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SSA Audit Finds Agency Put Aside IT Modernization Advice

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The Social Security Administration spent $550,000 to gather advice from a panel of information technology experts but ended the program without implementing a majority of its recommendations, an inspector general audit found.

Federal Computer Week reports Inspector General Patrick O’Carroll found the Future Systems Technology Advisory Panel made 78 recommendations in areas such as data center migration, legacy systems and electronic medical files.

SSA reportedly implemented 11 out of the 52 recommendations it agreed with but was not able to provide any updates on them, according to Matthew Weigelt’s story.

Citing a letter to O’Carroll from Deputy Chief of Staff Dean Landis, Weigelt reports Landis believes the IG should not audit recommendations from an external advisory board such as the FSTAP.

Auditors found SSA implemented recommendations on network security and moving customer services to the Internet.

Last summer, the IG’s office recommended the agency develop a long-term plan for transitioning customer service to an online platform.

1 Comment

  1. Not to be pessimistic, but transition plans are hard to come by, and … once recommendations are made, they compete with funded priorities. Perhaps SSA decided that the costs were too high to adopt proposed options or have decided to take a practical (less agressive) approach to adopting more of the proposed changes. For certain, there are decision-makers who would love to move forward faster, while balancing impact of change to service delivery by the organization.

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