Summary: In response to a congressional request, GAO provided information on eight Department of Defense (DOD) automated information systems being developed by the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Defense Logistics Agency.
GAO found that: (1) all eight systems experienced significant cost growth; (2) the cost to develop and deploy the systems totalled about $2 billion, which was almost twice the original cost estimates; (3) cost growth estimates ranged from $31 million for the Army's Civilian Personnel System, to $446 million for the Navy's Standard Automated Financial System; (4) the DOD components had four of the eight systems in development for at least 8 years and abandoned development of two systems after spending $237 million; (5) the completion dates for all but one of the remaining six systems were delayed 3 to 7 years and none of the systems were scheduled for full deployment until after 1990; (6) DOD underestimated the costs for some systems, since its components did not provide current, accurate, and complete cost information; (7) the Major Automated Information System Review Council (MAISRC) did not enforce established policies, procedures, and criteria for major system reviews; and (8) MAISRC had not reviewed three of the eight systems, even though the systems required its review.
