he federal government spends trillions of dollars a year on programs, but it doesn’t have an inventory of all federal programs despite a 2011 law that says they must be tracked.

Part of the problem is government agencies don’t agree on what constitutes a federal program, according to a new U.S. Government Accountability Office report.

“This lack of a common definition – or at least a way to collect and present comparable information for programs that are defined differently – has hindered past efforts to develop an inventory,” according to the report. A 2011 law requires the Office of Management and Budget to have an inventory of all federal program available on a public website.

Having an inventory and financial information on federal program would help identify fragmentation, overlap and duplication along with providing a better understanding of how the government operates, according to the GAO report.