Book Description

In response to a letter from the Chairman, House Committee on Government Operations, we have reviewed the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) central automatic data processing (ADP) management and organizational structure. The chairman requested the review because he was concerned that; the Secretary of Agriculture's October 1977 reorganization had weakened USDA's central ADP management office by combining ADP with financial, procurement, and other administrative functions; the Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) was continuing to have significant problems developing its large-scale Unified Management Information System (UMIS); serious deficiencies prevailed in USDA'Ss ADP management and operations are disclosed in the large number of reports issued since 1975 by us and the USDA Office of Inspector General (see apps. I and II); and the deficiencies existing at USDA's National Finance Center (NFC) were symptomatic of weak control ADP management. Problems such as these, which exist throughout the Government, were instrumental in the passage of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 (Public Law 96-511), enacted on December 11, 1980. One objective of the act was to strengthen Federal information management activities.