Agencies Aren't Honest About Tech Spending And Risks, Auditor Says

Better information technology management could save taxpayers $10 billion within five years, the government's top technology auditor told lawmakers Tuesday. But getting there will require agencies to be more open about what they're spending on IT and what they're actually getting for that investment. 

David Powner, director of Information Technology Management Issues at the Government Accountability Office, told members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that the Office of Management and Budget had failed to force agencies to be sufficiently transparent about IT spending. He also faulted OMB for not setting clear enough goals. In a recent reboot to the three-year-old White House initiative to consolidate federal data centers, for instance, OMB set different goals for “core” and “non-core” data centers” but didn’t sufficiently define the terms, making it difficult for auditors to judge whether agencies are making good decisions.