GAO's High Risk List
Posted on February 11, 2015
As an agency, we focus on improving the operations of a large, complex federal government that is responsible for trillions of dollars in spending and revenue collection. In 1990, we started a program to report on government operations that we identified as “high risk” due to their greater vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement, or their need for fundamental transformation.
Since the beginning of the High Risk program, we have updated the High Risk List and reported on the status of progress to address high-risk areas—generally at the start of each new Congress.
Our most recent report, issued today, discusses 32 high-risk areas, including for each
- Why it is high risk,
- What GAO found, and
- What remains to be done.
- Managing Risks and Improving VA Health Care, and
- Improving the Management of IT Acquisitions and Operations.
- Enforcement of Tax Laws to include identity theft tax refund fraud, and
- Ensuring the Security of Federal Information Systems and Cyber Critical Infrastructure and Protecting the Privacy of Personally Identifiable Information to include the privacy of personally identifiable information.
- Protecting Public Health through Enhanced Oversight of Medical Products, and
- DOD Contract Management.
- Questions on the content of this post? Contact J. Christopher Mihm at mihmj@gao.gov.
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