Information Management - Stronger Management of EPA's Information Resources Is Critical to Meeting Program Needs: Ced-80-18 (Paperback)

A GAO review identified the problems that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was experiencing in managing and using its information and computer resources. Since EPA is an information-intensive agency, its information resources, including automatic data processing (ADP), are critical to the success of all program activities. Some EPA information resources management problems include little top management involvement, no strong central management or direction of computer-based information systems, no mechanism to coordinate planning, a lack of a nucleus of ADP professionals to support system development, no provision for assigning priorities, and a lack of providing direction to its contractors. EPA is in the process of upgrading its computer system. However, the need for this additional computer capability has not been justified since unused computer capacity still exists and steps have not been taken to manage the existing workload.