Department of Commerce

We conducted this review to determine whether the U.S. Department of Commerce complied with the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 (PIIA), which is intended to improve efforts to identify and reduce government-wide improper payments. Broadly defined, improper payments are those the federal...

The U.S. Census Bureau awarded the 2020 Census Integrated Communications Contract (ICC) in August 2016 as part of a campaign to raise awareness and encourage response during the 2020 census. Our audit objective was to determine whether the bureau effectively managed selected ICC task orders to...

A primary goal of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is to expand U.S. broadband Internet access and adoption. To help meet this goal, NTIA administers six broadband programs, including the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP). Our objective for this audit...

We contracted with the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), an independent firm, to perform this evaluation. Our office oversaw the evaluation’s progress to ensure that IDA performed it in accordance with the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency’s Quality Standards for...

For the independent program evaluation of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Pandemic Relief Program, the evaluation objective was to determine whether NIST grantees and subrecipients accounted for and expended pandemic relief funds provided under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and...

While conducting a risk assessment to inform our Fiscal Year 2024 Top Management and Performance Challenges Facing the Department of Commerce report, we concluded that the ship construction program the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is currently undertaking is insufficient to...

We issued this management alert to notify the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of potential risks identified during an ongoing evaluation that could affect NTIA’s broadband programs, primarily the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. Specifically...

We audited the Department’s progress in managing and implementing the Business Applications Solution (BAS) program. BAS is an enterprise financial system that will modernize the Department’s aging and disparate systems. We found that although the program prepared for the National Oceanic and...

We contracted with the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), an independent firm, to evaluate the U.S. Census Bureau's EAE operation. The original objective was to determine whether the bureau prepared adequate and timely operational assessments that included the appropriate metrics to support...

For our evaluation of the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO’s) and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s (the Department’s) ethics oversight of USPTO patent examiners, our evaluation objective was to determine whether USPTO and the Department effectively administered ethics rules to...