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Review of VA’s Readiness To Implement the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act

Report Information

Issue Date
Report Number
16-02454-250
VA Office
Information and Technology (OIT)
Office of Management (OM)
Report Author
Office of Audits and Evaluations
Report Type
Audit
Recommendations
17
Questioned Costs
$0
Better Use of Funds
$0
Congressionally Mandated
No

Summary

Summary
The OIG contracted with an independent public accounting firm to perform a review of VA’s readiness to implement the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act). The contractor reported that VA’s outdated systems and their limitations would prevent VA’s full compliance with the DATA Act. Specifically, implementing guidance for the DATA Act requires that agencies submit three different data files in May 2017 that will be linked with four other data files from Government-wide systems for publication on USAspending.gov. At the time of the accounting firm’s review, VA reported that of the three files, it would be able to submit one, would be challenged by some aspects of the second, and would not be able to submit the third, with one possible exception. As such, VA would not be able to fully comply with the DATA Act and implementing guidance by May 2017. The contractor made 17 recommendations for improving VA’s implementation of the DATA Act.

Open Recommendation Image, SquareOpenClosed and Implemented Recommendation Image, CheckmarkClosed-ImplementedNot Implemented Recommendation Image, X character'Closed-Not Implemented
No. 1
Closed and Implemented Recommendation Image, Checkmark
to Office of Management (OM)
We recommend that the Acting Assistant Secretary for Management and Acting Chief Financial Officer: Establish milestones to monitor VA’s system modernization efforts. Coordination with the shared service provider should continue to incorporate current and upcoming DATA Act requirements to ensure that they will be met going forward.
No. 2
Closed and Implemented Recommendation Image, Checkmark
to Office of Management (OM)
We recommend that the Acting Assistant Secretary for Management and Acting Chief Financial Officer: Obtain procurement and grants management system capability that is integrated with the financial system as part of VA’s transition to a shared service provider to the extent feasible.
No. 3
Closed and Implemented Recommendation Image, Checkmark
to Office of Management (OM)
We recommend that the Acting Assistant Secretary for Management and Acting Chief Financial Officer: Improve communication with, and accountability of, administrations and offices and their points of contact who are responsible for providing data and documentation. Accountability should include timely, complete, and accurate submissions to the Project Management Office.
No. 4
Closed and Implemented Recommendation Image, Checkmark
to Office of Management (OM)
We recommend that the Acting Assistant Secretary for Management and Acting Chief Financial Officer: Continue working with the points of contact to ensure program information for all funds is submitted as required.
No. 5
Closed and Implemented Recommendation Image, Checkmark
to Office of Management (OM)
We recommend that the Acting Assistant Secretary for Management and Acting Chief Financial Officer: Identify internal controls and develop standard operating procedures for the processes used to obtain, extract, classify, and summarize data from VA’s financial and management systems to comply with the DATA Act schema.
No. 6
Closed and Implemented Recommendation Image, Checkmark
to Office of Management (OM)
We recommend that the Acting Assistant Secretary for Management and Acting Chief Financial Officer: In conjunction with VA’s component organizations, perform an assessment of how business, accounting, and payment processes interact with one another for the purpose of establishing relevant policies and procedures to improve VA’s data quality. This assessment should include VA’s subsidiary systems and their interface status with the general ledger system, that is Financial Management System.
No. 7
Closed and Implemented Recommendation Image, Checkmark
to Office of Management (OM)
We recommend that the Acting Assistant Secretary for Management and Acting Chief Financial Officer: Ensure complete reconciliations are performed between the subsidiary and general ledger systems. Differences should be researched and resolved to improve data quality.
No. 8
Closed and Implemented Recommendation Image, Checkmark
to Office of Management (OM)
We recommend that the Acting Assistant Secretary for Management and Acting Chief Financial Officer: Continue to work on minimizing the use of the Management Information Exchange to record journal vouchers that are not linked to obligation and expenditure data by object class or program activity, or devise a mechanism to track such information when recording Management Information Exchange journal vouchers.
No. 9
Closed and Implemented Recommendation Image, Checkmark
to Office of Management (OM)
We recommend that the Acting Assistant Secretary for Management and Acting Chief Financial Officer: Perform reconciliations between VA’s procurement systems (Electronic Contract Management System and Integrated Funds Distribution, Control Point Activity, Accounting and Procurement system) and Financial Management System to ensure consistency, accuracy, and completeness of financial and procurement data.
No. 10
Closed and Implemented Recommendation Image, Checkmark
to Office of Management (OM)
We recommend that the Acting Assistant Secretary for Management and Acting Chief Financial Officer: Provide resources for data storage capabilities to improve auditability of data. Specifically, VA should establish a data storage mechanism such as a shared drive to store data received from points of contact or developed internally by the Project Management Office. Such information should be secured, readily available for analysis and requests, validated, and auditable.
No. 11
Closed and Implemented Recommendation Image, Checkmark
to Office of Management (OM)
We recommend that the Acting Assistant Secretary for Management and Acting Chief Financial Officer: Ensure proper segregation of duties between staff responsible for processing data for submission to the data broker and staff responsible for validating the accuracy and completeness of data prior to submission to the data broker.
No. 12
Closed and Implemented Recommendation Image, Checkmark
to Office of Management (OM)
We recommend that the Acting Assistant Secretary for Management and Acting Chief Financial Officer: Provide necessary resources to the VA DATA Act Project Management Office to ensure that the office can coordinate the data inventory, mapping, and validation for the required DATA Act Schema data elements.
No. 13
Closed and Implemented Recommendation Image, Checkmark
to Office of Management (OM)
We recommend that the Acting Assistant Secretary for Management and Acting Chief Financial Officer: Require administration points of contact to respond timely to Project Management Office data requests to ensure that the data elements can be inventoried, mapped, and validated and that gap analyses are performed thoroughly.
No. 14
Closed and Implemented Recommendation Image, Checkmark
to Office of Management (OM)
We recommend that the Acting Assistant Secretary for Management and Acting Chief Financial Officer: Use the data inventory and mapping to support VA’s move to a shared service provider and ensure full compliance with the DATA Act.
No. 15
Closed and Implemented Recommendation Image, Checkmark
to Office of Management (OM)
In addition to recommendations made in Findings Number 1 and Number 2, we recommend that the Acting Assistant Secretary for Management and Acting Chief Financial Officer: Establish procedures for data edits and validations to ensure that DATA Act submissionsare accurate and complete. At a minimum, management should selectively test internalcontrols related to the preparation of data submissions.
No. 16
Closed and Implemented Recommendation Image, Checkmark
to Office of Management (OM)
In addition to recommendations made in Findings Number 1 and Number 2, we recommend that the Acting Assistant Secretary for Management and Acting Chief Financial Officer: Assess the impact of the internal control weaknesses, as reported by VA’s financialstatement audit, on DATA Act data, and develop alternative processes to address data quality issues.
No. 17
Closed and Implemented Recommendation Image, Checkmark
to Office of Management (OM)
In addition to recommendations made in Findings Number 1 and Number 2, we recommend that the Acting Assistant Secretary for Management and Acting Chief Financial Officer: Continue to maintain communication with the Office of Management and Budget andTreasury regarding VA’s data reporting limitations and progress, and document suchcommunication.