GAO praises White House for IT modernization progress

The General Accounting Office (GAO) praised the Executive Office of the President (EOP) for its progress on systems modernization in correspondence to top House and Senate appropriators released Friday.

EOP is developing a plan to modernize operations and technical standards and already has reorganized its Office of Administration to work through a chief information officer, according to the report. GAO also said that EOP has defined criteria for its investment-management process and is soon likely to "establish a critical capability" for planning technology investments.

In addition, GAO praised the office's capital-investment plan for its "narrow" but "appropriate" focus on improving information technology infrastructure. The office has allocated $5 million to securing its data center and $1.5 million for customer service and computer systems. Finally, the report praised EOP for its efforts to train staffers who oversee contractors and to fill open tech positions.