Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Navy's management and implementation of its Standard Automated Financial System (STAFS).
GAO found that the Navy: (1) initiated STAFS in 1980 to improve its engineering centers' and research laboratories' accounting and financial management; (2) expanded the system's purposes and capabilities into a more comprehensive management information system to decrease user opposition to STAFS; (3) is more than 5 years behind its STAFS implementation schedule; (4) estimated that program costs have increased from $32.9 million to $479.4 million; (5) has not fully disclosed project costs in its congressional budget submissions; (6) had limited success at one of its four implementation sites, although STAFS has not yet operated under representative work loads or operating conditions; (7) did not adequately test the system to ensure successful deployment; (8) has not adequately explored less expensive alternatives; and (9) believes that it would have to redesign STAFS to accommodate the Department of Defense's (DOD) unsupported recommendation that it convert its center and laboratory funding from its industrial fund to an alternative funding method.
