Summary: The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) continues to be plagued by poorly integrated, ineffective, and unreliable information systems that neither satisfy management needs nor provide adequate control. It will take years to fully resolve these problems. This situation exists because HUD's information management resources have not been planned and managed to meet the Department's missions and strategic objectives. In addition, HUD has not established adequate security for its computers that process sensitive and privacy data and lacks contingency plans for data processing in the event of a major disruption or disaster. Finally, HUD's efforts to develop and implement integrated financial systems have been impeded by ineffective planning and management oversight. HUD's recent commitment to strategic planning and its initial steps to address strategic planning represent the first substantive actions taken since GAO reported on the absence of strategic information resources planning a decade ago.
