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Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Auditor questions DoT financial system database

The Transportation Department's shared service center for federal financial management systems could be operating a database for which new security upgrades aren't provided, according to the Transportation inspector general.


In a report dated Oct. 5, the OIG says contractor auditor Clifton Gunderson, of Calverton, Md., found that the shared service center has been operating a Delphi financial system on a database whose vendor stopped providing security updates in February 2009.

Transportation operates the center as one of four financial systems shared service providers that support other federal agencies under a George W. Bush-era Office of Management and Budget initiative known as the lines of business. In addition to providing financial system support services to DoT, the center also supports a clutch of small agencies including the Government Accountability Office. Current OMB policy no longer requires that agencies at least consider utilizing a shared service provider when upgrading their financial systems.

In its response to the audit, the Transportation office of chief financial officer--which manages the center--said the Delphi operating system never went out of support. "The software remains supported by Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) and will continue to be until we move the system to an updated version of the software," wrote David Rivait, the DoT deputy CFO.

The audit otherwise found that the center's controls are suitably designed to meet their objectives and that tested controls "operated with sufficient effectiveness to provide reasonable, but not absolute, assurance."

-David Perera, FierceGovernmentIT.com
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