Chief Information Officers (CIOs): Shortcomings, Responsibilities and Budget Approvals

Agencies plan to spend more than USD 96 billion on IT in fiscal year 2018; however, they continue to face longstanding challenges in doing so. Congress established the Chief Information Officers (CIO) position to serve as an agency focal point for IT to address these challenges. Recognizing the importance of the CIO position to successful IT management a government-wide review of CIO responsibilities was conducted. The objective of chapter 1 is to determine the extent to which agencies have addressed the role of the CIO in accordance with federal laws and guidance, and major factors that have enabled and challenged agency CIOs in fulfilling their responsibilities to carry out federal laws and guidance. The Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) provided an opportunity to strengthen the authority of CIOs to provide needed direction and oversight of agencies' IT budgets. Chapter 2 addresses the extent to which selected federal agencies established policies and procedures that address IT budgeting requirements, could demonstrate that they had developed fiscal year 2017 IT budgets for sampled investments consistent with FITARA and OMB guidance, and implemented processes to ensure that annual IT budgets are informed by reliable cost information.