FDIC complies with federal spending transparency requirements, audit finds

Financial and award data published by the federal insurer of bank deposits is “complete, timely, of sufficient quality, and accurate,” according to an audit performed, and published Friday, by the agency’s inspector general.

“We determined that all required transactions and events were recorded in the proper period and within the reporting schedule established by the DATA Act,” the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s (FDIC) Office of Inspector General (OIG) wrote in its report, referring to the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014. The law, which expanded earlier federal regulations  to increase transparency and accountability of federal contracts and financial assistance awards, requires federal OIGs to review a statistically valid sample of spending data submitted by their agency and to report the results to Congress.

In the case of the FDIC audit, two areas were assessed: completeness, timeliness, quality, and accuracy of the financial and award data submitted for the first quarter of fiscal year 2019 and published on USASpending.gov; FDIC’s implementation and use of the government-wide financial data standards established by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Treasury Department.

“Award data” refers to grants and loans issued by the agency.

The FDIC OIG also said it found that the agency had established controls to “promote complete, accurate, timely, and quality reporting under the DATA Act.” Such controls, the agency said, included written procedures to comply with the DATA Act and the designation of a DATA Act Senior Accountability Official.

Additionally, the OIG report stated, the FDIC implemented a quality assurance process that segregated data preparation and review duties and documented each level of review.

“We concluded that the FDIC could reasonably rely on its source financial system for the DATA Act submission for the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2019,” the OIG wrote.

The FDIC’s Compliance with the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014