GAO urges improvements

Government agencies must continue to improve IT planning and performance measurement, as well as investment management, according to a report recently released by the General Accounting Office.

GAO surveyed 26 agencies to gauge implementation of 30 IT management practices set forth in recent legislation, including the 1995 Paperwork Reduction Act, the 1996 Clinger-Cohen Act, the 2002 E-Government Act and the 2002 Federal Information Security Management Act.

Results were largely middling: 46 percent of agencies surveyed had IT planning and performance measurement practices in place, 44 percent had implemented a recommended slate of IT investment management practices laid out in government legislation.