Management Report: Continued Improvements Needed in the Bureau of the Fiscal Service’s Information System Controls Related to the Schedule of Federal Debt

Treasury’s Fiscal Service troubles credit card debt to borrow funds for federal functions, and stories the debt on fiscal statements named the Schedules of Federal Personal debt.

We audit and challenge views yearly on the Schedules and on connected internal controls (e.g., processes to moderately guarantee that transactions are correctly approved and recorded).

In FY 2022, Fiscal Services dealt with 8 of our past suggestions to correct weaknesses in Treasury’s controls in excess of info systems. But 15 related recommendations stay unresolved—posing hazards, such as unauthorized obtain to, modification of, or disclosure of delicate info.

What GAO Discovered

All through its audit of the fiscal yr 2022 and 2021 Schedules of Federal Credit card debt managed by the Division of the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Assistance, GAO determined that Fiscal Support sufficiently dealt with control deficiencies in safety management, access controls, and configuration administration this kind of that GAO no extended considers the remaining handle deficiencies in facts technique controls, separately or collectively, to stand for a substantial deficiency as of September 30, 2022.

GAO recognized recurring conditions linked with previously claimed data process regulate deficiencies. However, GAO did not discover any new reportable money info technique handle deficiencies relevant to the Routine of Federal Personal debt.

GAO established that corrective actions ended up entire for eight recommendations and in procedure for the remaining 15 open suggestions. Specifically, more steps are wanted to take care of six tips associated to security administration, 1 advice associated to access controls, and eight recommendations connected to configuration management. These remaining data process regulate deficiencies increase the chance of unauthorized entry to, modification of, or disclosure of delicate info and applications and disruption of critical operations. Fiscal Assistance mitigated the potential influence of these deficiencies on economic reporting for fiscal year 2022 with compensating administration and reconciliation controls created to detect prospective misstatements on the Plan of Federal Credit card debt. It will be critical for Fiscal Support administration to continue focusing efforts on well timed addressing the remaining recommendations, some of which have been open for several decades, associated to these data technique control deficiencies.

In the Constrained Official USE ONLY report, GAO communicated in-depth info about steps Fiscal Support took to tackle recommendations that had been open up as of September 30, 2021.

Why GAO Did This Review

GAO is required to audit the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. authorities. Because of the importance of the federal financial debt held by the public to the govt-extensive economical statements, GAO audits Fiscal Service’s Schedules of Federal Debt on a yearly basis. As component of these audits, GAO assesses crucial controls more than Fiscal Company fiscal information methods that are appropriate to the Schedules of Federal Credit card debt.

This report presents (1) any facts process management deficiencies discovered throughout GAO’s fiscal 12 months 2022 audit of the Agenda of Federal Personal debt and (2) the standing of Fiscal Service’s corrective actions to tackle suggestions connected to information technique handle deficiencies recognized in GAO’s prior stories that were open up as of September 30, 2021.

For more facts, get in touch with Cheryl E. Clark at (202) 512-3406 or [email protected].