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(1.4MB)Effective Practices Have Improved Agencies' FITARA Implementation
Report to Congressional Requesters
GAO-19-131: Published: Apr 29, 2019. Publicly Released: Apr 29, 2019.
To reform government-wide information technology management, Congress enacted the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (commonly referred to as FITARA) in 2014.
What practices have federal agencies put in place to implement the law?
We reviewed nine agencies and found 12 practices officials said helped them to effectively implement one or more of the FITARA provisions.
For example, five of the agencies said that centralizing the management of software licenses was essential to meeting the software purchasing provision of the law. By doing so, agencies were able to make agency-wide purchasing decisions that saved them money.
Comments from the US Agency for International Development
April 4, 2019
Carol C. Harris
Director, Information-Technology Acquisition-Management Issues
U.S. Government Accountability Office
441 G Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20226
Re: Information Technology: Effective Practices Have Improved Agencies' FITARA Implementation (GAO-19-131)
Dear Ms. Harris:
I am pleased to provide the formal response of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to the draft report produced by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) titled, Information Technology: Effective Practices Have Improved Agencies' Federal Information Technology Acquisitions Reform Act (FITARA) Implementation (GAO-19- 131). We would like to thank the GAO for including our effective practices in this report. I hope our practices will be beneficial to other Federal Departments and Agencies. In addition to the effective practices documented in the draft report, I am pleased that we have taken a major step forward in our compliance with the FITARA's requirement to enhance the authority of our Chief Information Officer (CIO) by proposing in our Agency Transformation that the CIO report directly to the Administrator. The Congressional Notification for this proposal, submitted in August 2018, is pending with our Committees of jurisdiction.
In addition, this month the Administrator will be approving revisions to Chapter 509 of our Automated Directive System, Management and Oversight of Information Technology Resources, to clarify and strengthen the authority of our CIO in line with the GAO's report and FITARA. We hope to make additional improvements to meet - and exceed - the requirements of the aforementioned legislation in a holistic, fulsome, and sustainable way, which USAID will be able to do once Congress lifts its hold on the Notification.
I am transmitting this letter for inclusion in the GAO's final report. Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the draft report, and for the courtesies extended by your staff while conducting this engagement. We appreciate the opportunity to participate in the evaluation of our effective FITARA practices.
We do not have any additional comment on the draft report.
Sincerely,
Angelique M. Crumbly
Acting Assistant Administrator
Bureau for Management
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