Coast Guard IT Investments Risk Failure Without Required Oversight

We determined that the Coast Guard does not have sufficient controls to adequately identify information technology (IT) acquisition programs. Although the Coast Guard approved the procurement of approximately $1.8 billion of IT investments between fiscal years 2014 and 2016, it does not know if almost 400 systems are receiving proper acquisition oversight. This occurs because the Coast Guard’s controls over IT investments lack synergy and create weaknesses that affect its ability to adequately identify, designate, and oversee non-major IT acquisition programs. As a result, the Coast Guard IT investments risk wasting money, missing milestones, and not achieving performance requirements We recommended that the Coast Guard conduct a comprehensive analysis of related acquisition and IT review processes to identify redundancies, gaps, and potential improvements; implement a verifiable process to identify non-major IT programs; evaluate and identify existing IT investments; and improve the quality of IT investment information and guidance. We made four recommendations that the Coast Guard concurred with and when implemented will improve the Coast Guard’s IT investment process.