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New tool gives a new view of IT budget

OMB creates database that further integrates agency information

Federal News Network Staff

October 24, 2008 7:17 am

5 min read

By Jason Miller
Executive Editor
FederalNewsRadio

The Office of Management and Budget Thursday launched a new database tool that links the information technology budget across agency mission areas.

This is the first time OMB has brought together data from the IT business cases, known as the 300, IT investments, known as Exhibit 53, and the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA).

“With this tool, you can track projects from their business cases to their 53s to the total budget,” says Karen Evans, OMB’s administrator for e-government and IT, at a press briefing in Washington. “This takes all these pieces and puts it into one tool. The tool shows how we manage the $71 billion IT budget.”

OMB initially was developing the Visualization to Understand Expenditures in IT (VUE-IT) for internal use by program examiners and budget officers. But Evans says they realized such a database would be beneficial to many others, including Congress and contractors.

“All of this information already exists just in a different way,” Evans says. “We are trying to respond to congressional oversight. We want to make sure this is one way we meet their needs to assist them in oversight.”

The database uses the same technology as the Earmarks Database set up in March 2007.

VUE-IT gives users two ways to dissect the IT budget. The first way is by agency. Users can look at each agency’s projects, how much IT money they are spending per project and a short description of the work.

If the project is on either OMB’s Management Watch List or High Risk List, VUE-IT gives more details about what areas the project needs to improve in.

For instance, the Homeland Security Department’s Secure Border Initiative-Net is on the High Risk List and the Management Watch List. The listing says SBI-Net needs to improve its acquisition strategy and DHS requested $157 million for 2009.

The second way users can view data is by FEA functional and subfunctional areas, such as services to citizens or management of government resources.

All of the functional areas are broken down further. For instance, under management of government resources, users could look at financial management, human resources management and three other areas.

By looking at functional areas, users can see how much money agencies want to spend on accounting in 2009, 1.1 billion.

If a user then clicks on accounting, the database breaks down the information by agency. In this case, the Department of Health and Human Services plans to spend the most, $215 million, on these services.

VUE-IT shows that 40 percent of the overall IT budget is spent on services to citizens, and 47 percent is spent on back office administrative functions, says Kshemendra Paul, OMB’s chief architect. The other 13 percent is split across support delivery for citizen services, and service types and components, which includes areas such as content management or document management.

“You can find the hot spots in the IT budget based on the high risk list, the management watch list, the intersection of the two or the union of them,” Paul says. “VUE-IT integrates data and puts it into context.”

OMB already is planning enhancements including letting users download data from the site.

OMB demonstrated VUE-IT to members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the committee, says the tool will increase the transparency of federal IT spending.

“I look forward to working with OMB to continue to make the allocation and expenditure of taxpayer dollars more accessible to the taxpayers, themselves,” he says.

Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services and International Security, commends OMB’s work on the new database.

But Carper says more needs to be done.

“By not including all important project information, OMB continues to keep Congress and the American people in the dark about whether their hard-earned tax dollars are being spent efficiently,” he says. “I encourage the OMB to make its new VUE-IT a more complete and useful resource for Congress and the American people by adding more detailed cost, delivery and performance information for each federal project to better ensure tax dollars being spent wisely and only on necessary investments. This is information OMB has been collecting on major investments since 1994.”

Along with unveiling VUE-IT, OMB issued the latest set of watch lists.

Paul says agencies reduced the number of investments on the Management Watch List, which shows investments that need to improve in areas such as cybersecurity or cost, schedule and performance, by 63 percent from February to September.

There still are 216 investments worth more than $20 billion on the list. The Defense Department has the most projects on the list with 63, while the Veterans Affairs Department has 40 and the Agriculture Department has 37.

“A lot of projects came off the Management Watch List because agencies have completed their implementation plans,” Evans says. “This includes shutting down legacy systems or receiving a passing grade from their inspector general for the certification and accreditation of the system.”

The High Risk List, which details projects that need to be closely monitored, saw a decrease of nine percent since February.

There are 549 projects worth more than $26 billion on the High Risk List. The DoD has 75 projects, the Treasury Department 69 and VA 52 on the list.

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On the Web:

FederalNewsRadio – Life on the watch list

FederalNewsRadio – FISMA, IT project management bills advance

Office of Management and Budget – VUE-IT

Office of Management and Budget – Management Watch List (pdf)

Office of Management and Budget – High Risk List (pdf)