FY 2017 Audit of NEA Compliance with the DATA Act

The auditors determined that NEA substantially complied with the DATA Act for FY 2017 Q2. Quarter 2 data was submitted timely with over 95 percent of its data submitted accurately, completely, and in accordance with government-wide data standards. However, we noted six procurement awards included in File C that were not listed in File D1. These transactions were erroneously included in File C due to timing issues and a misunderstanding about what types of transactions should be included. These six files represent 2.3% of the sample tested.We recommend that NEA enforce the validations required by the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to ensure all obligations in File C correspond to the award data in File D1. Moreover, NEA should update their DATA Act SOP to reflect the type of awards that should be excluded and/or included from DATA Act reporting.