GAO: Redundant Federal IT Systems Waste Money

The federal government could save billions of tax dollars annually by addressing duplications in programs, agencies, offices, and initiatives that are adversely affecting the government's financial and operational effectiveness, according to a federal watchdog agency.

Some of the areas of overlap identified in a new 345-page report (PDF) from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) -- the first it's delivered after Congress directed it to report on this area -- are within single departments or agencies, while others span multiple organizations.

The agency identified 81 areas of duplication in hundreds of federal programs that are diverse in their scope and missions, ranging from agriculture to homeland security to social services to international affairs. Not surprisingly, several key aspects of the government's implementation of IT were identified in the report as areas where overlap could be eliminated to help the government provide more efficient and effective services.

The GAO in particular identified four key areas for IT process improvement -- Department of Defense (DoD) business systems, enterprise architecture, data centers, and e-health records -- and gave recommendations for how the government could eliminate overlap in these efforts..