Skip to main content

What the Federal Government Is Doing About Auditing Computers

Published: Aug 23, 1977. Publicly Released: Aug 23, 1977.
Jump To:
Skip to Highlights

Highlights

Internal auditing of computers used in the Federal Government requires a review of controls used in operation in addition to a determination that proper controls are built into the systems design. The total computer processing units in the Federal Government exceeds 10,000; this excludes those integral to weapons systems, the Central Intelligence Agency, or the National Security Agency. Although GAO does not generally perform financial statement audits, it is concerned about controls over payrolls. It was found that, in the Military District of Washington, there were few edit checks and no limit checks and that the program would process just about anything that fit on 80 columns. At Federal agencies it was discovered that paychecks were issued to separated employees; current employees were paid wrong amounts; and in some cases, duplicate paychecks were issued. Most of the crimes uncovered related to inadequate input controls exploited primarily by system users, not programmers and analysts. GAO has advised Federal agencies that, if auditing requires extensive review of computerized systems, the audit staff must include persons having appropriate computer skills. GAO has disseminated guides within the Government containing detailed procedures for conducting a comprehensive review of the efficiency and reliability of automated systems.

Office of Public Affairs