AIMD-95-20 Department of State IRM: Strategic Approach Needed to Better Support Agency Mission and Business Needs

This report evaluates the Department of State's information resources management (IRM) program and ongoing improvement efforts. We conducted our review using our May 1994 executive guide on the best practices of leading public and private organizations as a framework. This report complements our August 1994 report on State's financial management systems planning.

Information and information technology are crucial to the State Department's ability to meet its mission and business needs. However, State has a poor history of managing information resources and, as a result, continues to rely on inadequate and obsolete information technology. This situation has led to critical information shortfalls as well as interruption of operations. State has several initiatives, such as automating name-checking for visa applicants and modernizing systems departmentwide, aimed at overcoming these problems. However, by not following the best information resources management (IRM) practices, State has jeopardized the success of these efforts. State must commit to strategic information management. This approach would require State to anchor IRM planning in mission goals and objectives and integrate planning and budgeting functions. The approach would also require establishing an organizational framework that includes a senior management partner to lead and direct IRM and an investment and oversight process that significantly involves senior managers from regional and functional bureaus. Until such changes are made, critical mission and business functions--such as the identification of terrorists prior to visa issuance--will continue to be undermined by inaccurate, untimely, and incomplete information.

An immigration specialist assesses policy changes since the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and the passage of the USA Patriot Act, and comments on the future of US immigration, including foreign students, refugees and asylum seekers--Providedby publisher.