Recovery Board testing accountability tools in the cloud

WILLIAMSBURG, Va.-- The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board had so much success moving Recovery.gov to the cloud, it is looking there again to give agencies a new set of accountability tools.

Shawn Kingsberry, the board's chief information officer and assistant director for technology, said about four agencies are testing a new suite of data-analysis software to ensure Recovery Act funds are not being subject to waste, fraud or abuse.

The Recovery Board is working with several agencies to test out these accountability tools in the cloud. The tools include data- analysis software that can detect data anomalies on contracts, grants and loans issued with stimulus funding.  Agencies submit award or proposed award data to the board. The board then uses these tools to find potential issues with the vendor and passes that information back to the awarding agency. The agency can then decide what steps to take next.

Kingsberry said agencies can and should take a pause to make sure the funds are not falling victim to waste, fraud or abuse.

The Recovery Board's experience with putting software in the cloud has been successful. It first moved its site to the public cloud in April 2010.

Kingsberry said the board saved $750,000 by using Amazon Web Services and moved that money into mission needs to detect waste, fraud and abuse.

With the audit tools, the board will follow a similar path — starting small in the board's own data center to create the baseline and then moving it to the cloud, Kingsberry said.

-Jason Miller, FederalNewsRadio.com
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OMB not enamored of House-passed data transparency measure

The DATA Act, the government spending transparency bill that passed the House in April, has ruffled some feathers at the Office of Management and Budget, signs of which were on display Tuesday at a panel discussion of lessons learned from implementation of the 2009 Recovery Act.


Controller Danny Werfel, addressing a workshop put on by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service and sponsored by Grant Thornton LLP, clashed with Obama administration colleague Earl Devaney, recently retired as chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, over whether new legislation is needed to advance their shared goals of improving transparency and accountability in agency spending.

The legislation known as the DATA Act (H.R. 2146), which is pending in the Senate, would impose a universal reporting requirement for recipients of federal grants, loans and contracts. It would require all agencies to use the same formats to publicly share their internal and external obligations and expenditures. A five-member Federal Accountability and Spending Transparency Commission would oversee the measure’s implementation.

Its components were heavily influenced by the online reporting and data consistency tools the Recovery Board pioneered during the financial crisis, and Devaney calls himself the DATA Act’s biggest fan.

-Charles S. Clark, GovExec.com
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OMB hangs hopes on new tools to cut $50B in improper payments

Agencies cut the amount of improper payments by another $5 billion in 2011. But to reach the administration's three-year goal to reduce the amount of improper payments by $50 billion by the end of the year, they will need a lot of help.

"Obviously it's a big year ahead to try to make the President's goal," said Danny Werfel, the controller of the Office of Management and Budget after a House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Organization, Efficiency and Financial Management hearing on improper payments Tuesday. "The good news is that just about every major program is trending downward."


OMB reported in November the improper payment error rate dropped to 4.7 percent in 2011 from 5.3 percent in 2010.


Over the last two years, the OMB-led effort reduced the amount of improper payments by $20 billion — meaning the government is $30 billion short of Obama's goal.

OMB, the Treasury Department and the Recovery Accountability and Transparency (RAT) Board have several new software and analytical tools in the final stages of testing and will be rolled out to more users this year.


The RAT Board is running a pilot with a small number of agencies who are using the federalaccountability.gov portal. Mike Wood, the board's executive director, said the fraud prevention tool will be expanded to non-Recovery Act spending using funding allocated in the 2012 appropriations bill.


Treasury and OMB are borrowing heavily from the RAT Board's experience and the technologies in its Recovery Operations Center.


Werfel said Treasury is testing tools in its new GoVerify.gov center.

GoVerify.gov is a one-stop portal that provides a variety of data sets making it easy for agencies to search before making contract awards or grants. It will not include every database at first, but Werfel said over time more will be added.

Agencies are under pressure to identify and fix those root causes. The 2010 improper payments bill calls for OMB and Congress to penalize agencies for not improving their improper payments error rate.


Werfel said the first reports to agency inspectors general are due in March.

-Jason Miller, FederalNewsRadio.com
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Recovery Board's Devaney to resign

Earl Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, tasked with tracking Recovery Act spending, announced his resignation Thursday.


Devaney's resignation, which is effective Dec. 31, comes after more than four decades of federal service.

Along with resigning his position as chairman of the RATB, he also said he would be stepping down as the chairman of the Government Accountability and Transparency Board.

That office was launched in August with the broader goal of overseeing all facets of federal spending to cut government waste and increase transparency.

-Jolie Lee, FederalNewsRadio.com

Agencies cut improper payments by $18 billion

Agencies saved nearly $18 billion in fiscal 2011 by reducing improper payments, the White House announced Tuesday. The administration also unveiled new steps to prevent the government from paying money to the wrong people.


Agencies saved $17.6 billion last year, by reducing payment errors in Medicare, Medicaid, Pell Grants and a food assistance program.

President Barack Obama initiated the crackdown on improper payments two years ago, when he gave agencies the goal of reducing payment errors by $50 billion before 2013. The effort has since become part of the administration's Campaign to Cut Waste, which seeks to apply lessons learned by the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board to all federal spending.

As part of the crackdown, agencies reduced the 2011 governmentwide payment error rate to 4.7 percent, the administration said. In 2010, it was 5.3 percent.


The Medicare and Medicaid programs shouldered the bulk of savings, avoiding $16 billion in payment errors, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters.

USDA also prevented $800 million in improper payments under its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly the food stamps program, according to the administration.

In announcing the reduction of payment errors, the White House also revealed new steps to improve agency suspension and debarment programs.


-Ruben Gomez, FederalNewsRadio.com
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Recovery Board testing accountability tools in the cloud

WILLIAMSBURG, Va.-- The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board had so much success moving Recovery.gov to the cloud, it is looking there again to give agencies a new set of accountability tools.

Shawn Kingsberry, the board's chief information officer and assistant director for technology, said about four agencies are testing a new suite of data-analysis software to ensure Recovery Act funds are not being subject to waste, fraud or abuse.

The Recovery Board is working with several agencies to test out these accountability tools in the cloud. The tools include data-analysis software that can detect data anomalies on contracts, grants and loans issued with stimulus funding.

-Jason Miller, FederalNewsRadio.com
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Effort to require online governmentwide spending reports advances on the Hill

Congressional supporters of a plan to pull all federal spending reports onto one uniform, searchable database believe they've put together a package of cost savings to offset the legislation's more than $500 million price tag, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said Thursday.




Issa would not reveal what's included in the offset package, saying he wanted to get the details hammered down first.

The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, which Issa sponsored in the House, essentially would take processes developed by the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which tracks and reports on spending on the $787 billion stimulus bill, and apply them to all government spending.

Supporters say the database will save billions of dollars by making it more difficult for contractors and others to defraud the government, by lowering information technology costs and by reducing errors in transferring spending data between different systems.

The Transparency Caucus also is pushing legislation to expand whistleblower protections to members of the federal intelligence community and to prohibit agency inspector generals' offices being left vacant or filled by an acting IG, Issa and Transparency Caucus co-chairman Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., said.


-Joseph Marks, NextGov.com
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OMB controller cites government's 'low learning curve' on analytics

The government is "low on the learning curve" and remains in the "embryonic stage" in the exploitation of digital data analytics to improve efficiency, Danny Werfel, controller in the Office of Management and Budget, told a corporate conference on Wednesday.


The most promising federal work in using technology to reduce fraud and improper payments is being done by the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, he said, which is deploying open-source technology, data mining and source triangulation to "set the government on new path."

Werfel spoke at the leadership summit held at the Newseum by business intelligence software firm SAS, which brought together federal financial managers and vendors to explore how private sector analytics tools can enhance government decision-making.

He recounted several "transformational moments" in his long career at OMB that opened his eyes to the notion that financial management systems -- under the rubric of transparency and accountability -- have now become central to the policy process and to public trust in government.


Noting Vice President Biden's announcement on Monday that the Recovery Board's leader and methods for cutting government waste are being applied governmentwide, Werfel said agencies are getting better at creating infrastructure to track spending. "It's a real labor and a push, which shows how far we still need to go" in responding to the "growing call for more transparency and accountability" in federal spending, he said.


The Recovery Board's fraud detection center, Werfel said, shows that the government can be smarter about, for example, avoiding making payments to contractors who are suspended or debarred. He pointed to triangulating tools of data mining that raise such potential red flags as multiple corporations at the same headquarters or contractors with felony records. "Sometimes it's the naming convention that's off," he explained, noting that data mining can uncover that fact that "John Smith" and "John L. Smith" are the same person. Agencies can welcome this because it identifies such issues upfront without spending a dime, he said.

Some agencies, Werfel added, are skeptical that OMB and the Recovery Board have many tools to add to their own kits. But he proved his point when he supervised a pilot project at the Health and Human Services Department, which houses the government's "big fish" that specialize in medical claims fraud. "HHS is good at finding fraud in medical claims" by looking at geographic patterns, he said, "but they're not so good at identify theft, as when doctors steal licenses from doctors in other states and set up false billing practices."

The Recovery Board's data tools "sprung out an entire fraud ring right under HHS' nose," Werfel said. "I'm not saying the Recovery Board is always better, just that many agencies are not effectively deploying the technology. My mission is to gain momentum and make this stuff go viral as we roll in more agencies."

-Charles S. Clark, GovExec.com
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OMB redefines federal financial health

Now armed with a newly signed Improper Payments Law, Office of Management and Budget controller Danny Werfel said it's time to re-think improper payments as "a key indicator of the health of federal financial management in the government today."


He told the gathering of federal, state, and local financial managers even though he understands the importance of audits as a tool of financial management in government, he is now also mindful of the shifting public perception of government spending. At the Association of Government Accountants, on the second day of their Internal Control and Fraud Conference Thursday, he suggested the issue of improper payments means more to citizens than the holy grail of the clean audit opinion.

Werfel used his AGA talk to offer some of the most current thinking on the topic of fraud and improper payments to come from OMB since Congress passed, and the President signed, a new Improper Payments bill into law within the last several months.


For one thing, he said his office is mulling over guidance on the issue of single audits, and was asked when it might be forthcoming.

Werfel also talked about the genesis of the new Improper Payments Law, and how it combined the best of the old Improper Payments Act of 2002, and the Recovery Audit Act. He said the new law reflects some lessons learned, the first being the need for partnerships between the federal, states and local auditing communities.


Werfel said it's important that financial officials understand the need to make adjustments when rules for good financial accountability and fraud avoidance become an unfair hurdle to citizens.


Finally, Werfel told his AGA audience that he's very excited about the possibilities surrounding a recently-unveiled fraud detection tool developed by the Recovery, Accountability and Transparency Board, which tracks the economic stimulus program.

Responding to a question, Werfel said that as the Recovery Board fraud tool is further developed and refined, OMB will work with the state and local auditing community about the possibility of sharing it.


-Max Cacas, FederalNewsRadio.com
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New programs help federal workers weed out wasteful payouts

The Obama administration and Congress are trying to stop such waste and abuse, and federal employees are a key part of that effort. Although the subject of a hearing Tuesday by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee on federal financial management was "transforming government through innovative tools and technology," the role of workers was not overlooked.


Earl E. Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, cited "the board's skilled analysts" who detect fraud using advanced technology, including computer software to search "colossal amounts of data."

The Recovery Board has become something of a poster child for doing things well in this area. Its job is to make sure the $787 billion in Recovery Act funding, much of it for infrastructure projects to stimulate the economy, isn't wasted.

"Working with inspectors general from 29 federal agencies, the Recovery Board has successfully provided both transparency and accountability for these funds," subcommittee Chairman Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.) said in his opening statement. "In fact, they've done such a good job, the president has told them to take their show on the road" by expanding their techniques to Medicare and Medicaid.
Instead of each agency collecting data from its Recovery Act recipients, the Recovery Board and the OMB created a centralized system, http://federalreporting.gov. Devaney said the board also built "a state-of-the-art command center" to keep track of Recovery Act loans, grants and contracts.

-Joe Davidson, WashingtonPost.com
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Federal Stimulus-Monitoring Website Gets An Update

Since February, when the government launched a website to provide a window on the federal stimulus package, critics have been calling for a makeover. Now they have one. The site, unveiled today by the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, was revamped through the use of $9.5 million in stimulus funds. It provides easier-to-use tools, such as a ZIP Code search that shows stimulus projects in specific communities. The government also has set up a toll-free hot line (1-877-FWA-DESK) for reporting fraud, waste and abuse. "This is definitely a step in the right direction," said Craig Jennings, a policy analyst at OMB Watch, a nonprofit government watchdog group. Still, the Obama administration has a ways to go to complete transparency, Jennings said. The site, Recovery.gov, does not include complete data on recipients of stimulus money, and users face significant hurdles to accessing the information that is available. --Joe Markman, The Los Angeles Times
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New Guidance for Recovery Act Recipient Reporting Released

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released much-anticipated reporting guidance yesterday for an estimated 90,000 recipients of funds distributed under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act).

On June 22, 2009, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published Implementing Guidance for the Reports on Use of Funds Pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ("Recovery Act"). This guidance implements the reporting requirements included in Section 1512 of the Recovery Act for recipients of grants, loans, and other forms of assistance. The reports required by Section 1512 will be submitted by recipients beginning in October 2009 and will answer important questions, such as:

• Who is receiving Recovery Act dollars and in what amounts?
• What projects or activities are being funded with Recovery Act dollars?
• What is the completion status of such projects or activities and what impact have they had on job creation and retention?

Based on input received from the public on previous implementing guidance issued by OMB, the reporting framework in the attached guidance has been updated and enhanced to capture additional spending data from prime recipients and sub-recipients of Federal financial assistance Recovery Act awards. Further, OMB has worked with the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board to deploy a nationwide data collection system at the website http://www.recovery.gov/?q=node/579#TB_inline?height=240&width=400&inlineId=tb_external that will reduce information reporting burden on recipients by simplifying reporting instructions and providing a user-friendly mechanism for submitting required data.

Additional Information can be found at: http://www.recovery.gov/ and http://www.agacgfm.org/intergovernmental/recovery.aspx

AGA's FMSB Comments on Recovery Act Guidance

AGA's Financial Management Standards Board (FMSB) has commented on guidance on the Recovery Act that appeared recently in the Federal Register. In the board's opinion, both the states and the federal agencies will be interested in these data elements and the reporting that follows. A serious concern for the states is who pays for the work required to modify reporting systems to comply. Read the entire letter.

Lawmaker Proposes Funding for States to Oversee Stimulus

The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has announced that he will sponsor a bill to provide funding for state auditors who are struggling to keep pace with the demands of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. "With individual states receiving billions in stimulus funding, it makes sense that the states also be fully equipped to closely monitor those taxpayer dollars," said Democratic Rep. Edolphus Towns at a committee field hearing last week. "Not initially providing funds for state auditors under the Recovery Act was an omission that should be rectified as soon as possible." In an interview with Government Executive after the hearing, Towns said the new state money would be separate from the $787 billion economic stimulus package, but an exact amount has yet to be determined. The new funds, he said, could not be used to beef up other areas of the state workforce.

The Recovery Act provided nearly $210 million for inspectors general at federal agencies, $84 million for the Recovery Act Accountability and Transparency Board and $25 million for the Government Accountability Office. The law did not allocate any money for comparable oversight at the state level.

--Robert Brodsky, Government Executive.

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