The Government Accountability Office reports that some definitions that the Office of Management and Budget and Treasury Department issued for 57 federal spending data items could lead to inconsistency in reporting.GAO said in a January report that most of the definitions issued as part of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 met at least nine of 13 leading international practices for data definitions.
The agency urged OMB and Treasury to provide additional interpretive clarification for the identified definitions to ensure consistent financial reporting and support governmentwide aggregation of spending data.
GAO also asked for the final technical guidance on the implementation of data standards at agencies as well as OMB and Treasury’s planned intermediary service to standardize data submissions.
