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OMB Needs To More Fully Consider Government-Wide Implications in Its Telecommunications Initiatives

IMTEC-84-21 Published: Sep 07, 1984. Publicly Released: Oct 12, 1984.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO determined whether the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has: (1) developed an overall telecommunications plan and policy; and (2) conducted studies, including cost/benefit analyses, on the impact of the American Telephone and Telegraph divestiture on government telecommunications operations. OMB is planning to permit agencies to acquire long-distance telecommunications service independently instead of using the centralized Federal Telecommunications System (FTS). GAO also ascertained the effect that the OMB initiative would have on H.R. 2718 and S. 2433, proposals to create an Information Technology (IT) Fund.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Office of Management and Budget The Director, OMB, should direct the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) to delay implementation of the FTS initiative until guidance and methodologies are developed to examine such issues as the cost benefits of a centralized versus a decentralized system, various strategies for maximizing federal response to national emergencies, and staffing implications of agency-by-agency telecommunications management versus a consolidated management system.
Closed – Not Implemented
OMB officials told GAO that procurement of the FTS 2000 system overtook the development of criteria to leave the existing FTS. The OMB-led task force had not done so, but instead developed a list of issues for OMB to consider. A recommendation to develop methodologies for comparing telecommunication alternatives similar to this one is contained in IMTEC-87-9, to be issued February, 1987.
Office of Management and Budget The Director, OMB, should direct OIRA to design the OMB telecommunications initiatives so that uniform information needed for identifying governmentwide telecommunications issues is collected and analyzed and used as the basis for governmentwide policies.
Closed – Not Implemented
OMB agreed that: (1) planning is important, both at the OMB level and governmentwide; (2) information should be collected if it helps to make a better decision; and (3) the value of the information to decisionmaking exceeds the costs of obtaining it. However, OMB disagreed with this recommendation in the absence of a delineation of GAO concerns.

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Topics

Government Operations
Cost analysisPlanningPolicy evaluationProposed legislationTechnology transferTelecommunicationsPaperwork reductionFederal telecommunications systemNational securityEmergency preparedness