Report Contents
What Was Audited
In accordance with the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) established standards for agencies’ spending data to be displayed on USASpending.gov. As part of quarterly submissions, Agency Senior Accountable Officials (SAO) certify data files (DATA Act Files A, B, C, D1, D2).
Acting on behalf of the Office of Inspector General (OIG), Williams, Adley & Company-DC, LLP (Williams Adley), an external audit firm, conducted this audit to assess (1) the completeness, accuracy, timeliness, and quality of the first quarter of FY 2019 financial and award data submitted by the Department of State (Department) for publication on USASpending.gov and (2) the Department’s implementation and use of the Governmentwide financial data standards established by OMB and Treasury.
What OIG Recommends
OIG made six new recommendations to improve the Department’s DATA Act submissions. In addition, four recommendations from the FY 2017 DATA Act report remain open, as described in Appendix F. On the basis of management’s response to a draft of this report, OIG considers all the recommendations resolved, pending further action. A synopsis of management’s response to the recommendations offered and OIG’s reply follow each recommendation in the Audit Results section of this report. The responses to a draft of this report received from the Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services and the Bureau of Administration are reprinted in their entirety in Appendices G and H, respectively.
What Was Found
Williams Adley was unable to assess some of the Department’s DATA Act data submitted for the first quarter of FY 2019 because the Department’s SAO did not certify transactions originating at overseas posts. This issue was also reported in the FY 2017 DATA Act report. The Department has identified causes related to this condition and should develop a corrective action plan to address the deficiencies identified.
For transactions originating domestically, Williams Adley determined that DATA Act Files A, B, and C, at the summary level, were complete and timely. Furthermore, Williams Adley reconciled DATA Act Files A and B and did not identify significant variances. However, during the testing of certified transactions, Williams Adley identified exceptions with the record-level data for domestic transactions included in DATA Act Files C, D1, and D2. On the basis of guidance provided for the DATA Act audit, Williams Adley considered the quality of the Department’s submission of domestic data to be “moderate.”
Since the FY 2017 DATA Act report, the Department took some actions to improve procedures, quality control, and oversight. However, additional action is needed. Once the Department implements additional guidance, quality control, and oversight, it is essential for the Department to communicate that guidance to the correct officials. Another reason for the deficiencies identified is that the Department has not classified most of the data elements that the audit identified as having a high error rate as high risk in its Data Quality Plan. The quality of the data must be improved to fulfill the intent of the DATA Act.
Williams Adley evaluated the Department’s implementation and use of the Government-wide financial data standards for spending information. Williams Adley concluded that the Department fully implemented financial data standards for domestic transactions but was not fully using those data standards as defined by OMB and Treasury.
Report Terms
Report Recommendations
OIG recommends that the Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services, in coordination with the Bureau of Administration, develop and implement a corrective action plan that addresses the causes attributed to the deficiencies with the overseas transactions.
OIG recommends that the Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services correct the system error in Global Business Intelligence that causes the Parent Award Identification Number data element fields to be blank in the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act File C submission.
OIG recommends that the Bureau of Administration, Office of Operations, Office of Language Services, discontinue its business practice of aggregating information related to multiple task orders under blanket purchase agreements into one transaction when entering data in the Federal Procurement Data System – Next Generation. Specifically, data related to each task order should be entered separately and only actual data should be used for all data elements, including, but not limited to, Action Date, Period of Performance Start Date, Period of Performance Current End Date, and Period of Performance Potential End Date.
OIG recommends that the Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services develop and implement a process in the Global Financial Management System that documents modifications of obligation amounts due to exchange rate fluctuations.
OIG recommends that the Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services, in coordination with the Bureau of Administration, develop and implement a communications strategy that informs officials who are responsible for procurement and grant activities in a timely manner about changes to or updates of policies or procedures that relate to data that are required to comply with the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act.
OIG recommends that the Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services update the data elements identified as high risk in its Data Quality Plan, at a minimum, deficiencies included in this report should be used as one of the factors used in determining high risk.