Delays in the Implementation of the Farmers Home Administration's Unified Management Information System

Citation
General Accounting Office, Delays in the Implementation of the Farmers Home Administration's Unified Management Information System (B-146864) (Feb. 16, 1977).

Overview
The possibility of unnecessary delays in implementation of the Farmers Home Administration's (FmHA) Unified Management Information System (UMIS) was examined. FmHA will be the principal user of a consolidated St. Louis-Kansas City computer center.

The GAO agreed that FmHA needs a UMIS-type system, but the Agency did not adequately study alternative methods of providing UMIS-type services as required by Federal procurement policy. Its preferred method of providing UMIS services involves the installation of about 2,000 interactive terminals. An adequate determination had not been made that the terminals were needed or were cost-beneficial. A pilot program to test a limited number of terminals in 1978 will cost about $1 million.

The GAO recommended to Congress that the request for the proposed computer system procurements, with options for acquiring additional terminal capacity, should be allowed to proceed.