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Priority Open Recommendations: Office of Management and Budget

GAO-19-323SP Published: Apr 10, 2019. Publicly Released: Apr 17, 2019.
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Fast Facts

Each year, we make more than 1,000 recommendations to help improve the federal government. We alert department heads to the recommendations where they can save the most money, address issues on our High Risk List, or significantly improve government operations.

This report outlines our 31 priority open recommendations for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as of April 2019.

For example, we recommended that OMB enhance its oversight of high-priority federal IT acquisitions to improve accountability and get better results.

Since our previous letter in April 2018, OMB implemented 7 of our priority recommendations.

 

Graphic showing that this report discusses GAO's 2019 priority recommendations for the Office of Management and Budget

Graphic showing that this report discusses GAO's 2019 priority recommendations for the Office of Management and Budget

Highlights

What GAO Found

In April 2018, GAO identified 27 priority recommendations for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Since then, OMB has implemented 7 of those recommendations by, among other things, taking actions to help agencies reduce improper payments and the cost of acquiring goods and services. In addition, GAO closed one additional recommendation because circumstances have changed and it is no longer relevant. 
 
In April 2019, GAO identified 12 additional priority recommendations for OMB, bringing the total number to 31. These recommendations involve the following areas:
  • Improving government performance.  
  • Increasing the transparency of federal spending data. 
  • Improving acquisition management and reducing costs. 
  • Reducing government-wide improper payments. 
  • Improving fraud risk management.
  • Establishing controls for disaster relief funding.
  • Improving federal grants management.
  • Improving the collection and coordination of federal data on sexual violence.
OMB’s continued attention to these issues could yield significant cost savings and other improvements in government operations. 

Why GAO Did This Study

Priority recommendations are open GAO recommendations that warrant priority attention from heads of key departments or agencies because their implementation could save large amounts of money; improve congressional and/or executive branch decision making on major issues; eliminate mismanagement, fraud, and abuse; or ensure that programs comply with laws and funds are legally spent, among other benefits. Since 2015, GAO has sent letters to selected agencies to highlight the importance of implementing such recommendations.

For more information, contact Triana McNeil at (202) 512-6806 or mcneilt@gao.gov.

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Topics

Government Operations
Acquisition costsAcquisition managementCost controlData collectionDisaster reliefDisaster relief aidFederal grantsFinancial managementFraudGrant monitoringHigh-risk issuesImproper paymentsPerformance managementPerformance measurementProgram inventoriesRisk managementSexual abuseSexual violence