OMB takes ax to compliance requirements

The Office of Management and Budget announced this week list of 50 guidances and policy documents it deemed “redundant, obsolete and unnecessary.”

This includes a whole host of items related to IT and IT management. The ones getting the most attention were reporting requirements around the Y2K software bug.

Other actions include pulling back memorandums that have been superseded by new federal laws such as the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 and the 2002 version of FISMA.

There also were several items the White House considers redundant so they are being eliminated. For example, agencies no longer have to comply with the Evaluation of Agency Implementation of Capital Planning and Control Processes that has been on the books since 1997.

Another that is being eliminated is the guidance for transition from the telecommunications contract FTS-2001 to its replacement Networx.

The OMB memo also includes updates to some existing guidances or partial elimination of guidances.

Among those being modified is PortfolioStat. Agencies will still need to report but benchmarking requirements have been eliminated.

The Streamlining Business Case Process memo also was modified with several new steps. The Office of Federal Procurement Policy is developing a pilot and template that agencies can use to streamline business cases.

A few guidances were not eliminated or modified but instead were paused including a reporting requirement for value engineering.

OMB plans to revise Circular A-131, which requires agencies to report on their use of value engineering as a management tool. While it is being revised, OMB is pausing it. The plan is to eliminate the reporting requirement but continue to encourage the use of value engineering.

Agencies also do not have to file performance management reports for the Performance.gov website, while the administration establishes new priorities for early next year.