Information Technology: HUD's Fiscal Year 2011 Expenditure Plan Satisfies Statutory Conditions

Citation
Government Accountability Office, Information Technology: HUD's Fiscal Year 2011 Expenditure Plan Satisfies Statutory Conditions (GAO-12-654) (May 24, 2012) (full-text).

Overview
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) relies extensively on information technology (IT) in carrying out its home-ownership and community development missions. Despite this role, HUD's IT environment has not effectively supported its business operations, and the department has been working to modernize its IT infrastructure and systems through its Transformation Initiative. In addition, HUD has been working to institutionalize key IT management controls to help ensure the success of these efforts. To provide oversight and inform decision-making, Congress established limitations on funding for HUD's modernization efforts. Specifically, the 2011 appropriations act required HUD to submit an expenditure plan that satisfied two sets of statutory conditions before obligating more than 35% of the funds available.

To satisfy the first set of conditions, the plan had to identify for each of HUD's seven modernization projects, functional and performance capabilities, expected mission benefits, estimated lifecycle costs, and planned key milestones. For the second set of conditions, the plan had to demonstrate that each project is supported by an adequately staffed project office, conforms to capital planning and investment control requirements, complies with HUD's enterprise architecture, and is being managed in accordance with applicable lifecycle policies. Congress also required that GAO review the plan. To do this, GAO reviewed the plan and supporting documentation and determined whether it contained information to address both sets of statutory conditions.