The Department of Energy Should Invest in and Implement Enterprise-Wide Data Analytics to Identify and Mitigate Risk
December 9, 2024
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December 4, 2024
The Department of Energy Should Invest in and Implement Enterprise-Wide Data Analytics to Identify and Mitigate Risk
The Office of Inspector General is issuing this report to encourage the Department of Energy to invest in and implement enterprise-wide data analytics to improve its ability to identify and mitigate risk. Private sector organizations and the Department’s public sector peers are modernizing risk management practices by marshalling technology and using data analytics to drive improvements. The Department should act now to implement plans and make investments to use data analytics to modernize its operations and optimize its enterprise-wide risk management practices.
Although the Department considers enterprise-wide risks in its decision making, it does so in a fragmented fashion by aggregating risks identified by each element rather than by examining risks from an enterprise-wide perspective. This element-based approach, which reflects the Department’s decentralized management and operating culture, yields gaps in information that could be detected with the use of enterprise-wide, data-informed analytical models and processes. These information gaps create blind spots in the universe of data that, if captured, could be used to more efficiently identify, track, and respond to risks across the Department.
Because of the increasing significance of enterprise-wide risks and the potential for information gaps in the current element-based approach, the Office of Inspector General is providing prospective considerations to the Department for implementing enterprise-wide, data-informed methods to detect and address these risks.