Priority Open Recommendations: Office of Management and Budget
Fast Facts
Each year, we make more than 1,000 recommendations to help improve the federal government. We alert department heads to where they can save the most money, address issues on our High Risk List, or significantly improve government operations.
This report outlines our 44 priority open recommendations for the Office of Management and Budget as of July 2022. For example, we made 8 recommendations to OMB intended to improve the quality and transparency of federal government data to help the public better understand how its tax dollars are spent.
Since our previous letter in June 2021, OMB implemented 6 of our priority recommendations.
Highlights
What GAO Found
In June 2021, GAO identified 44 priority recommendations for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Since then, OMB has implemented 6 of those recommendations by, among other things, issuing a plan to implement a federal program inventory, taking actions to help reduce improper payments across the federal government, and increasing its ability to oversee agency efforts to provide information security protections for federal information. GAO also removed the priority status from 1 other recommendation on establishing an interagency forum on sexual violence statistics, due to recently enacted legislation that should address the intent of this recommendation once fully implemented.
In July 2022, GAO identified 7 additional priority recommendations for OMB, bringing the total number to 44. These recommendations involve the following areas:
- Improving government performance.
- Increasing availability and transparency of government data.
- Improving acquisition management and reducing costs.
- Reducing government-wide improper payments, including fraud.
- Strengthening cybersecurity.
- Establishing controls for disaster relief.
- Improving federal real property asset management.
- Improving information management.
OMB's continued attention to these issues could yield significant cost savings and other improvements in government operations.
Why GAO Did This Study
Priority open recommendations are the GAO recommendations that warrant priority attention from heads of key departments or agencies because their implementation could save large amounts of money; improve congressional and/or executive branch decision-making on major issues; eliminate mismanagement, fraud, and abuse; or ensure that programs comply with laws and funds are legally spent, among other benefits. Since 2015 GAO has sent letters to selected agencies to highlight the importance of implementing such recommendations.
For more information, contact Michelle Sager at (202) 512-6806 or sagerm@gao.gov.