Summary: GAO provided information on the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) management operations and practices, focusing on identifying incremental and structural ways to improve the overall management of the decentralized USDA field structure.
GAO found that: (1) although USDA initiated many agency-specific programs to improve government financial management, enhance productivity, and provide better service through technological innovation, procurement reform, and the effective management of government operations, it did not aggressively pursue field office collocation, consolidation, or reorganization; (2) USDA could make incremental improvements compatible with its existing field structure by collocating farm service agencies, and could save millions of dollars through resource sharing at collocated sites; (3) USDA neither tracked cost savings achieved through initiatives at collocated sites nor vigorously promoted additional initiatives at collocated offices; (4) consolidation of local office operations could result in additional cost savings and the same or more efficient service delivery; (5) farm agency managers believed that the benefits provided by incremental measures only marginally affected existing operations; (6) USDA believed that task force recommendations to integrate farm agencies nationally were too difficult to implement locally; (7) some efforts to coordinate farm programs at collocated sites were not successful and could cost the federal government millions of dollars in improper payments; and (8) many state and local food and agriculture councils were unable to coordinate field activities.
