OMB disputes GAO report on e-gov

<FONT SIZE=2>&#009;The General Accounting Office was working off an inaccurate benchmark when it reported on OMB's 24 e-government initiatives, said Mark Forman, associate director for information technology and e-government. "We used a commercial e-strategy best practice approach. It's all documented in both the president's [fiscal 2003] budget and e-government strategy, including the use of a rigorous multi-attribute scoring algorithm to pick initiatives that met the strategic criteria," he said in a statement.</FONT>

The General Accounting Office was working off an inaccurate benchmark when it reported on OMB's 24 e-government initiatives, said Mark Forman, associate director for information technology and e-government. "We used a commercial e-strategy best practice approach. It's all documented in both the president's [fiscal 2003] budget and e-government strategy, including the use of a rigorous multi-attribute scoring algorithm to pick initiatives that met the strategic criteria," he said in a statement.

The GAO report, issued last month, said OMB did not collect complete business case information before selecting the initiatives, and that less than half the initial business cases addressed collaboration and customer focus. The initiatives include electronic travel and payroll systems. Detailed business cases were developed on the 24 projects after initial selection, Forman said. The report said GAO staff compared the initial business cases with best practices for IT business cases developed by leading government, academic and private-sector organizations. -- Gail Repsher Emery

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