Objective

To determine whether the Social Security Administration (SSA) had established a process to perform limited data quality reviews to (1) identify material omissions and/or significant American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) reporting errors and (2) notify the recipients of the need to make appropriate and timely changes.  We also reviewed SSA’s process for monitoring recipient reporting of recovery funds for the quarter ended September 30, 2009.

Background

Under the Recovery Act, SSA received $1.09 billion for program and operational purposes. Recovery Act oversight requirements state “. . . [n]ot later than 10 days after the end of each calendar quarter, each recipient that received recovery funds from a Federal agency shall submit a report to that agency. . . .”

To view the full report, visit http://www.ssa.gov/oig/ADOBEPDF/A-15-10-21045.pdf

Our Findings

We determined SSA’s policies and procedures are adequate for reviewing quarterly Recovery Act data pursuant to Office of Management and Budget Memorandum M-09-21 (section 3.12).  We reviewed SSA’s process for monitoring recipient reporting of recovery funds for the quarter ended September 30, 2009, as follows.

1. We obtained and reviewed SSA’s policies and procedures for reviewing contractor quarterly Recovery Act reports.
2. We determined SSA had plans to ensure all prime recipients filed the required quarterly reports and conduct the required reviews of the reported data.  These plans are detailed in the Agency’s Flash Notice.
3. We conducted a walk-through of several limited data quality reviews performed by SSA’s Office of Acquisition and Grants (OAG) staff and management.
4. We determined SSA policies and procedures were designed to emphasize avoiding material omissions and significant reporting errors.
5. We determined the Agency had an adequate process in place to remediate systemic or chronic reporting problems, given the low-volume of Recovery Act contracts the Agency has awarded.  We learned from SSA management that because the Agency does not have a large number of Recovery Act awards, it does not anticipate having systemic or chronic reporting problems.  If OAG reviews the reports and finds common errors, it will address the issues.
6. We determined the Agency anticipates it may be able to use the reported information to assess compliance with award agreements only in terms of the Recovery Act reporting requirements, to assess risk in terms of the reporting process, and as a limited tool for determining when to release remaining funds.

We determined SSA established a process to perform limited data quality reviews.  We also reviewed SSA’s process for monitoring recipient reporting of recovery funds for the quarter ended September 30, 2009 and found that staff and management were following the policies and procedures they put in place to review contractor reporting.