Recovery.gov - Track the Money

Of the $500 million in Recovery Act funding the Social Security Administration (SSA) received to administer disability and retirement payments, up to $40 million can be used for an electronic medical records system to process disability claims. SSA's Office of Inspector reviewed the agency's spending plan for the electronic records system and found that the plan met the requirements established by the Recovery Act and the guidelines issued by the Office of Management and Budget. The Office of Inspector General noted that the agency is planning to spend $24 million for contracts and projects related to electronic medical records technology by January, 2010 and recommended that once the $24 million is awarded, the agency reassess whether it could award additional contracts and, therefore, expend more of the $40 million allotted for this initiative.

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The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided the Social Security Administration (SSA) $500 million for the replacement of SSA's National Computer Center (NCC) at Durham, NC. In assessing the Agency's future information system plans, the SSA Inspector General looked at the Agency's strategic plans for information technology (IT) strategic planning, disaster recovery, infrastructure issues, and NCC replacement strategy. The IG found that SSA needs to focus on (1) strengthening the IT strategic planning process; (2) identify ways to accelerate planning, constructing and operating the new data center; (3) develop contingency plans for addressing IT processing requirements and disaster recovery procedures in the event the Durham Support Center and/or the new data center are not operational within the scheduled timeframes; and (4) establish controls and a detailed strategy for timely maintenance, repairs, upgrades and replacement of critical IT infrastructure in the new data center to prevent the current situation at the NCC from recurring.


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