Information Resources: Management Commitment Needed to Meet Information Challenges
IMTEC-90-27
Published: Apr 19, 1990. Publicly Released: Apr 19, 1990.
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Highlights
GAO assessed the effectiveness of the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) information resources management (IRM) in supporting its mission, focusing on central VA IRM management practices and VA information needs.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Veterans Affairs | The Secretary of Veterans Affairs should provide the commitment and resources needed to improve VA IRM. This would include ensuring that VA top managers' information needs are identified and that they support the goals and objectives of VA long-range plans. |
Closed – Not Implemented
This recommendation has been overtaken by events. Specifically, VA reorganized and placed departmentwide information resources responsibilities under the Assistant Secretary for Finance and Information Resources Management. This change was made partly due to the CFO Act. Subsequent audits have covered the current IRM structure and include more relevant recommendations.
|
| Department of Veterans Affairs | The Secretary of Veterans Affairs should provide the commitment and resources needed to improve VA IRM. This would include developing a working group from the major IRM and program components and assigning a full-time project manager to analyze the information requirements for the VA mission. This would entail working with the components to identify what information: (1) exists and where it resides; (2) needs to be shared; and (3) needs to be created. |
Closed – Implemented
VA has established a departmentwide IRM Steering Committee to help determine VA information and technology needs. It also has recently completed a departmentwide architecture that defines some of its requirements across VA components.
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Topics
Data integrityGeneral management reviewsHealth care programsInformation resources managementInformation systemsInteragency relationsMedical information systemsVeterans benefitsVeteransPhysicians