Report on the DATA Act Readiness Review Audit of the Department of Health and Human Services

The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (the DATA Act, P.L. No. 113-101) requires that Federal agencies report financial and payment data in accordance with data standards established by the Department of Treasury (Treasury) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The DATA Act also requires the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for each reporting Federal agency to submit a series of oversight reports to include, among other things, an assessment of the completeness, timeliness, quality, and accuracy of data submitted. As the agencies will not submit data in compliance with the DATA Act until May 2017, HHS OIG completed an audit readiness report progress in November 2016. Given the difficulty of defining and developing common data elements across multiple reporting areas and the volume of diverse programs administered by HHS, we determined that HHS will face challenges implementing these uniform data standards within the required time frame.