Most Wasteful Government Tech Projects Of 2014
The federal government continues to pour millions into redundant and bloated projects, critics say. Check out some of the worst offenders according to GAO.
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For the fourth year in a row, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report that highlights areas of unnecessary duplication within the federal government. This includes everything from inefficient IT programs to redundant research. GAO has concluded that in many cases "hundreds of millions of dollars" could be saved annually if agencies were to address duplicative efforts.
GAO's report focuses on 11 areas of duplication and recommends 19 actions that address this overlap. For instance, GAO found that the Defense Department (DOD) operates 12 dedicated satellite control networks, and one Air Force base has 10 different satellite programs with six control centers. Through consolidation, GAO estimates the savings could be in the millions to hundreds of millions annually.
Additionally, GAO outlines 15 areas where significant cost savings can be achieved, such as $4 billion in savings from unused credit subsidies in the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan program. "While some actions have been taken, Congress and the administration have much work to do to further eliminate unnecessary duplication and consolidate existing overlapping federal efforts," the report reads.
GAO is not alone in calling attention to the government's wasteful spending. Wastebook 2014, an annual report by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), examines 100 "silly, unnecessary, and low-priority" projects that have cost taxpayers $25 billion.
Some examples of wasteful spending in Coburn's report include more than $8,000 that the DOD spent on helicopter parts, which actually cost less than $500; Department of Justice's (DOJ) Criminal Division paying $544,338 for a premium LinkedIn account; and the National Science Foundation's (NSF) $202,000 investment to study why Wikipedia is sexist.
One agency that comes up frequently throughout the report is NASA. In addition to expensive projects like construction of a $350 million launch pad tower, NASA spends a fortune on the International Space Station (ISS). Coburn argues that while some valuable research is being conducted aboard the ISS, "the billions being spent to maintain the station could be directed towards much more meaningful studies or projects." NASA's fiscal 2014 budget was $17.7 billion and the ISS took up almost one-fifth of the agency's resources. According to Coburn, testing the design and creation of better golf clubs doesn't qualify as important research.
Then there's NASA's Near-Earth Object (NEO) program, which has been operational since 1994. The goal of the program -- which received $40.5 million in funding this year -- is to identify 90% of NEOs by 2020. "NASA still has little capability to identify NEOs because it has completely mismanaged the program and will not make its 2020 goal," Coburn said in the report.
Click through our slideshow to see more examples of what Coburn and the GAO call the most wasteful government technology projects in the past year.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) has been struggling to update its system for tracking disability claims for years. After spending almost $300 million on the project, the agency is still more than two years away from completing the system, which was supposed to streamline and track disability claims while also lowering administrative costs. "Each year for the past five years, Release 1.0 is consistently projected to be 24-32 months away," according to Wastebook 2014. The system is still being tested today and cannot process any new claims or track existing ones.
In Wastebook 2014, Coburn points out that NASA has been issuing smartphones, tablets, and AirCards -- which provide Internet access on laptops -- without keeping track. More than 2,000 devices, or 14% of the total owned by the agency, weren't used for least seven months from 2013 to 2014, found a NASA Inspector General report. The estimated cost of unused and lost devices is approximately $97,000 each month. "Cell phones are not the only equipment NASA has had trouble keeping track of in recent years," said Coburn. Laptops are also on NASA's list of hard-to-track items.
Every year the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) pays out billions of dollars in fraudulent refunds to those filing fake tax returns, as stated in Wastebook 2014. Last year, for example, the IRS issued $5.2 billion in refunds based on more than 3 million phony tax returns. The Treasury Inspector General estimates that the agency "could issue approximately $21 billion in fraudulent tax refunds resulting from identity theft" over five years, which averages $4.2 billion each year. That's because online tax filers are not required to provide a paper copy of their W-2, and most online filers submit their taxes in February -- months before the IRS is able to verify their legitimacy.
For fiscal year 2012, the federal government spent approximately $587 million on IT investments that provide voice communications. An integrated wireless network was supposed to be a collaborative effort among the DOJ, the DHS, and the Treasury Department to "provide secure, seamless, interoperable, and reliable nationwide wireless communication in support of federal agencies and officers engaged in law enforcement, protective services, homeland defense, and disaster response missions," GAO said. However, these agencies are no longer pursuing the joint development project, and are independently modernizing their own wireless communications systems. A joint solution would save nearly $600 million that the federal government spends annually on voice communications technologies, per the GAO.
The DOD is spending millions to build Iron Man-like getup called the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (TALOS). With an estimated budget of $80 million for the next four years, TALOS could actually cost as much as a billion dollars, according to an industry official of a large defense firm cited in Wastebook 2014. The suit is designed to protect soldiers with body armor of an agile exoskeleton, while handling hundreds of pounds of gear. But a 2013 study funded by the DOD and the National Academy of Sciences (also referenced in Coburn's Wastebook) found that "the approach of acquiring and fielding every new technology is both impractical and unaffordable."
The Army has spent more than $90 million on a system that supports workforce planning for weapon system maintenance, manufacturing, and other industrial operations since 1996 and through fiscal year 2013. Another $35.6 million will go toward maintaining the system between fiscal years 2014 and 2018. The system, which provides management reports and decision support tools, overlaps with the Army's enterprise resource planning system that supports industrial operations, GAO said in its report. The total life-cycle cost from fiscal years 2000 through 2026 for that system is expected to be more than $4 billion. GAO has recommended that the Army address similarities between the two systems to cut costs.
The State Department's Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (CSCC), which is responsible for the US government's online presence, used a portion of $3 million from taxpayers to create the Think Again Turn Away Twitter account. The account was designed to share "some truths about terrorism" and provide "a counter to the tweets of extremists [who] were previously able to spread their bile without fear of pushback," according to Wastebook 2014. Without hard metrics on the campaign's effectiveness, critics have questioned whether this is good use of government funds. "We can yield better results for our scarce taxpayer dollars than extreme indignation," said Coburn.
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