Z Sample CPE Tracking OMB Circular A-123 History Letter 1981 OMB - - PDF document

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DATA Act

April 24| 2–3:50 PM ET | 2 CPEs | FOS: AUDG

#AGAwebinars

OMB Circular A-123 History

• 1981 – OMB First Issued Circular No. A-123, Internal Control Systems
• 1982 – OMB Issued Internal Control Guidelines and the Federal Managers Financial Integrity Act was

enacted

• 1983 – OMB Issued an Updated Circular No. A-123, Internal Control Systems
• 1986–OMB Updated A-123 to Require Management Control Plans to guide efforts
• 1995–OMB updated A-123, Management Accountability and Control to reflect GPRA, CFO Act, IG

Act

• 2004 – OMB updated A-123, Management’s Responsibility for Internal Control and added Appendix A,

Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

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Sample CPE Tracking Letter 1 2

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Speakers

Amy Edwards Deputy Assistant Secretary, Accounting Policy and Financial Transparency U.S. Treasury Natalie Rico Policy Analyst, Office of Federal Financial Management OMB

Speakers (cont.)

Michelle Sager Director GAO

Moderator:

Christian Hoehner Senior Director of Policy, Data Coalition

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Amy Edwards

Deputy Assistant Secretary, Accounting Policy and Financial Transparency U.S. Treasury

Natalie Rico

Policy Analyst, Office of Federal Financial Management OMB

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DATA Act:

Updates on the Implementation

Amy B. Edwards

Deputy Assistant Secretary Accounting Policy and Financial Transparency U.S. Department of the Treasury

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7 Other Agency Expenditures Procurements and Contracts Grants Loans and Other Assistance $4 Trillion in Federal Spending

Goal Track around $4 trillion dollars in annual spending on a quarterly basis and link data from the budget, accounting, procurement and financial assistance databases into one common format Challenge Collect, store, and display more than 400 data elements from over 100 federal agencies

Better Data. Better Decisions. Better Government

Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act)

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DATA Act Reporting Process Flow

Data Standards DATA Act Broker Data Store

DATA Act Information Model Schema (DAIMS) Released in April 2016. Contains 400+ data elements DATA Act Broker Full Broker released in September 2016. Agency files are combined and validated. Certification Senior Accountable Officials (SAO) certify FY17 Q2 data by April 30, 2017 Data Store Once certified, agency data is transmitted to the Treasury Data Store. May 2017

Agency Certification

A B C D E F Submitted by agencies from financial systems Extracted from intermediary award data systems

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User-Centered Design

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User Personas

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USAspending.gov

Michelle Sager Director, Strategic Issues U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)

GAO’s Oversight of the DATA Act: Past, Present, and Future

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Usefulness, Accuracy, and Transparency

Make it possible to gauge the magnitude of the federal investment to address ongoing government management challenges Help agencies make fully informed decisions about how federal resources should be allocated Provide the audit community with additional tools to detect and prevent improper payments and fraudulent spending Promote transparency to the public and enhance civic engagement

DATA Act Background

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Federal Data Transparency

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GAO’s prior reviews of federal spending data found:

• persistent challenges with the quality of data on USAspending.gov
• roughly $619 billion in assistance awards that were not properly reported
• few awards—between 2 and 7 percent—contained information fully consistent with agency

records on all data elements tested

• a lack of government-wide data standards limited the accuracy, transparency, and

usefulness of the data

• Key reports include GAO-14-476 and GAO-10-365

Looking Back: Selected Findings

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Overseeing Implementation

• Nation's first legislative mandate for data

transparency

• Requires OMB and Treasury to transform federal

spending from disconnected documents to open, standardized data which is publicly available

• Builds off experiences and lessons from the

Recovery Act

• Body of GAO work

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DATA Act Background

DATA Act Requirements: GAO and OIGs

Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014, Public Law 113-101, 128 Stat. 1146, (May 9, 2014) Requirements for OIGs Review a statistically valid sampling of spending data submitted under the DATA Act by the agency and submit reports assessing the completeness, timeliness, and accuracy of the data sampled and the implementation and use of data standards. Requirements for GAO Review OIG reports and submit reports to Congress in 2017, 2019, and 2021 assessing the completeness, timeliness, and accuracy of the data submitted under the DATA Act and the implementation and use of data standards by federal agencies. See GAO-18- 138 and GAO-18-546. 15 16

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Mandated Report on Data Quality

(GAO-18-138) 17

• The DATA Act requires GAO to report to Congress and the

public on data quality in 2017, 2019, and 2021

• Data quality encompasses timeliness, completeness, and

accuracy (consistency with agency records)

• Tested data from a Treasury database linked to

Beta.USAspending.gov and covered Q2 FY2017

• Accuracy findings based on a sample of 402 budget and

award transactions projectable to the 24 CFO Act agencies

Looking Back: Selected Findings

Almost All Agency Data Submissions Were Timely, But We Identified Issues with Completeness

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Regarding Timeliness

• 78 agencies submitted Q2 FY2017 data by the statutory

deadline of May 8, 2017 or shortly thereafter Regarding Completeness

• Financial assistance programs with an estimated annual

spend of $80.8 billion were not included in the data reported for Q2 FY2017

• Thirteen agencies submitted files intended to link budget

and award information that did not contain any data

Looking Back: Selected Findings

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Budget Information Was Largely Consistent but Award Information Was Largely Inconsistent or Unverifiable

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Consistency of records

• Between 0 to 1 percent of award

records were fully consistent with agency sources

• Between 56 to 75 percent of

budget records were fully consistent Consistency of data elements

• 4 of 7 budget data elements were

“significantly consistent” with agency sources

• 11 of the 26 award data elements

were “significantly inconsistent”

Looking Back: Selected Findings

Different Definitions of Primary Place of Performance Affect Reporting

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Looking Back: Selected Findings

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Award Descriptions Submitted by Agencies Varied Greatly

Looking Back: Selected Findings

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Looking Back: Selected Findings

GAO’s Review of OIG Reports on Data Quality of Agency Submissions

(GAO-18-546)

• The second part of GAO’s mandated review

examined the findings of 53 data quality reports issued by federal OIGs in 2017

• For the 24 CFO Act Agencies:

18 of 24 OIGs did not find agency data to be generally complete, timely, accurate, or of quality

• For 29 non-CFO Act Agencies:

20 of 29 OIGs did not find agency data to be generally complete, timely, accurate, or of quality 21 22

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Agency OIGs Identified a Variety of Control Deficiencies

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Looking Back: Selected Findings

GAO Coordination with OIGs

• Bi-monthly coordination meetings
• Collaboration on revision of IG Guide to

Compliance

• Review of OIG reports and supporting

documentation

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Current Data Quality Reviews

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Current Data Quality Reviews

Key Differences between GAO and OIG DATA Act Reviews in 2019

OIGs

• Statistical sample timeframe: Q4 FY2018
• Results projectable governmentwide
• Data sampled from Treasury database underlying

USAspending

• Selected data elements reviewed
• Financial analytical tests of FY 2018 data
• Examines issues related to data governance and
• ther challenges
• Statistical sample timeframe: Q1 FY2019
• Results projectable to an individual agency
• Data sampled from each agency’s submission
• All 57 data elements reviewed, as applicable
• Examines agencies’ internal controls over source

systems and data submissions

• Reviews linkages between files

GAO’s 2019 Mandated Data Quality Review

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Three broad objectives: 1. Assess the quality of the government-wide data reported as required by the DATA Act 2. Describe any challenges with the implementation and use of data standards and how they affect data quality 3. Describe any progress made to develop a data governance structure and assess how the current approach to data governance affects data quality Approach for assessing data quality:

• Selected a random sample of 405 records from 30 federal agencies. The results from

this sample will be projectable government-wide.

• Will assess the quality of selected data elements by comparing sampled data to

agency source records and conducting analytical procedures to test budget and summary-level data

Current Data Quality Reviews

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Current Data Quality Reviews

New in GAO’s 2019 Data Quality Review

Compared to 2017, our current review

• Is a government-wide audit that will include both CFO Act and non-CFO Act agencies
• Will test additional data elements
• Includes additional financial analytical tests and reviews of SAO certification statements

and agency FY 2018 financial reports to identify data quality issues and challenges

• Will examine data governance and potential links to data quality
• Will include questions regarding practices related to selected data elements

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Open Recommendations and Next Steps

Currently there are 12 open GAO recommendations for OMB and Treasury regarding DATA Act implementation. These include the need to

• develop clearly defined data elements;
• establish a robust data governance structure;
• link financial spending data to a federal program inventory;
• create and communicate clear guidance to agencies; and
• more clearly disclose known data limitations

Looking ahead: Open GAO Recommendations

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Looking ahead: Recent/Pending Legislation and Other Efforts

Interest in Open Data Continues to Expand

• Following passage of the DATA Act, Congress

has continued to focus on data issues

• The Open, Public, Electronic, and Necessary

(OPEN) Government Data Act became law in January 2019 (P.L. 115-435)

• Future area of focus for GAO will likely be on the

use of data for management and oversight

Selected GAO Products on DATA Act and Open Data

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• DATA Act: OMB Needs to Formalize Data Governance for Reporting Federal Spending. GAO-19-284. Washington,

D.C.: March 22, 2019

• Open Data: Treasury Could Better Align USAspending.gov with Key Practices and Search Requirements. GAO-19-72.

Washington, D.C.: December 13, 2018

• DATA Act: Reported Quality of Agencies’ Spending Data Reviewed by OIGs Varied Because of Government-wide and

Agency Issues. GAO-18-546. Washington, D.C.: July 23, 2018

• DATA Act: OMB, Treasury, and Agencies Need to Improve Completeness and Accuracy of Spending Data and Disclose
• Limitations. GAO-18-138. Washington, D.C.: November 8, 2017
• DATA Act: As Reporting Deadline Nears, Challenges Remain That Will Affect Data Quality. GAO-17-496. Washington,

D.C.: April 28, 2017

• DATA Act: Office of Inspector General Reports Help Identify Agencies’ Implementation Challenges. GAO-17-460.

Washington, D.C.: April 26, 2017

• DATA Act: Data Standards Established, but More Complete and Timely Guidance Is Needed to Ensure Effective
• Implementation. GAO-16-261. Washington, D.C.: January 29, 2016

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Thank you for participating!

Questions?

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