Summary: GAO reviewed the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) financial, information, and human resources management systems to identify ways in which they could be improved.
GAO found that: (1) internal control and accounting weaknesses in USDA financial management systems limit its capability to produce accurate financial information for its managers and report on the financial conditions of its programs, and increase the risk of mismanagement, fraud, waste, and abuse; (2) USDA lacks a senior department-level manager responsible for overseeing improvements in financial systems and plans for improving systems across agencies; (3) information systems do not provide USDA managers and decisionmakers with the critical information needed to enhance program operations; (4) without more attention to program managers' information needs, USDA-planned information resources management (IRM) expenditures of nearly $4 billion over the next several years will only meet a limited number of managers' needs; (5) a lack of data-sharing between agencies, poor agency IRM plans, and limited IRM expertise compounded management information problems; (6) USDA recognizes the need for better information management, and has developed a strategic IRM plan to address those issues; (7) human resource management systems lack a comprehensive departmental approach to personnel issues, which prevents USDA from addressing its work-force problems effectively; (8) USDA lack of central leadership and direction sometimes causes duplication of efforts by individual agencies carrying out work-force management activities; and (9) USDA has taken action to improve its management systems, but without strong central leadership and more solutions, those efforts will not adequately address underlying IRM weaknesses.
