In 2006, U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Muskogee, teamed with then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., to author the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act. That law required the creation of a single website to publicly report most federal spending. To strengthen the law, Coburn was later part of a bipartisan group authoring legislation to augment reporting requirements.
A new report by the GAO shows federal agencies have substantially failed to abide by the law. The report found that only 7 percent — or less — of certain spending information reported on USASpending.gov is wholly accurate. More than $600 billion in spending wasn’t even reported.
The GAO found federal agencies “generally reported” required contract information, but “did not properly report information on assistance awards,” such as grants or loans totaling approximately $619 billion in fiscal year 2012.
The report found four agencies claimed to be exempt from reporting requirements because they used non-appropriated funds, or cited similar excuses. But the GAO notes that “gaps in Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance make it unclear whether such exemptions are appropriate.”
The GAO found that two months after the deadline, federal agencies “did not appropriately submit the required information” for 342 of 2,183 programs listed in a federal catalog.
Federal agencies are required to report 21 data elements. The GAO found most agencies did identify federal award recipients, but were far less consistent in reporting other information, including things such as the purpose of the federal spending and the location of the recipient. Those are not minor details.
At the Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy group, one official acknowledged that agency personnel would “often use terminology that is only understood by other agency officials” in reports. For example, one award title listed for the Department of Defense was reported simply as “Cca.” That was shorthand for “circuit card assembly.” And circuit cards accounted for less than a quarter of the total cost of that particular award.
The GAO found it impossible to determine how consistently 12 data elements were reported “in large part because of incomplete or inadequate agency records.” So it appears many federal agencies may not be reporting key information about federal spending because they don’t even have that information.
The problem of sloppy record-keeping and half-hearted reporting was not isolated. Overall, the GAO found that few awards on the website “contained information that was fully consistent with agency records.” GAO estimated only 2 percent to 7 percent of reported awards “contained information that was fully consistent with agencies’ records for all 21 data elements examined.”
The popular perception of the federal government is that it wastes money without regard for the burden ultimately placed on the citizens who fund the government. The GAO’s report does nothing to undermine that perception. And it suggests citizens who hold that view are not unreasonable.