Why GAO Did This Study
VA depends on critical underlying IT systems to manage benefits and provide care to millions of veterans and their families. VA obligated about $21 billion in fiscal years 2022 through 2024 for a range of IT products, systems, and services.
In 2015, GAO identified the management of software licenses as a focus area in its High-Risk report. GAO has also previously reported on the need for federal agencies—including VA—to ensure better management of software licenses.
GAO was asked to testify on VA’s software licensing practices. GAO summarized its government-wide January 2024 and November 2024 reports specific to VA’s efforts to track software license usage and manage restrictive licensing practices. GAO also compiled information from its past reports on leading software license management practices and summarized VA’s actions in response to recommendations made in those reports.
What GAO Recommends
GAO made four recommendations in its two recent 2024 reports for VA to improve its management of software licenses and mitigate the effects of restrictive software licensing practices. Although VA concurred with the recommendations, it has not yet implemented them. Implementation of the recommendations is essential to minimizing costs and mitigating restrictive licensing impacts.
What GAO Found
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) spends billions of dollars annually for IT and cyber-related investments, including commercial software licenses. In a January 2024 government-wide report, GAO noted that while VA identified its five most widely used software vendors with the highest quantity of licenses installed, VA faced challenges in determining whether it was purchasing too many or too few of these software licenses. Specifically, VA was not tracking the appropriate number of licenses for each item of software currently in use. Additionally, the department did not compare inventories of software licenses that were currently in use to purchase records on a regular basis.
