Report Summary

Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General

April 2009

Accuracy of the Social Security Administration’s Required Certification of Fiscal Year 2007 Procurement Data Submissions to Federal Procurement Data System - Next Generation

(A-15-08-28107)

 

Objective

To determine the accuracy of the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Required Certification of Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 Procurement Data Submissions to Federal Procurement Data System - Next Generation (FPDS-NG).

Background

The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (Transparency Act) requires that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) maintain a single, searchable website, accessible by the public for free.  Pursuant to the Transparency Act, OMB developed the website www.USAspending.gov.  FPDS‑NG is one of the data sources for the information maintained on the website.  Each Executive department and agency is responsible for collecting and reporting procurement data to FPDS‑NG.  OMB requires that departments and agencies provide an annual certification.

To view the full report, visit http://www.ssa.gov/oig/ADOBEPDF/A-15-08-28107.pdf

Our Findings

With the exception of minor discrepancies, SSA properly recorded $789.6 million of the FY 2007 awards, totaling $804.3 million, in FPDS-NG.  The minor discrepancies resulted from untimely data reporting and data input errors.  These inaccuracies represented
2 percent of the overall procurement awards. 

UNTIMELY DATA:  We found, as of March 2008, 14 awards, totaling $278,112, were still not entered into FPDS-NG.  All awards should have been entered by October 1, 2007.  After our audit,
12 of the 14 missing contract actions were added to FPDS-NG. 

INACCURATE DATA: Our comparison of the November 28, 2007 report and the March 2008 data also showed SSA’s Streamlined Acquisition System (SSASy) and FPDS-NG data were not always accurate. The November 28, 2007 report for FY 2007 erroneously contained 63 awards, totaling $22,310 for awards made in FY 2006 and $4.3 million for awards made in FY 2008.

Our Recommendations

With the exception of minor discrepancies that resulted from untimely data reporting and data input errors, the Agency accurately reported and certified contract information to OMB.  We recommend SSA:

  1. Remind staff of the policies and procedures for routine verification and correction of contract data. 
  2. Take steps to ensure contract data in SSASy and FPDS‑NG are submitted timely and accurately. 
  3. Take steps to resolve the status and reporting of the two missing contract actions. 
  4. Continue to enhance the automatic data exchange between SSASy and FPDS‑NG as future versions of SSASy are developed.