The Administration for Children and Families Review of State Cost-Benefit Analysis Reports for State Automated Data Processing Systems

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

This is a final report on the Administration for Children and Families' (ACF) review of State automated data processing (ADP) cost-benefit analysis reports. The Office of Inspector General, as a participant in a joint study led by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), independently assessed the reporting and use of cost-benefit information provided by States after ADP implementation. We concluded that while some of these reports contained useful management information, they failed to accurately account for all costs and benefits and did not make the required comparison between estimated and actual costs and benefits to date. In reviewing the ACF files, we cold not find documentation that ACF staff had analyzed the reports sufficiently to detect the shortcomings we observed.

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