DOT Has Made Significant Progress Meeting the Requirements of the Geospatial Data Act of 2018 but Has Not Maintained an Accurate Inventory

Our Objective(s) To assess the Department of Transportation's (DOT) progress implementing its responsibilities under the Geospatial Data Act (GDA) as a (1) lead covered agency and (2) covered agency.Why This Audit Federal agencies and State governments rely on geospatial data to accomplish their missions. Geospatial data can also be critical to monitoring and responding to transportation safety issues. The GDA requires inspectors general of covered agencies to report to Congress at least every 2 years on their agencies' collection, production, acquisition, maintenance, distribution, use, and preservation of geospatial data. This is our third audit under the act, which revisits the objectives of our first two audits conducted in 2020 and 2022.What We FoundDOT fully complies with the GDA's requirements for lead covered agencies.DOT has fully implemented the five responsibilities related to the maintenance and dissemination of its transportation theme data.The Department has developed a plan to implement standards for transportation theme data, which includes creating an online document repository and procedures for standards adjudication and adoption.DOT complies with the GDA’s general and reporting requirements for covered agencies but partially complies with the inventory requirement.DOT meets all 12 of the Act's applicable covered agency requirements for advancing geospatial data through implementation of its strategy, record schedules, and use of geospatial information.The Department provided timely annual reports to the Federal Geographic Data Committee and Congress; however, it did not maintain an accurate geospatial system inventory.Recommendations We made two recommendations to improve DOT’s geospatial data assets inventory and reduce geospatial systems’ risks.