New PSI Report Details Failure of Federal Agencies to Submit Accurate Data on How They Spend Taxpayer Dollars

Federal Agencies Failed to Consistently Report Accurate Spending Data to USAspending.gov, as Required by the 2014 DATA Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Tom Carper (D-DE), the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), on Tuesday unveiled a bipartisan report detailing what they say is the failure of federal agencies to submit accurate data to USAspending.gov, the public website that provides spending data to taxpayers and policymakers.

“The goal of the DATA Act was to empower the American public and policymakers with timely and accurate information on how taxpayer money is spent in order to improve transparency and help identify and eliminate government waste,” said Portman. “It is troubling that most federal agencies failed to comply with this law, and more than half of all the spending data federal agencies submitted was inaccurate. The bipartisan report also outlines recommendations to help facilitate improved data submissions by federal agencies, including requiring the Office of Management and Budget, Treasury, and other agencies to improve data standards.

“Going forward, this report underscores the importance of requiring federal agencies to submit timely and reliable spending data so that the public and policymakers have a clear understanding of how taxpayer dollars are spent. I appreciate all the hard work that has gone into USAspending.gov to date, but we must continue to hold agencies accountable for providing accurate spending data.”

They said the report’s key findings include:

• The current version of USAspending.gov fails to achieve its legislative mandate as a user-friendly website with accurate, consistent, and reliable data on government-wide spending for taxpayers and policy makers. USAspending.gov spending data is internally inconsistent.

• Twenty-five IG reports reviewed by the subcommittee found more than half of the data submitted to USAspending.gov for Q2 2017 — roughly $240 billion in spending — was inaccurate.

• In June 2018, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Department of Treasury updated agency guidance for submitted data for USASpending.gov that weakens data standards and could lead to continued inaccurate DATA Act submissions.

• The Treasury Department was responsible for ensuring that all agencies submit accurate spending data, yet 96 percent of the Treasury Department’s own data was inaccurate.

• The Department of Defense (DoD) Inspector General (IG) warned that “Policymakers may not be able to rely on the DoD’s financial and award data to make decisions and effectively plan for mission critical programs and operations.”

PSI recommendations include:

• OMB and the Treasury Department should continue to update the standards and guidelines they were required to issue for agencies to follow when making DATA Act submissions.

• The Treasury Department should improve the overall quality of USAspending.gov. PSI learned of complications with the website, even after it was moved out of the beta testing phase.

• OMB and the Treasury Department should establish clear definitions for agencies and IGs to follow when conducting reviews of DATA Act compliance. The different stakeholders involved in the DATA Act submissions used different definitions for certain terms needed to make DATA Act submissions. For example, stakeholders defined crucial terms like “error” differently from each other, which produced inconsistent DATA Act submissions and IG reports.