November 28, 2011

Special Inquiry on the Office of the Chief Financial Officer's Information Technology Expenditures

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) received a complaint on April 13, 2011, through the OIG Hotline alleging the waste of appropriated Fiscal Year 2010 and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) funds by senior officials within the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO).  Information alleged included the mismanagement of over
$6 million worth of software contracts and user licenses.  Specifically, the complaint reported issues with the procurement and implementation of the Market Allocation Modeling Effort (MarkAl), the Multi-Attribute Decision Model (MADA), Microsoft's SharePoint, the @Risk software, and the Performance Manager Module (PMM). 

Our review did not identify material issues or sufficient evidence to support the allegations concerning PA&E's management of software contracts and licenses.  However, we did find that the software in question was costly and, that in some cases, it was not as useful or productive as expected.  We also identified areas where the Department of Energy could improve its efforts to plan for and acquire software. 

Given the risk of complaints in this area, we suggested that the OCFO examine the use of document storage applications for consolidation opportunities.  In addition, we suggested the OCFO ensure that requirements and needs are fully analyzed prior to software acquisition.  No formal recommendations were made in this report.

Topic: Management & Administration