The Department’s Compliance Under the DATA Act

The objectives of our audit were to assess the (1) completeness, accuracy, timeliness, and quality of the financial and award data submitted for publication on USASpending.gov and (2) U.S. Department of Education’s (Department) implementation and use of the Government-wide financial data standards established by the Office of Management and Budget and U.S. Department of the Treasury. We found that the Department generally met reporting requirements under the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act). Specifically, we found that the Department had adequate controls over its DATA Act source systems and submission processes to provide reasonable assurance that it met reporting requirements under the DATA Act. Further, we found that Files A (Appropriations Account), B (Object Class and Program Activity), and C (Award Financial Data)2 were generally complete, and the Department’s quarterly DATA Act submission was timely. However, we found that File C did not include 36 records that should have otherwise been recorded in the quarter. Specifically, records were excluded from File C because the Department did not have an adequate process to assess programming code, test for missing records, and obtain all required data as soon as File C is generated.