Architect of the Capitol: Management and Accountability Framework Needed for Organizational Transformation

AOC has fulfilled our recommendation by involving Congressional and other stakeholders in drafting the January 2007 version of the strategic plan. For example, AOC conducted briefings with stakeholders on the strategic plan and COO action plan, sought feedback, and integrated the suggested changes into the plans. In addition, AOC has hired a permanent COO and a Director of Congressional and External Relations to coordinate the flow of information between Congress and the Architect of the Capitol (Architect) and the COO.

AOC has established a process for obtaining employee input and feedback and finalized a process manual for employee feedback. The process manual provides guidance for obtaining employee feedback using a four-step approach: identifying concerns, obtaining data, giving feedback, and following up on results. The process manual also details responsibilities for staff and provides an implementation plan. While AOC has provided opportunities for routine employee feedback, it is important for AOC to collect a consistent and comprehensive set of data on a regular basis in order to monitor progress against an established baseline.

AOC is finalizing its Congressional protocols, designed to facilitate and improve internal and external communications. AOC has worked closely with its Congressional stakeholders to develop these protocols to ensure that they are useful to AOC, Congress, and other external stakeholders. The Director of Congressional and External Relations has sought and incorporated input from both internal and external stakeholders during the development of these protocols.

AOC has fulfilled GAO's recommendation through the release of its fiscal year 2003 accountability report and its plans to publish its fiscal year 2004 accountability report and fiscal year 2005 performance and accountability report. In addition, AOC released a performance plan in April 2005 that details steps to achieve its strategic goals and objectives. AOC staff, AOC Audit Committee staff, GAO, and other Congressional stakeholders are involved in the development of these reports.

In a March 19, 2003 testimony before the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, the Architect of the Capitol stated that it planned to conduct its second building services survey for AOC's customers in June 2003. It stated that, based on feedback from the first survey, AOC has modified and improved the consistency and quality of its cleaning procedures.

AOC has implemented a performance management approach that includes strategic planning, annual performance planning and reporting, and assessment of AOC's progress in meeting agencywide milestones and measures. AOC has identified four strategic goals: facilities management, project management, human capital management, and organizational excellence. AOC has also identified a number of measures to monitor and evaluate performance, and these measures will serve as the basis for employees' annual performance goals as well as the assessment of AOC's overall success in meeting its strategic goals. The measures include quality facility management, projects delivered on time, on budget, and of high quality, highly skilled and motivated employees, and effects of managerial oversight. In addition, AOC has developed a document--the AOC dashboard--that summarizes performance in each of its strategic focus areas: project management, facilities management, human capital management, and organizational excellence. The dashboard includes several high-level indicators to track performance for each of the strategic goals as well as a target goal for each indicator.

AOC has fulfilled this recommendation. In May 2005 AOC revised its performance management system (PCES) to ensure that its senior executive performance management system and its employee performance evaluation system are linked to AOC's mission-critical goals. Employees are expected to ensure completion of a performance plan that outlines performance standards for each critical task related to the employee's position. The employee's performance is evaluated against the established performance plan as it relates to AOC's strategic goals and objectives. The employee is given a rating of outstanding, fully successful, or unsuccessful for each element, as well as a summary rating.

AOC has identified core competencies for most of the agency's positions and has linked these competencies to the positions' critical tasks. These competencies have also been included in AOC's automated human resources system--AVUE. AOC's Strategic Planner provided us with information demonstrating that AOC's core competencies are part of its performance management system. For example, there are three mandatory AOC-wide competencies, which are elements of their performance plans. Safety is mandatory for all blue-collar workers at AOC, and a leadership competency is required for all supervisors and contracting officers. AOC's Strategic Planner also provided us with examples of performance plans to show how these competencies are used in the performance management system.

AOC has implemented this recommendation. In April 2006, AOC implemented its workforce planning system. AOC's Workforce Planning and Management Office has identified numerous ways to collect, report, and analyze workforce data. Additionally, several data sources have been identified for analyzing the agency's workforce and developing products such as AOC's retirement report. In April 2006, AOC developed a system to report and monitor full-time equivalents (FTE) on a regular basis using man-hours required for projects rather than estimating FTEs on the basis of funding.

AOC has made significant progress in the development and implementation of its workforce planning framework, although it acknowledges that workforce planning is a continuous process. Within this framework, AOC has completed several key elements including (1)developing a workforce planning process framework (2) retirement/attrition analysis of the agency's workforce (3) management/succession procedures via a partnership with the Library of Congress's staff; and(4)a forecast of agency's future workforce supply. AOC has also developed strategies to fill workforce gaps for "hard to fill" positions. For example, it developed a workforce strategy to fill diversity gaps and in its Human Capital Office and is now seeking a new Chief Human Capital Officer (CHCO) and Deputy CHCO.

AOC's draft performance plan, dated March 7, 2003, provided a crosswalk of GAO's recommendations to AOC's performance plan along with milestones (AOC's "action plan"), which established such a timeline and milestone dates.

This recommendation is fulfilled. AOC has approved a policy development schedule to revise human capital policies as part of its human capital plan. In addition, AOC developed a document for supervisors, Supervisors' Tools of the Trade, which provides supplemental guidance on human capital policies as needed. Supervisors are rated for performance in human capital management as part of AOC's evaluation system. However, it is important that AOC continue to monitor whether supervisors and managers are fairly administering the policies as the revisions are implemented.

AOC has fulfilled this recommendation by holding monthly meetings between the Human Resources Director, Equal Employment Opportunity and Conciliation Program Director, the chairs of the employee advisory council and the employment council, the employee assistance program manager, and the Deputy Chief of Staff to review and discuss employee relations data. The group makes recommendations to senior management based on findings and takes action on the items. According to AOC, the importance of maintaining employee confidentiality is emphasized at each meeting.

AOC has approved a policy development schedule to revise human capital policies as part of its human capital plan. In addition, AOC developed a document for supervisors, Supervisors' Tools of the Trade, which provides supplemental guidance on human capital policies as needed. Supervisors are rated for performance in human capital management as part of AOC's evaluation system. However, it is important that AOC continue to monitor whether supervisors and managers are fairly administering the policies as the revisions are implemented. This recommendation is implemented.

In our 2003 report, we found the AOC lacked reliable project and operational budgets, internal policies and procedures to monitor budget execution, and policies and procedures needed to properly account for and report accurate entity-wide financial information. In response, we recommended that the AOC needed to develop strategies to institutionalize financial management practices to support budgeting and financial and program management. In the interim, AOC successfully institutionalized several key management practices, including a process to prepare auditable annual financial statements resulting in clean audit opinions and the correction of various financial reporting control weaknesses, the implementation of a cost and management reporting system which now provides managers with more useful and timely information on costs of operations, and meaningful progress in implementing a comprehensive internal control program, as well as other financial management practices that have served to strengthen its budgeting and financial and program management. AOC's successful implementation of an annual financial statement preparation and audit process has enabled it to produce reliable entity-wide financial information and correct several significant internal control weaknesses. According to the AOC, the implementation of cost and management reporting system in late 2008 has helped to move AOC's financial system from a budget-based system to a performance-based system by aligning goals, activities, and outputs and has improved systems and reporting across AOC, including project management and facilities management. Other implemented financial and management improvement strategies include the ongoing operation of an Audit Committee who meets quarterly to assist the AOC by providing an independent review of the financial statement audit process and facilitating open disclosure and transparency, strengthening in 2009 of the AOC senior management's monitoring and oversight of long-term efforts to institutionalize several internal control practices. In 2009, AOC reported it had also implemented a number of targeted financial and management improvement strategies including implementing automated controls over data entry, reviews, and approvals within its time and attendance (T&A) system and its procure-to-pay process and improved its controls over transmission of its payroll to the National Finance Center. On several very important fronts, the AOC has successfully institutionalized key financial management practices that strengthen and enhance budgeting and financial and program management across the organization. While it continues to implement and enhance its risk-based internal control framework, one that provides a formal and systematic assessment and evaluation of the design and operation of its internal controls, the AOC's Strategic Plan acknowledges that this is a high priority multi-year effort for FY 2010 and beyond. Based on AOC's documented progress in institutionalizing several key financial management practices and its continuing commitment to complete efforts to implement an effective internal control framework organization, this recommendation is closed out as implemented.

AOC has completed action on this recommendation. In 2003 the agency established a senior executive with the responsibility, authority, and resources for managing IT across the agency, including controlling the AOC IT budget. Furthermore, AOC made the director a participant in senior decision-making, serving as the principal advisor to the Architect in applying IT to improve business processes and chairing the IT Project Management Board. AOC also defined in its IT policy the director's roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities. AOC's action will allow the agency to adopt an agencywide approach to IT management and position the agency to effectively leverage IT as an agencywide resource.

AOC has fulfilled this recommendation by developing and implementing an IT investment management process with support and participation of AOC's senior leadership and in accordance with our guidance through the development and approval of an IT investment management policy. Consistent with best practices, AOC has divided its investment management process into three phases: select, control, and evaluate. To effectively control existing and future projects through these phases, AOC established and assigned specific roles and responsibilities to three boards: Business Systems Modernization Office (BSMO), Investment Review Board (IRB), and Project Review Board (PRB). BSMO provides guidance during the select phase on items, such as the procurement schedule and stakeholder involvement, while the IRB and the PRB participate during the select, control, and evaluate phases. In particular, the PRB reviews specific areas of the project, including status, schedule and system development life-cycle documentation, and the IRB, among other things, provides approval and advice on items, including additional funding and critical issues that may arise on the project. Membership on these boards includes senior-level officials from various departments and offices throughout the agency. AOC has demonstrated this investment management process as evidenced by our review of two of AOC's large-size IT systems, Facilities Management Information System (FMIS) 2005 and Inventory Control System (ICS). Both systems were approved by the appropriate management structures in accordance with AOC's IT investment management process.

AOC has fulfilled this recommendation by developing and approving an agencywide IT policy that provides for developing, implementing, and maintaining an EA. The agency also has established an EA Executive Steering Committee, composed of senior-level officials from across the agency, to direct, oversee, and approve the AOC EA. The latest version of the EA FY06 version 1.0 was approved by the executive committee in December 2005. In addition, AOC has assigned responsibility for guiding EA development to the Chief Enterprise Architect. According to program officials, the Chief Enterprise Architect position was filled in February 2007. The chief architect's responsibilities include reviewing investments and investment-related projects to ensure that they are in compliance with the EA; developing and maintaining the EA documents to ensure that they continue to reflect the AOC strategic plan, business needs, and technological advancement; and providing expertise to the business systems modernization office and AOC management on EA concepts and implementation.

AOC has fulfilled this recommendation by developing and approving an agencywide IT policy that provides for developing, implementing, and maintaining an EA. The agency also has established an EA Executive Steering Committee, composed of senior-level officials from across the agency, to direct, oversee, and approve the AOC EA. The latest version of the EA FY06 version 1.0 was approved by the executive committee in December 2005. In addition, AOC has assigned responsibility for guiding EA development to the Chief Enterprise Architect. According to program officials, the Chief Enterprise Architect position was filled in February 2007. The chief architect's responsibilities include reviewing investments and investment-related projects to ensure that they are in compliance with the EA; developing and maintaining the EA documents to ensure that they continue to reflect the AOC strategic plan, business needs, and technological advancement; and providing expertise to the business systems modernization office and AOC management on EA concepts and implementation.

AOC has fulfilled this recommendation by developing and approving an agencywide IT policy that provides for developing, implementing, and maintaining an EA. The agency also has established an EA Executive Steering Committee, composed of senior-level officials from across the agency, to direct, oversee, and approve the AOC EA. The latest version of the EA (EA FY06 version 1.0) was approved by the executive committee in December 2005. In addition, AOC has assigned responsibility for guiding EA development to the Chief Enterprise Architect. According to program officials, the Chief Enterprise Architect position was filled in February 2007. The chief architect's responsibilities include reviewing investments and investment-related projects to ensure that they are in compliance with the EA, developing and maintaining the EA documents to ensure that they continue to reflect the AOC strategic plan, business needs, and technological advancement, and providing expertise to the business systems modernization office and AOC management on EA concepts and implementation.

As of February 2008, AOC has further refined its systems development life-cycle policy that describes the procedures, practices, and guidelines governing the management of IT systems and the processes that are to be followed when acquiring and developing these systems. These processes include a quality assurance process that requires the development of a quality assurance plan and quality checkpoint reviews for assessing project processes and products during a project's life cycle.

AOC has further refined its systems development life-cycle policy that describes the procedures, practices, and guidelines governing the management of IT systems and the processes that are to be followed when acquiring and developing these systems. These processes include a configuration management process that requires a configuration management plan that identifies configurations at given points in time, controls changes to the configuration, and maintains the records of all changes. Further, the configuration management process includes a change control board that approves and documents change requests for projects.

AOC has further refined its systems development life-cycle policy that describes the procedures, practices, and guidelines governing the management of IT systems and the processes that are to be followed when acquiring and developing these systems. Specifically, these processes include a risk management process that requires the development of a risk management plan; the identification of risks, risk assessments, risk impact and status, probability of occurrence, and mitigation strategies; and the tracking and reporting of progress against the plan.

AOC has implemented its policy for contract administration, which assigns authority for administering contracts to the contracting officer. In addition, the agency provides tracking and oversight of contracts by measuring performance, conducting periodic contract reviews, and performing internal monthly reviews of contractor activities.

AOC has fulfilled this recommendation. AOC has designated the chief information security officer with the authority to implement an agencywide security program and has reported that adequate resources (funding and staff) have been assigned to implement the program. AOC designated a chief information security officer in January 2007.

AOC Order 7-1-7, effective April 15, 2010, established policy for information systems certification and accreditation (C&A) and risk assessment (RA). Among other things, the policy states that the agency shall conduct annual system security assessments as part of its risk assessment program. Further, according to the policy, AOC shall update risk assessments whenever there are significant changes to the information system, the facilities where the system resides, or other conditions that may impact the security or accreditation status of the system.

AOC Order 7-1-6, effective April 15, 2010, established policy mandating the implementation of information systems security controls. The policy specifically states, among other things, that the agency shall document and implement security control policies and procedures based on risk assessments.

AOC has implemented this recommendation. AOC also has developed and issued policies for security and awareness training, which, according to the agency officials, has been completed by all employees.

AOC Order 7-2-3, effective September 8, 2008, established policy for determining the effectiveness of the agency's information technology security program through rigorous and periodic testing of security measures and the analysis and reporting of security metrics.

AOC has fulfilled this recommendation by institutionalizing its process to develop and implement, and annually review, its safety policies. AOC is in the process of moving from a single Safety Manual to individual safety manuals for each safety policy. AOC reports that 10 of its safety policies have been implemented, and final completion will help AOC to provide employees with important safety-related information and enable AOC to fully achieve its goal of long-term cultural change. Finally, AOC has reported previously that safety is part of its Performance & Communication Evaluation System and that all employees are held accountable for safety.

AOC has completed a job hazard analysis (JHA) process including describing the steps associated with each job task, identifying potential hazards associated with each task, developing the appropriate controls to eliminate or reduce the hazards, developing a training program to perform JHAs, and assisting first-line supervisors with performing qualitative JHAs. In addition, AOC has completed a step-by-step plan that provides a general approach for jurisdictions to manage their implementation of the JHA process. Finally, AOC has included a telephone number for reporting hazards in its monthly safety newsletters, which are distributed AOC-wide. The Architect has approved the Hazard Assessment and Control Policy.

AOC has established a plan and initiated actions to improve the reporting of incidents. Specifically, AOC (1) implemented an incident analysis module that electronically documents the investigation of incidents, (2) approved an interim incident notification, investigation and reporting policy, and (3) implemented an AOC-wide incident investigation form. The agency is also sharing lessons learned in a number of ways, including through its safety support group.

As of February 2006, AOC has fulfilled this recommendation in establishing training that supports the goals of the current safety policies. For example, during the implementation review process, AOC revalidated training requirements against regulatory requirements. Moreover, Safety Policy Managers have worked with the Human Resources Management Division (HRMD) to ensure that training required by upcoming policies has been identified. In addition, AOC has completed a training workbook exercise to assess the overall impact of required safety policy training on its budget. Also, central staff safety professionals continue to audit training courses and provide feedback to course instructors. Finally, the AOC has been using injury and illness data to identify training needs.

In response to this recommendation, AOC included guidance in the AOC Safety Manual that identifies supervisors' duties and responsibilities for employees' training, licenses, and certifications. To enable supervisors to track this information, AOC created standard reports that provide the current status of training courses by organization and category as well as a report that contains the complete training history by individual employee.

AOC worked with OAP to ensure that the lists of medical surveillance program participants are current. In addition, OAP is providing reports to AOC when employees are either due or past due for their medical examinations. AOC is also documenting the scope of medical surveillance services to better define and communicate the agency's requirements to OAP to ensure a common understanding and set of expectations.

AOC, through the Safety, Health and Environmental Council (SHEC), has developed measures to assess and control workers' compensation costs, including: (1) the number and severity of injuries and illnesses, (2) the number and cost of workers' compensation injuries and illnesses, (3) the number of lost production days associated with workers' compensation cases, and (4) the number of modified work assignments. In addition, AOC has developed several tools aimed at raising employee awareness of safety and the link between safety and workers' compensation.

AOC has implemented this recommendation as follows: (1) We reported two years ago that facility condition assessments (FCA) had been completed for all AOC jurisdictions except the Library of Congress (LOC) and the Supreme Court. According to an AOC official, in 2008, AOC conducted FCAs for portions of the Supreme Court for which renovations were complete, and in 2009 conducted the FCA for the Thurgood Marshall Building. AOC will continue to conduct FCAs for the remaining portions of the Supreme Court as renovations are completed. For the LOC, AOC has received funding for all FCAs. AOC conducted FCAs for the Jefferson, Madison, and Adams buildings in 2007, is conducting the FCA for the Ft. Meade facility in 2009, and will do the Culpepper facility in 2010. Given that the majority of AOC's facilities condition assessments are either complete or underway, GAO considers this portion of the recommendation complete. (2) The remaining action in this area was for AOC to finalize the Capitol complex master plan. We reported last year that AOC planned to submit a draft of the master plan to Congress for review in the spring of 2007, a date that was already extended past the original projected completion date of late 2006. In July 2009, AOC sent draft plans for each jurisdiction of the Capitol complex to congressional oversight committees for its approval and briefed the committees. These jurisdiction plans include those for the Botanic Garden, Supreme Court, Capitol, Capitol Grounds, Library of Congress, Senate, House, Capitol Power Plant, and U.S. Capitol Police.

AOC has fulfilled this recommendation. AOC implemented a program development process in 2003 that rated projects (with a score from 1 to 100) in five categories: (1) historic preservation and stewardship, (2) fire and life and safety and code compliance, (3) impact on mission, (4) economics, and (5) security. In the spring of 2004 AOC improved the program development process by establishing extensive procedures designed to ensure that project scopes fully met both customer needs and all criteria and standards. The project evaluation criteria are currently being expanded to include urgency (such as immediate, high, medium, or low) and classification of a project (such as deferred maintenance or capital improvement). This expansion of the evaluation criteria results from information being received from facility condition assessments. In September 2005 the AOC's project prioritization panel will evaluate these recommended changes. According to AOC, assuming approval, the criteria will be applied to projects in the fiscal year 2007 budget submission and fully implemented effective with the project call of 2006.

AOC has implemented this recommendation. AOC has established tools to effectively communicate priorities and progress of projects. For example, AOC has developed and continues to communicate its project prioritization processes through regular briefings to Congressional stakeholders. According to feedback from Congressional and other stakeholders, AOC made changes to the project prioritization process and plans to implement those changes in its fiscal year 2008 budget proposal. AOC continues to produce a quarterly status report on the budget and schedule status of projects that are released to Congressional appropriators.

AOC has implemented this recommendation. AOC has defined project-management-related performance measures through its quarterly status report, dashboard, and performance plan. These measures include the status of project schedule, budget, cost, and safety. AOC also developed and implemented surveys on the quality of design and construction services. AOC could consider tracking the safety of its construction contractors, as is currently being done with the Capitol Visitor Center project.

AOC has fulfilled this recommendation. In October 2005, AOC implemented a project management organization. The organization includes 32 personnel with responsibilities for project management, construction management, and inspection. The organization is focused on "cradle-to-grave" project delivery. Duties considered to be "collateral," such as design reviews, are being reassigned to other AOC officials outside of the new organization.

AOC has fulfilled this recommendation. AOC drafted a mission statement, goals, and performance measures for its recycling program and shared this draft with congressional stakeholders. The mission for the recycling program is to foster an environment that encourages recycling by the legislative branch staff through convenient and efficient programs, resulting in the diversion of wastes from the solid waste stream. AOC established three main goals for its recycling program: (1) increase overall recycling rates by diverting office wastes, (2) increase overall recycling tonnage by diverting non-office wastes, and (3) improving communication and coordination among interested Legislative Branch agencies by establishing a recycling working group by the end of fiscal year 2006.

AOC has established a performance measurement, monitoring, and evaluation system that supports its recycling mission and goals. AOC finalized its recycling program mission, goals, and performance measures in January 2006. These performance measures are in AOC's revised strategic plan and the Senate and House business plans. To monitor performance, AOC reports on the status of its recycling performance measures in the Safety, Health, and Environmental Council meetings. Additionally, AOC formed a Legislative Branch recycling group that met for the first time in September 2006. This group plans to meet quarterly to discuss common issues and share best management practices.

In October 2006, AOC included recycling tasks in its position descriptions and included recycling responsibilities for recycling managers and supervisors in its evaluation system. For example, the performance evaluation system includes recycling objectives in the ratings of Senate and House recycling managers to hold them accountable for program results.