Federal Communications Commission: Strategic Focus Needed to Improve Information Resources Management
IMTEC-90-52
Published: Jul 20, 1990. Publicly Released: Sep 27, 1990.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) information resources management (IRM), focusing on how the agency plans and develops information technology to meet its mission.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Federal Communications Commission | To guide the increased level of FCC information technology expenditures, the Chairman, FCC, should ensure that the agency develops a strategic IRM plan. |
Closed – Implemented
Acting on the recommendation, FCC developed a strategic IRM plan which was approved by the FCC Chairman in September 1991. The plan defines the agency's mission and its highest priority business goals and discusses, in priority order, the agency's five IRM goals to support the mission. FCC is using the plan to guide its tactical, budget-related IRM planning.
|
| Federal Communications Commission | To help ensure that FCC selects the best alternatives for developing systems and properly considers security needs, FCC should revise its system development policies to conform to federal guidelines and standards. |
Closed – Implemented
As GAO recommended, FCC has revised its systems development policies in order to help ensure that it selects the best systems design approach, and properly considers security needs when building systems. The new policies require formal approval of systems plans and analyses. Also, to heighten awareness of its new policies, FCC trained its Branch Chiefs on system development procedures.
|
| Federal Communications Commission | To help ensure a smooth, rapid recovery of automatic data processing (ADP) operations in an emergency, FCC should prepare and periodically test an ADP continuity-of-operations plan. |
Closed – Implemented
FCC finalized its Disaster Recovery Plan in October 1992. The plan identifies key personnel and their duties, critical processing resources requiring backup, off-site computer center backup and file storage facilities and arrangements, and disaster recovery procedures. FCC successfully tested the plan at the Honeywell and VAX backup computer facilities.
|
| Federal Communications Commission | Until a plan has been developed and tested, FCC should report the lack of a plan as material internal control weakness under the Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act (FMFIA). |
Closed – Implemented
As GAO recommended, FCC reported the lack of a continuity plan as a material control weakness in its December 1990 FMFIA report, and stated that it will continue to report it until a plan is in place that meets all applicable federal standards.
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Topics
Agency missionsComputer securityAdministrative applicationsContinuity of operations planCost effectiveness analysisElectronic formsInformation resources managementInformation technologyIT acquisitionsStrategic information systems planning