Summary: GAO reviewed efforts by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Department of the Treasury to improve the federal government's financial management operations.
GAO found that: (1) due to the lack of a governmentwide financial management plan to help guide and control their efforts, agencies struggled in developing financial systems; (2) in April 1989, OMB began developing a governmentwide financial management improvement plan; (3) the Financial Management Service's (FMS) Federal Agency Financial Systems Program helped in furthering governmentwide improvements in financial management systems, but the program still needed improvements; (4) program officials believed that insufficient resources hindered their efforts to accomplish their objectives; (5) 2 years after the program's establishment, there were only eight program staff regulating the entire federal government; (6) FMS did not develop a comprehensive strategy defining program objectives; (7) Treasury's plans did not rank program objectives or identify milestones for accomplishing them; and (8) a comprehensive strategy would provide agencies with direction and focus and would be an integral part of an OMB long-range financial management plan.
