Selected Government Accountability Office Reports re: NARA

(For a full listing of  reports go to GAO Reports and Testimonies)

GAO REPORT ON ELECTRONIC RECORDS ARCHIVE (ERA): 
National Archives Needs to Strengthen Its Capacity to Use Earned Value Techniques to Manage and Oversee Development GAO-11-86, Jan 13, 201
GAO REPORT ON:
Electronic Government: National Archives and Records Administration's Fiscal Year 2011 Expenditure Plan GAO-11-299, Mar 4, 2011

GAO REPORT ON NARA ERA PROJECT: 

Electronic Records Archive: Status Update on the National Archives and Records Administration's Fiscal Year 2010 Expenditure Plan, GAO-10-657, June 11, 2010

The report is accessible in various formats at: http://gao.gov/docsearch/locate?searched=1&o=0&order_by=date&search_type=publications&keyword=gao+10-657 

  • It concludes: "While NARA’s fiscal year 2010 expenditure plan met five of the six legislative conditions, the lack of documentation demonstrating the appropriate level of senior management review, approval, and oversight limits NARA’s ability to ensure that the project makes expected progress. In addition, the lack of a documented current baseline schedule leaves NARA with limited ability to identify significant delays. The lack of key oversight documentation limits NARA’s assurance that schedule delays and cost increases will not continue during ERA’s development. In addition, without specific plans for completing the final two increments, NARA lacks assurance that the remaining increments will adequately fulfill its mission needs. Specifically, NARA’s failure to follow its own guidance on requirements management has resulted in a set of requirements that is incomplete and out of date, which could lead to the system being completed without addressing all necessary requirements or the development of functionality to meet requirements that are no longer valid. Addressing these weaknesses is becoming even more critical as the projected completion of the project approaches; if they continue, it will be increasingly unlikely that NARA will be able to deliver the ERA system by 2012 with the capabilities originally envisioned or to effectively use the system to meet the needs of its users in support of NARA’s mission of preserving and providing access to the nation’s electronic records." NARA's reply is contained in Attachment 1 of the report.