OMB Tells Agencies to Modernize Financial Systems

Agencies must streamline their financial systems to reduce costs and increase transparency, according to a White House memo.

Currently, the Office of Management and Budget said, financial systems are designed to meet agency-specific needs and lack a governmentwide approach. In the future, agencies should create shared solutions to modernize core accounting and mixed systems -- information systems, such as payroll or procurement management, that support financial and non-financial functions.

“Traditional approaches to financial systems implementations have left agencies exposed to significant risks in cost, quality and performance,” OMB wrote in the memo.

OMB will work with the Treasury Department's Office of Financial Innovation and Transformation to create common standards and requirements for future financial systems, and to track compliance with the directive. OMB said the transition “will take several years.”

The goal of these systems, according to OMB, is to improve government’s ability to find sellers, reduce implementation risks and timetables and enable auditable, governmentwide financial statements.

OMB encouraged agencies to consider federal shared service providers, in addition to commercial options, when making system upgrades. 

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