Federal Reports

For our final report on our audit of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s (the Department’s) collection, production, acquisition, maintenance, distribution, use, and preservation of geospatial data, our objective was to assess the Department’s progress toward compliance with Geospatial Data Act requirements under 43 U.S.C. § 2808(a). We found the Department has generally made progress toward complying with 10 of the 13 requirements under this section. However: I. The Department’s geospatial metadata is inconsistent with best practices from FGDC Technical Guidance: Data.gov and The GeoPlatform Metadata Recommendations Including Guidelines for National Geospatial Data Assets (NGDA); and II. Technical challenges on GeoPlatform are still causing metadata harvesting issues.

For our final report on our audit of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s (theDepartment’s) working capital funds (WCFs) operated by the Office of the Secretary(Departmental) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), our auditobjectives were to determine whether (1) the Departmental and NIST WCF billing methodsused to allocate costs for internal Department support services are valid, reasonable, andconsistently applied in accordance with applicable Department policies and (2) the internalDepartment support services costs billed through the WCFs are reasonable, allowable, andsupported with documentation in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and policies. We contracted with KPMG LLP—an independent certified public accounting firm—to perform this audit in accordance with Government Auditing Standards and contract terms. Our officeoversaw the progress of this audit; however, KPMG is solely responsible for the attachedreport and conclusions expressed in it.

DFC OIG contracted with RMA Associates, LLC (RMA) to audit DFC’s compliance with the BUILD Act. Our audit objectives were to: (1) assess DFC’s actions to implement 118 BUILD Act provisions; (2) assess the status of planned actions for those provisions DFC has not yet implemented; and (3) identify challenges that could affect DFC’s timely implementation of those planned actions. In addition, to evaluate steps DFC has taken to prioritize investments in LICs and LMICs, we compared OPIC investments to DFC investments. We also created scorecards for each BUILD Act provision.

The Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which also provides oversight for the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, or CSB, contracted with the independent accounting firm SB & Company LLC to initiate an evaluation of the CSB’s compliance with the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014, or FISMA.

What We Looked At The Department of Transportation (DOT) is responsible for fostering and promoting uniform time observance—including Daylight Saving Time (DST)—as well as evaluating requests to change time zones. Since 2015, at least 45 States have proposed legislation either to change their observance of DST or to establish permanent standard time. Recent Federal interest, such as the March 2022 U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing on DST and the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021, highlights the importance of DST and time zone changes to impacted communities. Given the recent interest and potential impact of time zone changes on transportation, we initiated this audit with a limited scope to assess DOT’s processes for evaluating and responding to requests from States and localities for time zone changes and DST exemptions. What We Found While DOT is responsible for evaluating and processing time zone change petitions from States and localities, it does not have written guidance in place specifically addressing how the petitions should be evaluated and validated. Instead, if it were to receive a petition, the Department would process the petition according to the general rulemaking procedures and DOT Order already in place. However, it has been roughly 12 years since the Department last processed a petition and officials currently responsible for this area were not involved in the process the last time it took place. In addition, although DOT does not have the authority to grant exemptions from DST, it is responsible for fostering and promoting uniform time observance. Yet, it does not have processes for monitoring localities that are not observing DST or their assigned time zone and may not be aware of possible instances of non-uniform time observance. In addition, the Department does not provide sufficiently detailed information for the public to promptly and accurately identify non-compliant localities. Our Recommendations The Office of the Secretary of Transportation concurred with all five of our recommendations to improve DOT’s evaluation of time zone changes and promotion of uniform time observance and provided appropriate actions and completion dates. We consider these recommendations resolved but open, pending completion of planned actions.