VA Financial Management System: Additional Actions Needed to Help Ensure Success of Future Deployments

What GAO Discovered

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Economic Management Business Transformation (FMBT) application has begun deploying the Built-in Economical and Acquisition Administration System (iFAMS) at the Countrywide Cemetery Administration (NCA) and the Veterans Rewards Administration (VBA). According to leading practices, management must measure the functionality of a method and relevant user fulfillment to observe development towards preestablished targets in order to have an understanding of and report on expected operational benefits. The application has produced metrics, recognized baselines, and begun to measure operational added benefits for NCA and VBA. Nonetheless, it has not discovered focus on values for accomplishment. Therefore, reporting of effects does not present a comprehensive and measurable photo of the program’s development relative to ideas. Until finally the FMBT software is capable to examine benefits to target values, the new system’s supply of meant operational gains and the extent to which the section is maximizing the return on its multibillion-dollar investment are unclear.

Helpful transform management strategies make properly utilizing organizational modify promptly and with reduced risk additional most likely. The FMBT program’s organizational improve administration functions ended up reliable with four leading methods and partly consistent with the remaining a few (see desk). Continuously adhering to helpful transform administration tactics for the transition to iFAMS aids assure a sleek changeover for future deployments.

FMBT Application Regularity with Organizational Transform Administration Major Methods

Supply: GAO evaluation of Department of Veterans Affairs’ Monetary Management Enterprise Transformation (FMBT) application documentation. | GAO-22-105059

The FMBT program’s information conversion routines were dependable with foremost procedures for the NCA and VBA deployments. But the conversion timing triggered difficulties for some people, which include impacts to productiveness and prolonged function-arounds. The program’s impartial verification and validation workforce formerly proposed that the application be aware of opportunity hazards to a midyear conversion and proactively mitigate these dangers for NCA. However, officers accepted the pitfalls and reported conversions for the duration of the 12 months are essential if VA is to apply iFAMS in the course of the section in a acceptable sum of time. The program has prepared some actions to address troubles users faced, but its possibility and concern sign up does not include or handle the conversion timing pitfalls, these types of as consumer issues or those affiliated with the amount and varieties of transactions and balances converted. Mitigating conversion timing dangers and concerns is particularly important for potential deployments, some of which are scheduled even later on in the year and will influence more users.

Why GAO Did This Review

VA’s core financial administration method is approximately 30 yrs previous and is exceptionally complicated to maintain and adapt to rising requirements and federal economic restrictions. VA’s FMBT program is replacing its legacy process with a new built-in procedure, iFAMS, at an approximated price of $3.24 billion. VA deployed the fiscal functions capabilities of iFAMS at NCA in November 2020 and at VBA in February 2021 and May well 2021.

GAO was requested to overview the development of the FMBT plan. The precise aims for this report have been to analyze the extent to which (1) VA has calculated if iFAMS is supplying meant operational gains (2) VA’s organizational alter management pursuits facilitating its transition to the new economical administration system were being dependable with main methods and (3) VA’s details migration activities to cleanse, transform, and migrate info to the new fiscal management method have been dependable with top procedures. GAO compared vital application management activities to main tactics and interviewed program officers, in addition to chosen procedure customers.