Special Report: DOE-OIG-22-03

November 8, 2021

Followup on the Department of Energy’s Implementation of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014

The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act) requires Federal agencies to report financial and non-financial award data in accordance with standards established by the Department of the Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget.  To enable more transparent and effective tracking of Federal expenditures, the DATA Act requires public availability of agency spending information such as obligation amounts and awardee recipient data.  This information is made available to the public and policy makers via USASpending.gov, a website operated by the Department of the Treasury in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget.

The DATA Act also includes provisions requiring the Office of Inspector General to evaluate the completeness, accuracy, and timeliness of agency spending data and the implementation and use of data standards.  Our November 2019 report (DOE-OIG-20-05) revealed that the Department of Energy’s fiscal year 2019 first quarter data submission earned an overall quality score of “high.”  In our ongoing effort to meet DATA Act oversight requirements, we performed our current review in accordance with guidelines established by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency.  This report documents the results of our third assessment of the Department’s implementation of the DATA Act and includes an evaluation of the quality of data submitted for publication on USASpending.gov for the first quarter of fiscal year 2021.

 We found that the Department, which includes the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, continued to make improvements to the quality of its data since our prior report was issued in November 2019.  Utilizing guidance established within the December 2020 CIGIE FAEC Inspectors General Guide to Compliance under the DATA Act (CIGIE Guide), we determined that the Department earned an “excellent” quality score of 98.9 points, which factored in the results of statistical and non-statistical tests, as follows: 

• Statistical Testing Results: Our assessment of procurement and financial assistance awards found that around 96 percent of 20,504 required data elements were complete, accurate, and timely.  In particular, we identified 326 completeness errors; however, none were attributable to the Department.  We also noted 265 accuracy errors and 3 timeliness errors, all of which were attributable to the Department. 

• Non-Statistical Testing Results: We did not identify any errors related to the completeness, accuracy, or timeliness of COVID-19 outlays.  We tested over 300 data elements related to 51 outlays in accordance with CIGIE Guide instructions for selecting a non-statistical sample of outlays for agencies that received COVID-19 funding.

The weaknesses occurred, in part, because the Department did not always ensure the accuracy of spending data submitted to USASpending.gov for public use.  In addition, although many of the issues identified were outside of the Department’s control, we determined that officials did not always ensure that data derived from third-party systems was complete and accurate. 

Despite making improvements in the reporting of financial and non-financial data since the inception of DATA Act requirements, we conclude that additional work remains to further improve the Department’s DATA Act reporting.  Without complete, accurate, and timely data, the Department remains at risk for reporting unreliable and inconsistent Federal spending data to USASpending.gov.

In light of the overall quality of data reported by the Department, we did not make formal recommendations for improvement.  However, we suggest that the Department update and implement processes for ensuring the completeness, accuracy, and timeliness of its DATA Act submission, as appropriate.