FedScoop Exclusive: HHS to lead 2-year DATA Act pilot

The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act is in full swing, with the Office of Management and Budget and the Treasury Department catching headlines in their path to issue a governmentwide set of financial data standards by May 2015. But quietly in the background, the Department of Health and Human Services is gearing up to lead a two-year pilot of the DATA Act to test how data standardization in a complex federal ecosystem works.

Section 5 of the DATA Act — a mandate for financial data transparency in conjunction with USAspending.gov — requires OMB to launch a pilot, and the office chose HHS to test the waters of the act’s massive and complex data standardization efforts. Beginning next May, a year after the act was signed into law, HHS will be the test dummy for the grant portion of the DATA Act to help OMB, the Treasury and the federal government as a whole better understand things like “the impact of data standardization across many different lines of business” and “where there are opportunities to eliminate unnecessary duplication of financial reporting,” Amy Haseltine, director of DATA Act Program Management Office and chief DATA Act officer with HHS, explained to FedScoop.

This two-year pilot of the act is by no means a walk in the park, though all agencies are required by May 2017 to report their financial statements in accordance with the new standards. But Haseltine thinks HHS will benefit greatly from its work. 

-Billy Mitchell, FedScoop.com 
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DHS faces stiff acquisition, IT management challenges, IG says

The Department of Homeland Security is facing major challenges ensuring employee accountability, streamlining acquisitions and managing its IT projects, according to an annual report released Nov. 18 by the DHS inspector general.

The IG received over 29,000 complaints against DHS employees and opened more than 1,000 investigations — achieving 300 convictions and affecting 100 personnel action. DHS must quickly recognize poor performers and illegal acts and move to stop them, the IG said.

The agency also struggles with delivering its acquisitions on time and on budget with the right capabilities, according to the report. While DHS has made some efforts to better manage its acquisitions it needs to continually improve and assess its efforts, the IG said.

DHS should also work on other management issues, including:

• Financial management: While the agency was able to obtain a clean financial audit for the second year in a row, it required considerable manual effort by the agency to overcome flaws in its financial IT systems, according to the IG. The agency needs to strengthen its financial management programs to eliminate these issues and make it easier to produce a clean audit.

• Grants management: Most of the challenges in grant management rest with the Federal Emergency Management Administration, which did not properly spend and document about 23 percent of disaster-assistance grants.

• Operations integration: The IG identified projects and programs shared between agencies that had weak levels of oversight, and that the agency does not have adequate systems to centrally track some of these shared programs. DHS spent more than $35.3 million on a fleet of cars shared between components that were underused, the IG said.

DHS agreed with many of the IG findings and said that many of the issues are being addressed by the agency-wide effort to coordinate and combine a diverse set of legacy agencies into one cohesive unit. The “Unity of Effort” initiative is building important bridges in DHS’ planning, programming and budgeting processes, according to Jim Crumpacker, the director of the departmental IG liaison office.

-Andy Medici, FederalTimes.com
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Massive inconsistencies continue to affect USASpending.gov data

Agencies have not been properly reporting their grants and loans to USASpending.gov, according to the Government Accountability Office. A probe of data on the website found that only 2-to-7 percent of awards listed were entirely consistent when checked against agencies records.

"Although agencies generally reported information for contracts to USASpending.gov, they did not properly report information on assistance awards, totaling nearly $619 billion," GAO said in its report it released Friday.

GAO said the most common data inconsistency were descriptions of an award's place of performance. The names of recipients are the most consistent between records and online. GAO could not determine how consistent other award records were because agencies' records were incomplete or inadequate.

The report said 10 percent of awards information could not be verified and a significant amount of information could not be verified about program source information and the state of performance.

Among the inconsistencies, GAO found that some online awards records did not have verifiable data from their issuing agencies. The Office of Management and Budget placed requirements on agencies to ensure their data has substantiated information and verifying documents, but GAO said the standards have not been effective.

Federal funding of the improperly reported awards totaled $619 billion. GAO recommended OMB issue guidance clarifying agencies' reporting requirements.

It also wants agencies to keep better records to verify information on USASpending.gov and wants an oversight process to regularly check consistency between the records.

GAO's report is not the first time USASpending.gov has come under fire. In 2013, OMB gave agencies a November 2014 deadline to assure that all information on the site is accurate.

- Ariel Levin-Waldman, FederalNewsRadio.com
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OMB and COFAR Offer Webinar: Uniform Grant Guidance Training—Supercircular

January 27, 2014 Webinar

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Council on Financial Assistance Reform (COFAR) will conduct a full-day webinar on the major grant reform “Supercircular” on Monday, January 27. The guidance, which was published as a final rule on December 26, 2013 deals with Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards. Register here for the webinar and to get on a mailing list for future announcements and training on the “Superciruclar.” The webinar will be conducted from 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. This is an opportunity for AGA members to not only get their questions answered, but contribute to the body of knowledge that will be developed, through an official Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document that OMB is developing to assist with implementation. Questions should be submitted to cofar@omb.eop.gov. https://cfo.gov/cofar Email: cofar@omb.eop.gov

OMB Releases Federal Grant Reform Guidance

OMB and the Council on Financial Assistance Reform (COFAR) are pleased to inform you that today the Federal Register will file for online public inspection reforms to OMB Guidance entitled "Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards." The guidance will be published in the December 26th edition of the Federal Register.

Please join us on Friday, December 20, 2013, at 11:45 a.m. for a COFAR webcast on the new guidance. Please visit www.cfo.gov/cofar for more information and to register for the webcast. Questions may be submitted to COFAR@omb.eop.gov.

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OMB proposes federal grant management changes

The Office of Management and Budget has proposed consolidating the process that awards more than $600 billion annually in federal grants and financial assistance.

The proposals from OMB, published to the Federal Register on Feb. 1, seek to combine multiple sets regulations into "into a single, comprehensive and streamlined uniform policy guide," says OMB Controller Danny Werfel.

He says OMB published potential grant reform ideas in February 2012 and that comments on those plus input from the Council on Financial Assistance Reform were used to develop this proposal.

Proposed changes and measures include:

• combining eight OMB grant guidance documents into one that clarifies important differences for different agencies;
• allowing applicant risk assessments to be conducted at any point prior to an agency making an award;
• notices of funding opportunities will need to be open for a minimum of 30 days on grants.gov "unless required by statue or unless exigent circumstances dictate otherwise;"
• provide guidance to increase oversight of grant sub-recipients;
• limiting compliance requirements to seven areas that OMB feels, if violated, pose the greatest risk for waste, fraud or abuse; and
• concentrating audit resolution and oversight on higher dollar and higher risk awards.

The office says it is interested in broad public feedback and will use comments to develop a refined final guidance document. The comment period ends on May 2, 2013.

The reforms support both a November 2009 executive order to reduce improper payments and eliminate waste and a February 2011 memo promoting administrative flexibility, says Werfel.

-Geoff Whiting, FierceGovernment.com
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Simplified rules proposed for agencies doling out $600 billion in federal grants

To hold agencies more accountable for reducing paperwork and reducing improper payments, the Office of Management and Budget proposed consolidating federal guidance for administering some $600 billion in annual grants and financial assistance payments.

The proposed rule “is intended to both increase the efficiency and effectiveness of grant programs by eliminating unnecessary and duplicative requirements and strengthen the oversight of grant dollars by focusing on areas such as eligibility, monitoring of sub-recipients, adequate reporting, and other areas that are potential indices of waste, fraud or abuse,” wrote Comptroller Danny Werfel in a Friday blogpost. The proposed improvements follow President Obama’s 2009 executive order on reducing improper payments and curbing waste but are balanced against a February 2011 presidential memorandum on promoting administrative flexibility. They were prepared after public comment and consultation with the interagency Council on Financial Assistance Reform, which the White House created in October 2011.

Key components of the proposed guidance include:

• Harmonizing and streamlining all OMB guidance on grants from eight documents into one, while clarifying key differences for different entities;
• Simplifying the reporting requirements grantees must adhere to in justifying salaries and wages charged to grants;
• Ensuring that federal agencies better review financial risk posed by applicants and merits of an application before providing a grant;
• Providing guidance to ensure robust oversight of sub-recipients;
• Focusing more audit resources on preventing waste, fraud, and abuse; and
• Holding agencies accountable for getting results and addressing weaknesses among grant recipients.

Comments on the proposed consolidation are due by May 2, 2013.

- Charles S. Clark, GovExec.com
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Microsoft Dynamics Now Meets Gov’t Security Requirements

Microsoft recently announced the availability of cloud-based Microsoft Dynamics business services designed to meet the security and functionality requirements of U.S. federal government agencies.

The services were designed to enable government organizations to collaborate, manage data and improve processes, while leveraging the potential flexibility and cost savings of a cloud-based delivery model hosted by Microsoft partner Layered Technologies Inc.

Intended to meet the National Institute of Standards and Technology security and control standards required of federal agencies for Federal Information Security Management Act compliance, the Layered Tech environment includes a private cloud with dedicated hardware and physical storage for the tightest security requirements, Microsoft said.

A set of Microsoft Dynamics services will be available on the new infrastructure, designed to allow government agencies to provide functions such as workforce management, task management, field inspection, intelligence gathering, call center interactions, financial management, grants management and emergency response.

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Today's GAO Publication

Grants Management: Improving the Timeliness of Grant Closeouts by Federal Agencies and Other Grants Management Challenges, by Stanley J. Czerwinski, director, strategic issues, before the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
GAO-12-704T, July 25.

http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-704T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/assets/600/592996.pdf

GAT Board to finish testing spending oversight tools this summer

Agencies are conducting a series of pilot programs to improve the oversight and processing of grants, contracts, loans and other spending data.


The test programs are part of how the Government Accountability and Transparency (GAT) Board is implementing three broad-based recommendations.

President Barack Obama created the GAT Board in June 2011 in an executive order. Just last week, the President announced Richard Ginman, the director of Defense Department procurement policy, will be the chairman of the board. In that role, he replaced Earl Devaney, who retired on Dec. 31.

"[T] he GATB has been working closely with the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which established a new benchmark for how we should collect, display and oversee federal spending data under the Recovery Act through Recovery.gov and its innovative Recovery Operations Center," wrote Danny Werfel, the Office of Management and Budget's controller, in a blog post Monday. "Together with the Recovery Board, federal agencies, OMB and others, the GATB is a critical driver of continued progress in our forthcoming efforts to make federal spending data more complete, more transparent, and more reliable."

The board made three recommendations to Obama in December, and since then have been implementing each one of them on a pilot basis.


-Jason Miller, FederalNewsRadio.com
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Recent GAO Publications

Management Report: Improvements Needed in Controls over the Preparation of the U.S. Consolidated Financial Statements.
GAO-12-529, June 27.
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-529
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/assets/600/591936.pdf


DOD Financial Management: Improvements Needed in Prompt Payment Monitoring and Reporting.
GAO-12-662R, June 26.
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-662R

Managing for Results: A Guide for Using the GPRA Modernization Act to Help Inform Congressional Decision Making.
GAO-12-621SP, June 15.
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-621SP

Recovery Act: Housing Programs Met Spending Milestones, but Asset Management Information Needs Evaluation.
GAO-12-634, June 18.
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-634
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/assets/600/591681.pdf

Federal Real Property: National Strategy and Better Data Needed to Improve Management of Excess and Underutilized Property.
GAO-12-645, June 20.
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-645
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/assets/600/591752.pdf

Health Center Program: Improved Oversight Needed to Ensure Grantee Compliance with Requirements.
GAO-12-546, May 29.
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-546
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/assets/600/591178.pdf

Management Report: Improvements Are Needed to Enhance the Internal Revenue Service's Internal Controls and Operating Effectiveness.
GAO-12-683R, June 25.
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-683R

OMB: Reform of Federal Policies Relating to Grants and Cooperative Agreements; cost principles and administrative requirements (including Single Audit Act)

Consistent with the Administration’s commitment to increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of Federal programs, the reform effort seeks to strengthen the oversight of Federal grant dollars by aligning existing administrative requirements to better address ongoing and emerging risks to program outcomes and integrity. The reform effort further seeks to increase efficiency and effectiveness of grant programs by eliminating unnecessary and duplicative requirements. Through close and sustained collaboration with Federal and non-Federal partners, OMB has developed a series of reform ideas that would standardize information collections across agencies, adopt a risk-based model for Single Audits, and provide new administrative approaches for determining and monitoring the allocation of Federal funds.

This advance notice outlines the reform ideas for which OMB seeks public comment. These comments will assist OMB in its development in the coming months of a further Federal Register notice, to be published for comment later this year, which would propose specific revisions to existing requirements. These reform ideas relate to, and could result in proposed revisions to the following governmentwide issuances: OMB Circulars A-21, A-87, A-110, and A-122 (which have been placed in 2 C.F.R. Parts 220, 225, 215, and 230); Circulars A-89, A-102, and A-133; the guidance in Circular A-50 on Single Audit Act follow-up; and the Cost Principles for Hospitals at 45 C.F.R. Part 74, Appendix E.
 
Download the Advanced Notice of Proposed Guidance Here

Miami-Dade must repay $3.6M in Housing and Urban Development funds

Miami-Dade County must repay $3.6 million in federal Community Development Block Grant money because the county can't show auditors the money was properly used.

In the latest sign of weak financial controls in Miami-Dade government, the county must pay back $3.6 million in federal grant funds received from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development after a federal audit found that county officials couldn't show the money was properly used.

The county's latest problems with HUD -- which administrators unveiled at a County Commission meeting Thursday -- come just two years after the federal agency returned control of the troubled Miami-Dade Housing Agency to county hands after 15 months under HUD supervision.

The disclosure angered several commissioners -- particularly in view of unrelated financial woes at the Miami-Dade Transit Agency, which has seen all federal grant reimbursements stop after an audit found shoddy financial management and weak internal controls.

-Martha Brannigan, MiamiHerald.com
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Today's GAO Publication

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) today released the following report:

Reissued Product
1. Recovery Act: Department of Justice Could Better Assess Justice Assistance Grant Program Impact. GAO-11-87, October 15.

http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-87

Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d1187high.pdf

Recent DHS IG Reports

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Inspector General recently released the following reports:

Annual Financial Report for Fiscal Year 2009
(PDF, 290 pages - 19.98 MB), full report; page 12 corrected March 17, 2010.

Budget-in-Brief FY 2011
(PDF, 159 pages – 1.94 MB)

FY2011 Budget Fact Sheet

Congressional Budget Justification FY 2011
(PDF, 3,985 pages – 20.31 MB)

Exhibit 300: Capital Asset Plan and Business Case Summaries

OIG-10-31 - Annual Report to Congress on States' and Urban Areas' Management of Homeland Security Grant Programs Fiscal Year 2009
(PDF, 20 pages - 403 KB)

OIG-10-33 - The State of Missouri's Management of State Homeland Security Program and Urban Areas Security Initiative Grants Awarded During Fiscal Years 2005 through 2007
(PDF, 30 pages - 886 KB)

OIG-10-42 - Department of Homeland Security's Acquisition Data Management Systems
(PDF, 29 pages - 2.21 MB)

OIG-10-51 - Independent Auditors' Report on U.S.Custom and Border Protection's FY 2009 Financial Statements
(PDF, 31 pages - 693 KB)

OIG-10-35 - Federal Emergency Management Agency Working Capital Fund FY 2009 (Unclassified Version)
(PDF, 21 pages - 1.26 MB)

DHS adds oversight to grants, contracts - FederalTimes.com

Top Homeland Security Department officials say their biggest near-term management priority is providing better oversight of the department's $2 billion in annual grants and nearly $15 billion in annual contracts.

The department has issued some $20 billion in grants — mostly through the Federal Emergency Management Agency — since it was created seven years ago. But DHS doesn't know whether the grants have improved security or disaster preparedness; audits by the Government Accountability Office criticized some grant programs for duplicating one another and focusing on the wrong goals.

Large contracting programs — such as the Coast Guard's Deepwater program, and the department's high-tech border security system called SBINet — often break their budgets and fall short of expectations.

Department officials say they're taking steps to fix those problems.
Elaine Duke, the department's undersecretary for management, said she's setting up a new oversight office to manage DHS grant programs. The department plans to staff the office with 20 people, and is more than halfway to that goal. Staffers will review inspector general reports on grant programs to look for problematic trends, and they'll work with managers to improve the quality of data collected about grant programs.

But grant and contract management is only one of many problems plaguing the department, according to the latest annual report from the inspector general. Information technology systems still have endemic security flaws; the department still hasn't consolidated separate IT systems from its dozens of component agencies; and financial management systems still don't interact with one another.

Experts, DHS officials and even auditors say that, despite the criticism, the department ismaking progress in areas including IT security, procurement and grants management.

In the long term, experts say, DHS will face much larger challenges in fixing its financial management systems. They received the lowest marks in the recent IG's report; Inspector General Richard Skinner said the department has made only minimal progress toward consolidating those systems. And it lacks sufficient accounting and financial management personnel to audit its financial statements.

Maurer, the GAO analyst, said many of those problems are from legacy systems at the nearly two dozen agencies that combined to form DHS. He also said the department didn't think through its needs early on — and many of the early IT systems it bought are now coming back to cause problems.

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Recent GAO Publications

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released the following publications:

Financial Audit: Office of Financial Stability (Troubled Asset Relief Program) Fiscal Year 2009 Financial Statements.
GAO-10-301, December 9.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-301Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10301high.pdf

Recovery Act: States' Use of Highway and Transit Funds and Efforts to Meet the Act's Requirements, by Katherine A. Siggerud, managing director, physical infrastructure issues, before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
GAO-10-312T, December 10.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-312T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10312thigh.pdf

Smithsonian Institution: Implementation of Governance Reforms Is Progressing, but Work Remains.
GAO-10-190R, December 10.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-190R
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10190rhigh.pdf

Recovery Act: Status of States' and Localities' Use of Funds and Efforts to Ensure Accountability.
GAO-10-231, December 10.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-231
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10231high.pdf

Recovery Act: Status of States' and Localities' Use of Funds and Efforts to Ensure Accountability (Appendixes).
GAO-10-232SP, December 10.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-232SP

Troubled Asset Relief Program: The U.S. Government Role as Shareholder in AIG, Citigroup, Chrysler, and General Motors and Preliminary Views on its Investment Management Activities, by Orice Williams Brown, director, financial markets and community investment, and A. Nicole Clowers, acting director, physical infrastructure, before the Subcommittee on Domestic Policy, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
GAO-10-325T, December 16.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-325T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10325thigh.pdf

Veterans Health Administration: Inadequate Controls over Miscellaneous Obligations Increase Risk over Procurement Transactions, by Kay L. Daly, director, financial management and assurance, before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
GAO-10-307T, December 16.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-307T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10307thigh.pdf

Status of GAO Recommendations to the Department of Defense (Fiscal Years 2001-2008).
GAO-10-211R, December 16.http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-211R

Formula Grants: Funding for the Largest Federal Assistance Programs Is Based on Census-Related Data and Other Factors.
GAO-10-263, December 15.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-263
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10263high.pdf

Impoundment Control Act: Use and Impact of Rescission Procedures, by Susan A. Poling, managing associate general counsel, office of general counsel, before the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
GAO-10-320T, December 16.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-320T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10320thigh.pdf

UN Office for Project Services: Management Reforms Proceeding but Effectiveness Not Assessed, and USAID's Oversight of Grants Has Weaknesses.
GAO-10-168, November 19.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-168
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10168high.pdf

Recovery Act: Planned Efforts and Challenges in Evaluating Compliance with Maintenance of Effort and Similar Provisions.
GAO-10-247, November 30
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-247
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10247high.pdf

Appropriations Decisions:

B-318499, Department of the Navy--Lunch for Volunteer Focus Group,
November 19, 2009
http://www.gao.gov/decisions/appro/318499.htm

B-318425, Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation
Board--Interagency Agreement with the General Services
Administration, December 8, 2009
http://www.gao.gov/decisions/appro/318425.htm

IG Upgrades DHS Acquisition Management

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has improved management of its major management activities slightly over last year, making some progress in achieving its goals in acquisition management, according to a scorecard released Wednesday by the DHS inspector general (IG).

The scorecard found DHS making "moderate" progress in acquisition management, information technology management, and emergency management--indicating that DHS was meeting many of its goals in those areas but not quite achieving "substantial" success.

However, DHS is making only modest progress in grants management and financial management due to failing to meet many of its goals in those areas. The rating "modest" is one step below a rating of "limited" on the four-step scale used by the IG office to rate the categories in its report Major Management Challenges Facing the Department of Homeland Security.

Grants management and financial management were the weakest management areas for the department, the report found.

While FEMA made "moderate" progress in meeting the goals of successful disaster grants management, it made only "modest" progress in doing so for non-disaster grants.

For both, FEMA should exert more influence to implement improved oversight of subgrantees. But non-disaster grants management suffers from inconsistent and incomplete financial and program monitoring, the report found, partly because FEMA does not have enough grants management staffers to manage the programs.

Financial management at the department also remains weak, with the IG office granting a score of "modest" to the department's efforts. Both military and civilian financial systems at DHS face tremendous challenges.

The US Coast Guard has made little progress in tackling internal control weaknesses identified by an audit in fiscal 2008, the report said. Those weaknesses include a lack of an effective general ledger system and a lack of effective policies, procedures, and controls surrounding the financial reporting process.

While the Coast Guard plans to overcome many of these problems in future years, it lacked sufficient financial management personnel to resolve these issues in fiscal 2009, the report said.

With regard to its civilian financial systems, DHS has several internal control weaknesses in its financial reporting, particularly at FEMA and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the report said. Financial reporting actually deteriorated at US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) during fiscal 2009 as well, but problems at that agency are not as bad as problems at FEMA and TSA, the report characterized.

-Mickey McCarter, HSToday
READ MORE...

Recent DHS IG Reports

The following Inspector General Management Reports for U.S. Department of Homeland Security were recently published:

OIG-10-11 - Independent Auditor's Report on DHS' FY 2009 Financial Statements and Internal Control over Financial Reporting (PDF, 57 pages - 794 KB)

OIG-10-16 - Major Management Challenges Facing the Department of Homeland Security (PDF, 36 pages - 802 KB)

OIG-09-105 - CBP Needs to Improve the Monitoring of the Cash Collection Process (PDF, 21 pages - 1.24 MB)

OIG-09-104 - Audit of Application Controls for FEMA's Individual Assistance Payment Application (PDF, 23 pages - 867 KB)

Homeland Security Acquisition Manual (HSAM) (PDF, 399 pages - 6.33 MB) implements and supplements the Federal Acquisition Regulation and the Homeland Security Acquisition Regulation. Effective through HSAM Notice 09-03.

Recent GAO Publications

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released the following reports, correspondences and testimonies:

Recovery Act: Recipient Reported Jobs Data Provide Insight into Use of Recovery Act Funding, but Data Quality and Reporting Issues Need Attention.
GAO-10-223, November 19.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-223
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10223high.pdf

Grant Monitoring: Department of Education Could Improve Its Processes with Greater Focus on Assessing Risks, Acquiring Financial Skills, and Sharing Information.
GAO-10-57, November 19.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-57
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d1057high.pdf

Financial Audit: Securities and Exchange Commission's Financial Statements for Fiscal Years 2009 and 2008.
GAO-10-250, November 16.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-250
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10250high.pdf

Financial Audit: Federal Housing Finance Agency's Fiscal Year 2009 Financial Statements.
GAO-10-218, November 16.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-218
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10218high.pdf

Financial Audit: IRS's Fiscal Years 2009 and 2008 Financial Statements.
GAO-10-176, November 10.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-176
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10176high.pdf

Financial Audit: Bureau of the Public Debt's Fiscal Years 2009 and 2008 Schedules of Federal Debt.
GAO-10-88, November 10.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-88
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d1088high.pdf

U.S. Government Accountability Office: Performance and Accountability Report, Fiscal Year 2009.
GAO-10-234SP, November 13.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-234SP

Department of Veterans Affairs: Improvements Needed in Corrective Action Plans to Remediate Financial Reporting Material Weaknesses.
GAO-10-65, November 16.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-65
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d1065high.pdf

Millennium Challenge Corporation: MCC Has Addressed a Number of Implementation Challenges, but Needs to Improve Financial Controls and Infrastructure Planning.
GAO-10-52, November 6.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-52
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d1052high.pdf

U.S. Postal Service: Financial Challenges Continue, with Relatively Limited Results from Recent Revenue-Generation Efforts, by Phillip Herr, director, physical infrastructure issues, before the Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
GAO-10-191T, November 5.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-191T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10191thigh.pdf

Troubled Asset Relief Program: Continued Stewardship Needed as Treasury Develops Strategies for Managing and Divesting Financial Interests in Chrysler and GM.
GAO-10-151, November 2.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-151
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10151high.pdf

Integrity Committee's Process to Address Allegations of Wrongdoing by Inspectors General.
GAO-10-63R, October 15.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-63R

Financial Management Systems: DHS Faces Challenges to Successfully Consolidate Its Existing Disparate Systems, by Kay L. Daly, director, financial management and assurance, and Nabajyoti Barkakati, Chief Technologist, Applied Research and Methods, Center for Technology and Engineering, before the Subcommittee on Management, Investigations, and Oversight, House Committee on Homeland Security.
GAO-10-210T, October 29.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-210T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10210thigh.pdf

"Maximizing DOD's Untapped Potential to Improve Business Performance," by Gene L. Dodaro, acting comptroller general of the United States, before the DOD Performance Breakthrough Convention, in Lansdowne, Virginia.
GAO-10-184CG, October 14, 2009.
http://www.gao.gov/cghome/d10184cg.pdf

U.S. Department of Agriculture: Internal Control Would Improve Accountability for Certain Centrally Provided (Greenbook) Programs.
GAO-10-82, October 20.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-82
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d1082high.pdf

U.S. Department of Agriculture: Charges to Agencies and Offices for Centrally Provided (Greenbook) Programs for Fiscal Years 1999 through 2009 (GAO-10-83SP), an E-supplement to GAO-10-82.
GAO-10-83SP, October 20.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-83SP

The Federal Government's Long-Term Fiscal Outlook: Fall 2009 Update.
GAO-10-137SP, October 15.http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-137SP

Defense Management: Widespread DCAA Audit Problems Leave Billions of Taxpayer Dollars Vulnerable to Fraud, Waste, Abuse, and Mismanagement, by Gregory D. Kutz, managing director, forensic audits and special investigations, before the Defense Acquisition Reform Panel, House Committee on Armed Services.
GAO-10-163T, October 15.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-163T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10163thigh.pdf

VA Health Care: Ineffective Medical Center Controls Resulted in Inappropriate Billing and Collection Practices, by Kay L. Daly, director, financial management and assurance, before the Subcommittee on Health, House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
GAO-10-152T, October 15.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-152T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10152thigh.pdf

"Troubled Asset Relief Program: GAO's Oversight Role," by Gene L. Dodaro, acting comptroller general of the United States, before the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's accounting and auditing conference, in Arlington, Virginia.
GAO-10-150CG, October 1, 2009
http://www.gao.gov/cghome/d10150cg.pdf

Information Security: Concerted Effort Needed to Improve Federal Performance Measures.
GAO-09-617, September 14.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-617
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d09617high.pdf

Contract Management: Extent of Federal Spending under Cost-Reimbursement Contracts Unclear and Key Controls Not Always Used.
GAO-09-921, September 30.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-921
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d09921high.pdf

Fire Grants: FEMA Has Met Most Requirements for Awarding Fire Grants, but Additional Actions Would Improve Its Grant Process.
GAO-10-64, October 30.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-64
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d1064high.pdf

Improper Payments: Progress Made but Challenges Remain in Estimating and Reducing Improper Payments, by Kay L. Daly, director, financial management and assurance, before the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
GAO-09-628T, April 22, 2009.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-628T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d09628thigh.pdf

Information Technology: Agencies Need to Improve the Implementation and Use of Earned Value Techniques to Help Manage Major System Acquisitions.
GAO-10-2, October 8.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-2
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d102high.pdf

Recovery Act: Funds Continue to Provide Fiscal Relief to States and Localities, While Accountability and Reporting Challenges Need to Be Fully Addressed.
GAO-09-1016, September 23, 2009.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-1016
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d091016high.pdf

Appropriations Decisions:

B-318426, District of Columbia Courts--Authority to Pay Settlements
and Judgments, November 2, 2009
http://www.gao.gov/decisions/appro/318426.htm