DATA Act: GAO's Implementation Plan Evolves to Include Strategy and Risks Present Beyond Initial Reporting Deadline

Objective

This is a publication by GAO's Inspector General that concerns internal GAO operations. This report is the first in a series of Office of Inspector General's (OIG) reports that will review GAO's implementation of the DATA Act. It assesses whether GAO's efforts and readiness to report financial and payment data were consistent with the DATA Act's implementation guidance and requirements. Given the current stage of GAO's DATA Act implementation efforts, we limited our assessment to the first four of the eight steps in the Department of the Treasury's (Treasury) DATA Act Implementation Playbook.

What OIG Found

GAO developed a DATA Act implementation plan to comply with the Act's requirements by May 2017--the date agencies are required to start submitting their reports to Treasury. GAO, together with its shared service provider, has completed the first four of the eight steps recommended by Treasury for complying with the DATA Act's requirements. These steps consist of (1) organizing the DATA Act team, including designating a senior agency official, (2) reviewing the required data elements, (3) performing a data inventory, and (4) designing and strategizing changes to systems and business processes. We found that GAO's success in complying with the DATA Act depends on its shared service provider. In addition, we noted that GAO's June 2016 DATA Act implementation plan (which was in effect at the time of our review) was limited in scope--it described efforts to comply with the Act's requirements only through the first few reporting periods prior to migration to its new shared service provider and system.

In response to our work, GAO updated its implementation plan in November 2016 to include its long-term approach for complying with the DATA Act. Specifically, GAO acknowledged its decision to migrate to a new shared service provider and integrated financial management and procurement system in October 2017, and identified steps to mitigate risk to DATA Act compliance related to this migration. Given GAO's timely response to our findings, we are not making recommendations for corrective action. We shared our findings with GAO and obtained technical comments that we incorporated, as appropriate.

For more information, please contact Adam R. Trzeciak at (202) 512-5748 or trzeciaka@gao.gov.