Review of Statistical Methods Employed in the Financial Interchange Determination

Date Issued

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Submitting OIG

Railroad Retirement Board OIG

Other Participating OIGs

Railroad Retirement Board OIG

Agencies Reviewed/Investigated

Railroad Retirement Board

Report Number

10-06

Report Type

Audit

Agency Wide

Yes

Number of Recommendations

Questioned Costs

Funds for Better Use

Open Recommendations

This report has 2 open recommendations.

Recommendation Number	Significant Recommendation	Recommended Questioned Costs	Recommended Funds for Better Use
1	No	$0	$0
The Railroad Retirement Board's Bureau of Actuary should improve its documentation of the sampling employed in the Financial Interchange process by: Creating a single document that explains the process used to create the sampling frame and sample, including source database(s) used, the variables of interest, and the programs/media used to execute the process steps. The documentation should be written such that a person with the requisite skills, but without knowledge of the Financial Interchange calculations, could understand and replicate the sampling process.
5	No	$0	$0
The Railroad Retirement Board's Bureau of Actuary should test more than one post-stratification method and employ the method that minimizes the sampling error.