Mining Violations:

Interior Needs Management Control Over Automation Effort

IMTEC-86-27: Published: Jul 28, 1986. Publicly Released: Aug 5, 1986.

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In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed various aspects of the Department of the Interior's effort to revise its automated Collection Management Information System.

GAO found that: (1) Interior did not adequately justify its rationale for revising the system; (2) the contract to revise the system was not subject to federal procurement regulations because Interior awarded it under the Small Business Act; (3) in evaluating contractor proposals, Interior did not document the evaluation's results and the selection process it used; (4) its quality assurance test was not statistically valid; and (5) as of June 20, 1986, it had not finalized its approach for ensuring data accuracy and providing trained staff to update and maintain the data. GAO could not determine the system's ability to track cases and generate reports because the revised system was not operational and Interior had not finalized documentation on its design.

Recommendations for Executive Action

  1. Status: Closed - Implemented

    Comments: Interior informed GAO that OSM reported that all of the recommendations have been implemented. GAO has requested implementation documentation from OSM, but has not received it. Interior does not plan to provide GAO with documentation.

    Recommendation: To ensure that appropriate management controls are established over the effort to develop and implement a Collection Management Information System, the Secretary of the Interior should not provide further funding for the contract to revise the system until the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) has prepared a requirements analysis, a software conversion study, a work-load estimate, and an economic cost analysis that conform to the requirements in its Departmental Manual.

    Agency Affected: Department of the Interior

  2. Status: Closed - Implemented

    Comments: According to Interior, a software program is in place and being implemented to detect input errors and make sure all edits are occurring and the Mitre Corporation developed and structured two statistically valid random samples from the entire Collection Management Information System. GAO requested implementation documentation, but Interior does not plan to provide GAO with the documentation.

    Recommendation: The Secretary of the Interior should also direct the Director, OSM, to: (1) conduct another quality assurance test using statistically valid random sampling techniques; (2) develop a statistically valid methodology for use in conducting monthly quality assurance tests on a sample of the database cases; and (3) develop within OSM the capability needed to successfully develop and operate the collection system.

    Agency Affected: Department of the Interior

  3. Status: Closed - Implemented

    Comments: Interior informed GAO that OSM reported that all of the recommendations have been implemented. GAO requested implementation documentation from OSM, but has not received it. Interior does not plan to provide GAO with documentation.

    Recommendation: In view of the possibility that review requirements are not being followed for other procurements under $10 million, the Secretary of the Interior should direct the Director, Office of Information Resources Management, to establish management controls over the acquisition of computer services under $10 million to ensure that such acquisitions are justified and properly managed.

    Agency Affected: Department of the Interior

 

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