Department of Commerce

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...

For our audit of the Department's multifactor authentication (MFA) for its high value assets (HVA), our objective was to determine whether the Department has implemented MFA for its HVAs in accordance with zero trust architecture (ZTA) principles. To address this objective, we determined the extent...

The objective of our audit was to determine whether USPTO’s processes and activities for acquisition planning are effective and consistent with established practices, procedures, and regulations. Overall, we found that USPTO’s processes and activities for acquisition planning were ineffective and...

This report summarizes work we initiated and completed during this semiannual period on a number of critical U.S. Department of Commerce (Department) activities. Over the past 6 months, our office issued 10 products related to our audit, evaluation, and inspection work. These products addressed...

For our audit of the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s (EDA’s) monitoring of fiscal year (FY) 2019 disaster relief grants, our objective was to determine whether EDA monitored grants awarded under the FY 2019 EDA Disaster Supplemental Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) to ensure...