The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has recommended that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and General Services Administration (GSA) facilitate collaboration between the U.S. Digital Service and the 18F program to help advance the development of information technology guidance for federal agencies to assist with federal IT acquisitions and projects.
GAO offered the recommendation after it found that USDS and 18F do not always coordinate on IT guidance development, according to a report published Friday.
“Documenting a coordinated approach for developing and issuing guidance would reduce the risk of overlap and duplication, and the potential for conflicting information,” the report reads.
GAO has made 275 recommendations in 12 reports to help agencies address duplicative IT-related issues and issued six reports containing 117 recommendations to deal with issues concerning IT management roles and responsibilities over the past decade.
As of October 2021, agencies had fully implemented 74 percent of the total recommendations. However, agencies have yet to act on 102 recommendations to address concerns regarding IT management roles and duplicative IT.
GSA’s 18F program office and OMB’s USDS help agencies provide public-facing websites, online benefit applications and other digital services to citizens.
