DOD Financial Management: Reported Status of Department of Defense's Enterprise Resource Planning Systems

What GAO Found

The following is a list of the specific data elements that we requested DOD provide an updated status as of December 31, 2011, for each of the ERPs.

• program owner;
• a description of the functionality that each system is intended to provide;
• the annual dollar value that each system is intended to control and for which it is intended to account;
• the date that each program was initiated;
• the originally scheduled date for the full deployment of each system;
• the actual (or most recently estimated) scheduled date for the full deployment of each system and the reasons for any reported schedule slippage;
• the original life-cycle cost estimate for each system;
• the current life-cycle cost estimate for each system and the reasons for any reported life-cycle cost increases;
• the reported amount expended for each system;
• the reported number of system users for each system as of December 31, 2011, and the expected number of users for each system when fully deployed;
• the reported number of locations in which each system operates as of December 31, 2011, and expected number of locations in which each system will operate when fully deployed;
• the reported number of legacy systems to be replaced by each system;
• the reported annual cost to operate and maintain the legacy systems to be replaced by the ERPs; and
• the reported number of system interfaces.

Why GAO Did This Study

In October 2010, we reported on the status of the Department of Defense’s (DOD) enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. In that report, we noted that several of these systems were not being implemented on schedule and within budget, necessitating the extended use and funding of existing, duplicative, stove-piped systems. DOD considers the successful implementation of these systems critical to transforming its business operations and addressing long-standing weaknesses in areas such as financial and supply chain management. DOD officials also stated that these systems are critical to ensuring the department meets its mandated September 30, 2017, goal to have auditable consolidated financial statements. As agreed, our objective was to provide updated information on DOD’s reported status for each of these ERP systems as of December 31, 2011.

We requested DOD provide an update as of December 31, 2011, on specific data elements—such as the current life-cycle cost estimate and the number of system users—for each ERP system that DOD identified as essential to transforming its business operations identified in our October 2010 report.

For more information, contact Asif A. Khan at (202) 512–9869 or khana@gao.gov.