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GAO-24-106214 1 (2023-11-07)

handle is hein.gao/gaopiz0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Why This Matters Key Takeaways The website USAspending.gov, the official source of federal spending information, includes information about federal awards such as contracts, grants, and loans. It is intended to inform the American public about how much the federal government spends every year and for what purposes. The information on USAspending.gov can allow users to identify funding opportunities and can also help in identifying potential fraud, waste, and abuse. The federal government has provided about $4.7 trillion to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic through the CARES Act, the American Rescue Plan Act, and other legislation. That significant amount of funding has highlighted the importance of tracking all federal spending. The CARES Act includes a provision for GAO to monitor and oversee the federal efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic.1 This report provides information on the completeness of USAspending.gov data and challenges that affect users' ability to track federal spending, including for disasters and emergencies. We identified 49 agencies that did not report data to USAspending.gov, 25 of which were from the executive branch and accounted for more than $5 billion in net outlays for fiscal year 2022.2 Although many nonreporting agencies may not be required to report, neither the Department of the Treasury nor the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) have clear responsibility for determining which agencies must report. In addition, among the agencies that did report to USAspending.gov, we found that some reported COVID-19 obligation amounts did not agree with the information in their budget and annual financial reports. Agencies used different approaches to report billions of dollars in spending related to other transaction agreements (OTA)-legally binding agreements other than standard federal contracts and grants, allowing for more flexible arrangements. However, the extent to which agencies completely and consistently reported OTA spending is unclear. Additional challenges affect the completeness of USAspending.gov data. For example, award records totaling over $1.2 trillion in obligations were not linked to key data, such as disaster and emergency spending information. Congress could help improve the completeness of data on USAspending.gov by assigning Treasury, in coordination with OMB, the responsibility to periodically assess and determine which agencies must report spending data, and by requiring agencies to report OTAs. In addition, we are recommending that OMB, in collaboration with Treasury, provide guidance for agencies to ensure that the disaster and emergency budgetary data they are reporting to USAspending.gov are consistent with other information they make publicly available. Page 1 GAO-24-1 06214 USAspending.gov Data Completeness Page 1 GAO-24-106214 USAspending.gov Data Completeness

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