The website USASpending.gov is the official source of federal spending information, showing details about each federal award such as contracts, grants and loans.
But a report from the Government Accountability Office that found that 49 federal agencies didn't report their spending to the site.
The GAO noted the federal government has provided about $4.7 trillion to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, but that inconsistent reporting means it can’t be tracked by the public properly using the website.
There were 103 agencies that did report, and of the 49 agencies missing, GAO said it's unclear which are required to report.
“Although many nonreporting agencies may not be required to report, neither the Department of the Treasury nor the Office of Management and Budget have clear responsibility for determining which agencies are required to report,” the GAO report stated.
The GAO recommends that Congress consider amending the DATA Act and that OMB provide guidance to help improve data reporting.
“Until Congress assigns responsibility to Treasury and OMB to periodically assess and determine which agencies must report data to USAspending.gov and oversee the completeness of their reporting, the USAspending.gov data may lack some required spending information.”
Besides those missing, some agencies reported different spending figures than those in their budget and annual financial reports, the GAO report found.
For example, in its FY 2022 agency financial report, the Department of the Treasury reported its COVID-19 obligations as $195 billion more than that it reported to USAspending.gov. The Department of Transportation reported amounts that differed by $10 million, the GAO found.
“Without OMB and Treasury guidance to help agencies ensure that information reported to USAspending.gov is consistent and comparable with other public sources, the transparency and use of USAspending.gov information may be questioned.”
Without accurate reporting, users don’t have the ability to track federal spending, including for $4.7 trillion of Covid aid.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com
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