Consolidating IT systems can lead to over $100M in cost savings, GAO finds

The federal government can save more than $100 billion if it addresses “overlap, duplication, and fragmentation” across agencies’ operations — $100 million of which could come from enhancing management of information technology systems — according to an annual report released on Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office.

GAO’s latest duplication and overlap report, the 15th iteration released by the watchdog, identified “148 new matters and recommendations in 43 new topic areas for Congress or federal agencies to improve efficiency and effectiveness of government.” The latest total brings the number of open GAO recommendations to 589. 

The watchdog said that congressional and federal action on its recommendations “has yielded about $57 billion more in savings since our last report, bringing the federal government’s total level of savings to $725 billion.”

Tuesday’s report outlined a variety of technology-related steps that could result in significant cost savings for federal operations, with improving federal IT portfolio management, enhancing the Department of Health and Human Services’ pandemic public health systems and developing a quantum computing cybersecurity strategy among the review’s newest topic areas. 

“The Office of Management and Budget and 24 federal agencies should fully implement statutory requirements for annual IT portfolio reviews and high-risk IT investment reviews, which could result in one hundred million dollars or more in cost savings by reducing duplicative IT investments and halting or terminating investments, when appropriate,” the report said.

Citing the COVID-19 pandemic as an example, the watchdog also said public health officials rely on information that is housed on various IT systems operated by HHS. The duplicative nature of these systems, however, also provides a chance for HHS to streamline its information-sharing operations while cutting costs.

HHS identified 99 systems related to pandemic preparedness and response, and GAO said that “if even one of these systems could be consolidated or decommissioned the agency could save hundreds of thousands of dollars over the planned lifespan of the system.”

Given concerns that adversaries could develop and subsequently use a quantum computer to crack the encryption protections of critical infrastructure services within the next decade, GAO also recommended that the Office of the National Cyber Director oversee the development of a comprehensive national quantum computing cybersecurity strategy “to better manage fragmentation and the potential overlap of agency efforts.”

“It will provide federal agencies and critical infrastructure owners and operators with more clarity on their responsibilities and the common outcomes they need to achieve to address the threat cryptographically relevant quantum computers pose to their systems,” the report added.

Additional cost savings were identified across other agencies’ technology operations, including a recommendation that the Space Development Agency “fully demonstrate its space-based laser communications technology in each iterative development phase before progressing.” GAO said the approach could potentially lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in savings over the next 10 years.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said in a statement that the report “can further serve as a blueprint for congressional action needed to protect taxpayers and make our federal government programs operate more efficiently and effectively.”

The release of GAO’s latest duplication and overlap report comes as the Elon Musk-helmed Department of Government Efficiency continues to pursue spending reductions across the federal government. 

Although some of DOGE’s steps have proven to be controversial — such as large-scale layoffs of personnel across agencies — President Donald Trump’s January executive order establishing the organization outlined its purpose as “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”