2020 Census: The Census Bureau’s Oversight of Contractor Performance During the 2018 End-to-End Test’s Census Questionnaire Assistance Operation Was Deficient in Some Areas and Did Not Implement Some Lessons Learned for the Operation

For our audit of the U.S. Census Bureau’s (the Bureau's) Census Questionnaire Assistance (CQA) operation -- in support of our oversight role over the planning and implementation of the 2020 Census -- our audit objectives were to determine how previous internal assessments informed the operation, how the CQA contract was planned, and how its costs were managed. Specifically, we sought to (1) determine whether the Bureau (a) implemented effective internal controls for controlling the cost of the CQA contract and (b) sufficiently supported the workloads and cost drivers used to estimate the CQA contract cost; and (2) determine whether the Bureau will be able to inform the 2020 Census CQA operation by utilizing lessons learned during the 2010 Census, the 2017 Census Test, and the 2018 End-to-End Census Test. Our testing did not identify significant deficiencies in the Bureau’s internal controls over how CQA contractor invoices are processed. Our testing of a sample of monthly contractor invoices from July 2016 to July 2018, specifically for labor charges and overhead costs, found that the costs charged were in line with the contract’s negotiated rates. Additionally, the Bureau was generally able to support the workloads and cost drivers for the CQA contract costs based on an independent government cost estimate dated February 18, 2016, which was prior to the contract award. We found that key assumptions such as contact center employee labor, facility space costs, workspace allocations, staffing ratios, and the number of calls received per customer service representative, were supported. However, we found issues with the internal controls used to manage the CQA contract, specifically performance, and the resolution of lessons learned from previous tests.