the Chief Information Officers Council and National Institute of
Science and Technology's Federal Information Technology Security
Assessment Framework. AOC officials stated that a self assessment of
its IT security polices was conducted and documented. They also added
that they plan to mitigate the results of the findings through a plan
of action and milestones. However, no time frame was provided.
Project management:
GAO Recommendation: 47. Develop a Capitol complex master plan and
complete condition assessments of all buildings and facilities under
the jurisdiction of AOC; Jan. 2003; Making progress: AOC is currently
developing the Capitol complex master plan and has completed facility
assessments for most of the facilities within the complex. The Capitol
complex master plan has three components: (1) vision statement, (2)
framework (concept) plan and (3) jurisdiction plans. The draft vision
statement has been completed. The framework plan is in progress. An
expert advisory panel reviewed the vision statement in December 2004
and the draft concept plan in March 2005, and the planning models are
being refined and expanded in response to the panel's input.
Jurisdiction plans have been launched in each jurisdiction except the
Supreme Court. The master plan is scheduled for completion by the end
of 2006. The draft will be prepared in the spring of 2006, and
extensive consultations will occur in the spring, summer, and fall of
2006 before the master plan is finalized; AOC has completed all
facility condition assessments except those for the Library of Congress
and the Supreme Court. AOC has not received funding for the Library
assessment and plans to conduct the assessment for the Supreme Court
after renovations are completed.
GAO Recommendation: 48. In order to improve Capitol complex master
planning efforts, we recommend that the Architect of the Capitol, with
support from the COO, lead efforts to ensure that congressional and
other stakeholders are engaged early and throughout the development of
the Capitol complex master plan; Aug. 2004;
Status: Making progress: AOC has involved congressional stakeholders
and AOC stakeholders in the development of the Capitol complex master
plan. For example, the House Jurisdiction plan was accelerated ahead of
the remaining master plan because of early funding provided by the
House. According to AOC, throughout this process, there was extensive
consultation with House leadership, congressional members, staff, and
stakeholders. In addition, briefings were conducted at standing
meetings between AOC and House leaders and consultations with AOC staff
were conducted. GAO will continue to monitor stakeholder involvement
throughout the development of the master plan.
GAO Recommendation: 49. Develop a process for assigning project
priorities that is based on clearly defined, well-documented,
consistently applied, and transparent criteria; Jan. 2003; Implemented
February 2006: AOC has fulfilled this recommendation. AOC implemented a
program development process in 2003 that rated projects in five
categories: (1) historic preservation and stewardship, (2) fire, life,
safety, and code compliance, (3) impact on mission, (4) economics, and
(5) security, with a score from 1 to 100. In the spring of 2004, AOC
improved the program development process by establishing extensive
procedures designed to ensure that project scopes fully met both
customer needs and all criteria and standards. The project evaluation
criteria are currently being expanded to include urgency (such as
immediate, high, medium, or low) and classification of a project (such
as deferred maintenance or capital improvement). This expansion of the
evaluation criteria results from information being received from FCAs.
In September 2005, the AOC's project prioritization panel will evaluate
these recommended changes. Assuming approval, they will be applied to
projects in the fiscal year 2007 budget submission and fully
implemented effective with the project call of 2006.
GAO Recommendation: 50. In order to improve the process for
prioritizing projects, we recommend that the Architect of the Capitol,
with support from the COO, lead efforts to ensure that AOC informs and
obtains agreement from congressional and other stakeholders on how and
why specific projects are submitted for funding; Aug. 2004;
Status: Making progress: AOC has held and continues to hold regular
briefings with congressional staff since developing a program
development process. According to AOC officials, the agency has
received positive feedback and a high level of support for the process.
As we reported previously, although the prioritization process is a
useful tool, it does not address the underlying need to inform and get
agreement from congressional and other stakeholders on how and why AOC
submits projects for funding.
GAO Recommendation: 51. Develop tools to effectively communicate
priorities and progress of projects, as a part of a broader
communication strategy; Jan. 2003; Making progress: AOC has developed
and communicated the program development process prioritization
procedures to all parties through various means, including regular
briefings to congressional stakeholders. AOC has also developed
quarterly status reports on the budget and schedule status of projects
that are released to congressional appropriators. However, AOC still
needs to develop a method to more accurately account for overhead costs
charged by its construction branch and calculate current working
estimates for projects constructed by the branch. AOC is currently
conducting a peer review of Construction Branch operations. In
addition, AOC needs to automate the generation of the quarterly report
to provide timely and accurate data.
GAO Recommendation: 52. Define project-management-related performance
measures to achieve mission-critical strategic and annual performance
goals; Jan. 2003; Making progress: AOC has reported on construction
schedule and budget performance measures. AOC also established a survey
and performance measures on the quality of design and project
management services. AOC is developing a similar survey of performance
measures for quality of construction services.
GAO Recommendation: 53. To strengthen the relationship between AOC and
its congressional and other stakeholders, we recommend that the
Architect of the Capitol direct the COO to work with Congress on the
design and implementation of a transparent process to facilitate an
understanding between AOC and its congressional stakeholders about how
AOC targets its efforts and resources to the highest project priorities
and how strategic and tactical decisions and trade-offs are made; Aug.
2004;
Status: Making progress: In 2003, AOC implemented a program development
process that rated projects in five categories: (1) historic
preservation and stewardship, (2) fire, life, safety, and code
compliance, (3) impact on mission, (4) economics, and (5) security,
with a score from 1 to 100. Through this process, AOC created its first
capital improvement plan in 2004 and a fiscal year 2005 line item
construction program that included consideration of these ratings. In
the spring of 2004, AOC improved the program development process by
establishing extensive procedures designed to ensure that project
scopes fully met both customer needs and all criteria and standards
requirements. In addition, AOC enhanced procedures for determining
project costs, and these improvements were reflected in the procedures
used in determining the fiscal year 2006 line item construction
program. AOC recently approved a predesign manual to help ensure
correct project scopes. The COO will be responsible for continuing to
work with AOC's congressional stakeholders as this process is refined.
GAO Recommendation: 54. Align project management staff and resources
with AOC's mission-critical goals; Jan. 2003;
Status: Implemented February 2006: AOC has fulfilled this
recommendation. In October 2005, AOC implemented a project management
organization. The organization includes 32 personnel with
responsibilities for project management, construction management, and
inspection. The organization is focused on "cradle-to-grave" project
delivery. Duties considered to be "collateral," such as design reviews,
are being reassigned to other AOC officials outside of the new
organization.
GAO Recommendation: 55. Develop a method to establish and track more
accurate budget targets. This method could include tracking and
reporting on the following to help AOC refine targets: Accuracy of cost
estimates compared to bids, Accuracy of budget compared to final
project costs, Amount of excess project funds and how funds are used,
Cost data for the Construction Branch, including current working
estimates; Sept. 2005;
Status: Making progress: AOC has established two measures, which will
be tracked on a monthly basis, to help develop more accurate budget
targets. These measures are: (1) ratio of the government estimate to
the average of the bid amounts and (2) the contract award cost versus
the government estimate. AOC is also planning to add an additional
measure for the accuracy of the budget compared to final project costs.
In addition, AOC's project management organization is piloting the use
of a project closeout sheet that project managers are required to
complete at the conclusion of each project. The sheet, among other
things, requires the project manager to list a final project cost and
the amount of money available to give back to the jurisdiction.
Finally, AOC is examining what plans, tools, and measures are used to
conduct construction branch work as part of an ongoing internal review
of construction branch operations.
GAO Recommendation: 56. Expedite the development of a customer
satisfaction survey for construction services; Sept. 2005;
Status: Making progress: AOC is developing a customer satisfaction
survey for construction services which AOC expects to be completed by
the end of the first quarter of calendar year 2006.
GAO Recommendation: 57. Clarify roles and responsibilities of staff,
including the role of Jurisdictional Executives and responsibility for
developing Programs of Requirements; Sept. 2005;
Status: Making progress: According to an AOC official, AOC's new
organizational structure has been approved. However, position
descriptions are still undergoing an internal review that is not
expected to be completed until the middle of next year. However, AOC is
clarifying roles of the newly aligned project management organization
through regular staff meetings. AOC has developed a project development
document that, once approved, will be used to define the roles of
planning and project managers.
GAO Recommendation: 58. Revise project management manuals to reflect
changes in how AOC plans for, designs, and constructs projects; develop
management controls to ensure compliance with manuals; Sept. 2005;
Status:
Status: Making progress: Currently, AOC revises its project management
and pre-design manuals revisions every two years and the manuals were
last revised in 2004. The pre-design manual will be updated once the
project development document used to clarify the roles of planning and
project managers is approved. AOC does not plan to revise the project
management manual until the end of 2006.
GAO Recommendation: 59. Develop or modify information systems to
provide needed cost schedule data on projects and track reasons for
changes across all projects; Sept. 2005;
Status: Making progress: AOC has created a steering group (the Project
Information Center Business Reengineering Task Force, which meets every
2 weeks) to conduct an enterprise architecture analysis--a requirements
analysis of its information system. According to AOC, the task force
will identify AOC's information system needs, then AOC will determine
if the system needs replacement, modification, or better support. AOC
plans to include a funding request in its fiscal year 2007 budget
request for whatever course of action is recommended.
GAO Recommendation: Facilities management.
GAO Recommendation: 60. To improve how AOC measures its performance in
the areas of timeliness and cost, the agency should: develop more
specific timeliness measures that more accurately reflect the amount of
time required to complete tasks, develop the capability to
comprehensively and routinely track cost performance measures, and;
benchmark performance measures against those of similar institutions,
such as the Smithsonian Institution and state capitols; Dec. 2005;
Status: New.
GAO Recommendation: 61. Use the new CAFM system to track preventive
maintenance and demand work orders across all jurisdictions, including
the time taken to complete work orders; Dec. 2005;
Status: New.
[A] GAO, Architect of the Capitol: Status Report on Implementation of
Management Review Recommendations, [Hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/cgi-
bin/getrpt?GAO-04-299] (Washington, D.C.: Jan. 30, 2004).
[B] GAO, Architect of the Capitol: Midyear Status Report on
Implementation of Management Review Recommendations, [Hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-966] (Washington, D.C.: Aug.
31, 2004).
[End of table]
[End of section]
Appendix V: Major Contributors:
Shirley L. Abel;
William B. Bates;
Carole J. Cimitile;
John C. Craig;
George A. Depaoli;
Tamera L. Dorland;
Sharon E. Dyer;
Elizabeth R. Eisenstadt;
Elena P. Epps;
Brett S. Fallavollita;
Denise M. Fantone;
Kara A. Finnegan-Irving;
Jeanette M. Franzel;
Mark L. Goldstein;
Randolph C. Hite;
Neelaxi Lakhmani;
Steven G. Lozano;
Kieran McCarthy;
Susan Michal-Smith;
Amanda K. Miller;
Sara Ann Moessbauer;
John J. Reilly, Jr.;
William H. Roach, Jr.;
Matthew C. Rosenberg;
Kris Trueblood;
Sarah E. Veale;
William F. Wadsworth.
(543152):
FOOTNOTES
[1] Sen. Rep. No. 107-37 at 28-29 (2001).
[2] GAO, Architect of the Capitol: Management and Accountability
Framework Needed for Organizational Transformation, GAO-03-231
(Washington, D.C.: Jan. 17, 2003).
[3] H.R. Conf. Rep. No. 108-10, at 1225 (2003); Consolidated
Appropriations Resolution, 2003, Pub. L. No. 108-7, Sec. 1203 of Div.
H, 117 Stat. 11, 373-374 (2003).
[4] Excluding four projects--constructing the Capitol Visitor Center,
modernizing the Supreme Court, expanding the West Refrigeration Plant,
and increasing Perimeter Security.
[5] Most of the projects used as case studies began before AOC had
begun to apply best practices to project management in 2002, and all
began before many current initiatives had been implemented. Therefore,
these case studies may not reflect AOC's current way of managing
projects. However, since major projects take from five to eight years
to complete, those project that were initiated after 2002 would not be
far enough along in the construction process to evaluate the effect of
best practices on AOC project management.
[6] This function was previously carried out by AOC's Chief of Staff.
Upon the departure of the Chief of Staff, AOC changed the title of the
position to Director of Congressional and External Relations.
[7] The audits were limited in scope to the balance sheet and related
notes. A full-scope audit of a complete set of its financial statements
and related note disclosures for fiscal year 2005 is currently under
way.
[8] GAO, Capitol Visitor Center: Priority Attention Needed to Manage
Schedules and Contracts, GAO-05-714T (Washington, D.C.: May 17, 2005).
[9] AOC plans to provide the remaining six positions in fiscal years
2007 and 2008.
[10] The posted positions include two Senior Accountant positions and
one Junior Accountant position.
[11] AOC plans to provide the remaining six positions in fiscal years
2007 and 2008.
[12] An enterprise architecture can be viewed as a link between an
organization's strategic plan and the program and supporting system
implementation investments that it intends to pursue to systematically
achieve its strategic goals and outcomes. As such, the architecture is
basically a blueprint, defined largely by interrelated models, that
describes (in both business and technological terms) an entity's "as
is" or current environment, its "to be" or future environment, and its
investment plan for transitioning from the current to the future
environment. The use of such a blueprint is a recognized hallmark of
organizations that effectively leverage technology in the
transformation and modernization of business operations and supporting
systems.
[13] A "contingency" is project funding set aside or planned to cover
events that may or may not occur. The Construction Management
Association of America cites construction contingencies of up to 15
percent as appropriate for renovation work, which is typically done by
AOC. AOC guidance also specifies a contingency of 15 percent.
[14] AOC is required by law to include a liquidated damages provision
in all construction contracts over $50,000. Liquidated damages are
assessed against a contractor for a delay when the contractor is
responsible for the delay. The damages are based on a daily rate and
the number of days that the project's completion is delayed.
[15] Facilities management includes operations and maintenance,
facilities planning, and facilities support service functions.
[16] Demand work orders usually involve a specific request for service
made to an AOC Service Center. Work orders, which may be planned
(preventive maintenance work order) or unplanned (demand work order),
are sheets that detail a task to be completed. Usually this involves
the maintenance or repair of a particular building or equipment.
[17] According to AOC officials, preventive maintenance data for the
House, Senate, and Capitol jurisdictions have been loaded into the
current CAFM system.
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