Federal Reports

Audit of the Federal Trade Commission’s Compliance with the DATA Act

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) contracted with the independent public accounting firm CliftonLarsonAllen LLP (CLA) to audit VA’s compliance under the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act) for the first quarter of fiscal year 2019. The DATA Act requires the inspector general of each federal agency to review a statistically valid sample of the spending data submitted for publication on the website USASpending.gov. Each inspector general must then submit a publicly available report to Congress with an assessment of the completeness, timeliness, quality, and accuracy of the data sampled, along with the implementation and use of government-wide financial data standards. This is the second of three required biennial reports in accordance with the schedule recommended by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency. CLA reported that VA’s existing financial management and related systems have limited functionality to fully support the reporting standards and requirements under the DATA Act. Also, data management and reporting processes need improvement to ensure compliance with those requirements. As a result of these challenges, CLA reported that VA did not fully meet the reporting standards and attributes of completeness, timeliness, quality, and accuracy. Recommendations from CLA include that VA continue system modernization efforts and improve internal controls over certain aspects of the data-submission process. Overall, CLA made 16 recommendations for improving compliance under the DATA Act. VA’s response to CLA’s draft report indicated concurrence with all recommendations, and planned corrective actions are responsive. CLA is responsible for the attached report dated November 4, 2019, including its conclusions and recommendations. The OIG does not express an opinion on VA’s compliance.

The National Credit Union Administration Office of Inspector General conducted this audit in accordance with the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act). Specifically, we conducted this audit to assess the: (1) completeness, accuracy, timeliness, and quality of the financial and award data submitted for publication on USASpending.gov; and (2)the NCUA’s implementation and use of the government-wide financial data standards established by the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of the Treasury.

As part of its oversight activities, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) is conducting a series of audits of Medicaid school-based costs claimed by States that used contingency fee contractors. In New Jersey, a prior OIG audit found that a contingency fee contractor made incorrect or unsupported changes to random moment timestudies used to calculate payment rates for Medicaid school-based health services. Because the contractor used similar timestudies to calculate Medicaid school-based administrative costs, we initiated this audit.