ssa reponse

8/4/2019 SSA Reponse

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Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

Request for Information on Financial Management

1.Identify and briefly describe each of your agency's business and accounting systems. If separatedivisions, bureaus, or offices of your agency use separate systems, identify which divisions,

bureaus, or offices use each system.

The Social Security Online Accounting and Reporting System (SSOARS) is the Social SecurityAdministrations (SSA) centralized automated system for recording, classifying, and summarizinginformation on SSA's financial position and operations. The objective of SSOARS is to maintain thefinancial records of SSA, including the general ledger and its supporting subsidiary ledgers forcontrol and reporting, obligation, advance and receivable subsidiary records, funds availabilitystatus, audit trail of accounting activity, and the payment and collection records for cashreconciliation. SSOARS combines all of SSA's administrative and programmatic accounting,payment, and collection activities.

SSA implemented SSOARS as the agencys accounting System of Record in October 2003following the completion of a two-year open competition acquisition phase. Based on OracleCorporations Federal Financials E-Business Suite applications, the commercial off-the-shelfsoftware was certified by the former Joint Financial Management Improvement Program and met thestandards of the former General Services Administration (GSA) Financial Systems IntegrationOffice. In July 2009, SSA was the first Federal agency to successfully implement Oracle FederalFinancials Release 12. In August 2010, we upgraded SSOARS to the latest Oracle version, 12.1.2.SSOARS is currently in a steady-state/Operations and Maintenance status.

SSA has fully integrated SSOARS with all agency administrative and programmatic systems. SSAconducts reviews to determine the adequacy and efficiency of our operations and systems to providean overall assurance that our business processes are functioning as intended. The reviews alsoensure that management controls and financial management systems comply with standardsestablished by the Federal Managers Financial Integrity Act (FMFIA) and Office of Managementand Budget (OMB) Circular Numbers A-123, Management's Responsibility for Internal Control, A-127, Financial Management Systems, and A-130, Management of Federal Information Resources.An independent public accounting firm performs Financial Management System reviews inaccordance with Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS) and in compliancewith the Government Accountability Offices (GAO) Federal Information Systems Controls AuditManual (FISCAM) methodology for evaluating internal controls over the integrity, confidentiality,and availability of data maintained in computer-based information systems. The results of thereview indicate the internal controls of SSOARS that were tested appear to be effective in meetingSSAs expectations for complying with Federal guidance.

SSA conducts risk assessments for SSOARS on a three-year rotation and as major changes to theapplication occur, within the requirements set forth in the Information Systems Security Handbook.


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SSA has no Anti-Deficiency Act violations or material auditor-reported internal control weaknesses,and the independent auditors found that SSA has no instances of material noncompliance with lawsor regulations. Fiscal year (FY) 2010 marked the 17th consecutive year that SSA received anunqualified audit opinion on our financial statements.

2. Explain how the business and accounting systems identified in response toRequest No. 1 interact with one another.

SSA has no divisions or bureaus. All 1,500 offices, including regional offices, field offices,teleservice centers, processing centers, hearing offices, and Headquarters components access ourcentralized accounting system to track spending activity and access financial managementinformation.

3.For each system identified in response to Request No. 1, state whether information found in thatsystem is regularly or periodically submitted to any of the government-wide accounting systems

maintained by the Department of the Treasury, e.g., GFRS, FACTS I, FACTS II, IFCS, etc., and

explain how and at what intervals those submissions occur, including descriptions of both manualand automated processes.

We submit data from SSOARS to the following governmentwide accounting systems:

System Submission Interval Manual/Automated Process

Governmentwide FinancialReport System

Annual (November) Manual1, 2

Federal AgenciesCentralized Trial-BalanceSystem (FACTS I)

Annual (November) Manual1

FACTS II Quarterly Manual1

Intragovernmental FiduciaryConfirmation System

Quarterly Manual1, 2

Intragovernmental Reportingand Analysis System

Quarterly Automated - SSA submits abulk file to the Department ofthe Treasury (Treasury) toupload.

1

SSA enters data obtained from automated SSOARS reports.2These systems do not have a process that allows for automated submissions. The process for thesesystems requires us to enter in data on an online system.

Please note that SSA is currently working towards submitting FACTS II in an automated fashion byusing a bulk file and is working to prepare for the Governmentwide Treasury Account SymbolAdjusted Trial Balance System (2013) that will require bulk file submission.


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4. For each system identified in response to Request No. 1, state whether information found in thatsystem is regularly or periodically submitted to the Office of Management and Budget's ("OMB")

MAX Information System, and explain how and at what intervals those submissions occur,including descriptions of both automated and manual processes.

We submit information from SSOARS to MAX for the following activities:

Activity Submission Intervals Manual/Automated Process

Financial Statements Quarterly Manual1,2 - SSA uploads afile

Explanation of Variances Quarterly Manual1,2 - SSA uploads afile

SF-133, Report on BudgetExecution and Statement ofBudgetary Resources

Comparison

Quarterly Manual1,2 - SSA keys data

Program and Financethrough FACTS II

Quarterly Manual1 - SSA keys data

1 SSA uploads files or enters data obtained from automated SSOARS reports.2These systems do not have a process that allows for automated submissions. The process for thesesystems requires us to upload files or enter data.

We submit the following report, which contains the FY-end financial statements, to MAX:

Report Submission Interval Manual/Automated ProcessPAR Annual Manual Upload

5. For each system identified in response to Request No. 1, describe recent, current, and plannedmigration or modernization projects.

The following are some of the recent, current, and planned improvements or modernization effortsfor SSOARS.

Recent

Implementation of Governance, Risk, and Compliance Internal Controls (GRC) Software

With an increased user base and frequent changes in the roles and responsibilities of system users, ithas become a challenging task for SSA to monitor and exercise application and internal controls,prevent potential security violations, and enforce segregation of duties (SOD) controls. The GRCSoftware Tool effectively manages these crucial control aspects and prevents potential violations inreal time. This product provides SSA with an automated approach to manage and enforce user


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access policies and procedures within SSOARS. The GRC suite operates within the Oracleapplications, and the Access Controls Governor can anticipate and prevent potential SOD violationsbefore they arise rather than simply reporting violations after the fact.

Implementation of Web Services Business Activity Monitoring Tools

We used Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) technology to integrate the eTravel,Consent-Based Social Security Number Verification, Purchase Card, Health IT, and DisabilitySystems with SSOARS. With a growing footprint of SOA-based integrations, SSA faced greaterchallenges in terms of maintenance, 24x7 availability, and tracking of transactions with theseintegrated systems. The implementation of monitoring tools has enabled SSA to address problemsand issues proactively, react immediately to real or potential issues, and improve customer service.

Current

Replacement of Crystal Reports

SSA Regional Financial Management Teams initially developed the SSOARS Financial InformationSystem as a financial reporting tool to track spending against allocations. The SSOARSenvironment subsequently subsumed it. It produces reports and ad-hoc queries in near real timedirectly from the SSOARS database. Its primary use is decision-making and budget tracking. Thesystem currently uses Oracle Portal technology and SAP Crystal Reports for the presentation layer.This effort is required because SAP no longer supports our current SAP Crystal reporting tool.Following a successful proof-of-concept, SSA is replacing this reporting tool with Oracle BusinessIntelligence Publisher (BI Publisher). BI Publisher will reduce long-term maintenance costs and willallow SSA to leverage its investment in SSOARS.

Integration of the Internet Payment Platform (IPP) with SSOARS

SSA is piloting IPP, a comprehensive payment information service made available to all Federalagencies by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Services are available free of charge to all Federalagencies and their suppliers.

IPP provides agencies with a flexible service designed to increase efficiencies and generate costsavings in the purchase-to-pay process. IPP sends electronic purchase orders to suppliers, receiveselectronic invoices from suppliers, and routes and approves invoices via the workflow process. IPPuploads payment remittance information from the Treasury and non-Treasury disbursing agencies,

allowing agencies and their suppliers to view and download payment information.

IPP receives and consolidates up-to-date information from three major sources: 1) Purchase orderand receipt data from SSOARS; 2) order acknowledgement and invoice data from supplierfulfillment systems; and 3) payment data from existing disbursement and accounting systems.


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In addition to expedited payment processing, some of the benefits of implementing IPP includesavings in processing costs, flexible workflow for expedited approvals, managing Prompt Pay Actrules, taking advantage of discount opportunities, and increasing the efficiency of transactions.

Real-Time Integration (Standardize Web Services) - In 2008, SSA introduced an SOA tointegrate several systems with SSOARS. We designed and implemented these SOA-basedintegrations as individual systems using a nonstandardized approach. Consequently, themaintenance of Web Services has increased and become more challenging. This task willstandardize these services using the delivered product application programming interfaces. It willeliminate duplication of code, increase cost-effectiveness, and improve operational efficiency. Itwill enable SSA to establish a standard framework for all future integrations and reduce long-termmaintenance costs.

Planned

Account Receivables (AR) Enhancements - The Accounts Payable/Accounts Receivable nettingfunctionality available in Release 12 has the capability to automatically net open payables andreceivables. The appropriate module can issue receipts or payments to both employees andsuppliers/customers.

The AR module currently calculates finance charges only if the customer does not agree with thePromise-to-Pay option. For customers who opt for the Promise-to-Pay option, we calculate interestmanually outside the SSOARS application and create installments. This task will fully configure theFederal Delinquency process to automate these processes within SSOARS.Business Intelligence Applications SSA will implement Oracle Business IntelligenceApplications (BI Apps). BI Apps will provide prebuilt dashboards to deliver role-based intelligence

at all user levels. BI Apps will build on previously implemented functionality that provides reportsand other management information to SSOARS users. BI Apps fully integrate with Oracle E-Business Suite, including reports, budget execution, and spending analysis. It will reduce the time tocompile and report on workload performance, and increase transparency for managers to react tochanging workloads.

6. In addition to your agency's submissions to government-wide accounting systems maintained bythe Department of the Treasury and OMB, as described in response to Requests Nos. 3 and 4,does your agency publish any of the same information online for public viewing? If so, describe

how and in what format that information is published.

Information How published Format

PAR SSA Website 508-compliant PDF format

Our PAR combines our annual performance report with our audited financial statements to providefull disclosure of our financial and programmatic operations over the course of the past year. Thereport demonstrates our commitment to being transparent and accountable to Congress and theAmerican people.


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7. Identify and briefly describe each system that your agency uses to manage grants, direct loans,and/or loan guarantees. If separate divisions, bureaus, or offices of your agency use separatesystems, identify which divisions, bureaus, or offices use each system.

Grant activity at SSA was only $64.5 million in FY 2010. SSA uses several internal and externalelectronic systems to manage grants:

GrantSolutions.gov (GS) - SSA began migrating live grant award data into GS in the fourth quarterof FY 2010. GS is a comprehensive grants management system provided by the United StatesDepartment of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families GrantsCenter of Excellence. GS is available to all Federal grant-making agencies as part of the GrantsManagement Line of Business (GMLoB) initiative. GS incorporates all 14 GMLoB grant awardprocesses for awarding agencies and recipients as well as extensive and flexible post-awardreporting mechanisms. GS covers the full lifecycle of the grants management business, which

includes:

Full life-cycle processing (preaward through post-award) for all types of grants; Funds control integration with financial systems, financial reports, and audit tracking; Flexible mechanisms for program-specific needs and performance reports; and Standard system interfaces to Grants.gov and other external systems.

SSA provides access to GS for applicants who submit their grant applications online. SSA receives

all applications via GS.

Grants.gov Grants.gov is the governmentwide web portal required for posting grantannouncements and for applicants to apply for grant funding opportunities. With our recentmigration to GS, SSA now uses Grants.gov only for posting competing announcements andcollecting corresponding electronic grant applications. SSA accesses this system for the purpose ofposting and modifying announcements, and collecting grant applications.

SSA Grants Electronic Library (SSAGEL) - SSAGEL is an internal database created to storeelectronic documents. SSAGEL acts as the official grant file. SSA staff uploads files fromSSAGEL into GS, as needed, when awarding grants and cooperative agreements. Program staffs

that have roles in the grant-making process have read-only access to SSAGEL.

Grants Reporting System (GRS) - GRS is an in house database created for reporting FederalFinancial Assistance Transparency Act data to USAspending.gov. Created prior to migrating to GS,we will phase out GRS in FY 2011.


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8. For each system identified in response to Request No. 7, explain how it interacts with anybusiness or accounting system identified in response to Request No.1.

GS - Currently, SSOARS does not interface with GS. However, SSA is investigating building a

system-to-system interface to link SSOARS to GS. In the meantime, we manually enter or uploaddata into GS.

Grants.gov - Grants.gov does not interact with SSOARS.

SSAGEL - SSAGEL does not interact with SSOARS.

GRS GRS does not interact with SSOARS. SSA staff manually enters data into GRS and extractsdata from GRS to compile the report SSA submits to USAspending.gov.

9. For each system identified in response to Request No.7, state whether information found in thatsystem is regularly or periodically submitted to the Catalogue of Federal Domestic Assistance(CFDA), and describe how and at what intervals those submissions occur, including descriptions

of both automated and manual processes.

Semi-annual updates to the CFDA include funding data found in GS, Grants.gov, and GRS.SSAGEL is solely a data storage library and SSA does not submit data from SSAGEL to anyreporting system. Program staff manually prepares and submits updates to the CFDA.

10.For each system identified in response to Request No. 7, state whether information found in thatsystem is regularly or periodically submitted to any of the government-wide grants management

and reporting systems, e.g., FAADS, FAADS PLUS, etc., and describe how and at what intervals

those submissions occur, including descriptions of both automated and manual processes.

GS SSA uses information from GS to compile the Federal Assistance Award Data System(FAADS) PLUS data for reports to USAspending.gov. SSA submits reports twice a month (on the5th and the 20th). The Enterprise Reporting System within GS formats a text file of the requiredFAADS PLUS data elements. Before submitting, the data undergoes a manual review for accuracyusing the Data Submission Validation Tool (DSVT) supplied by USAspending.gov.

Grants.gov - Information obtained via Grants.gov is solely for posting announcements and collectingapplications. Information contained in the applications is included in the compilation of theFAADS PLUS data submitted twice per month to USAspending.gov.

SSAGEL - SSAGEL is solely a data storage library and we do not use SSAGEL to format data andsubmit to any reporting system.

GRS - Prior to migrating to GS, SSA manually entered award information into GRS. This allowedstaff to generate FAADS PLUS data to submit to USAspending.gov. We will phase out GRS afterall active grants have been migrated to GS and inactive grants closed out.


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11.For each system identified in response to Request No. 7, describe recent, current, and plannedmigration or modernization projects.

Current

GS - SSA completed the migration of its last grant program to GS on March 15, 2011. We are alsoconsidering whether to purchase the GS module for facilitating technical review processes for thecompetitive grants process.

Planned

Grants.gov - SSA does not plan migration or modernizations to Grants.gov.

SSAGEL - SSA does not plan migration or modernizations to SSAGEL.

GRS - We will phase out GRS during FY 2011-2012.

12.In addition to your agency's submissions to government-wide grants management and reportingsystems, described in response to Requests Nos. 9 and 10, does your agency publish any of thesame information online for public viewing? If so, describe how and in what format that

information is published.

SSA publishes competitive announcements on Grants.gov. SSA logs into the Grants.gov applicationdirectly and enters the announcement information manually. The public can then search for andview the announcements on the Grants.gov website, in html format. SSA also publishes competitiveannouncements on our SSA Grants webpage. The web page is a 508 compliant html web page.

13.Identify and briefly describe each system that your agency uses to manage contracts. If separatedivisions, bureaus, or offices of your agency use separate systems, identify which divisions,bureaus, or offices use each system.

SSA uses a commercial off-the-shelf software application called PRISM to manage contracts for theagency. PRISM is written and distributed by Compusearch Software Systems, Inc. We implementedPRISM in the fall of 2000. The PRISM software at SSA is called SSASy. SSA hosts SSASy onSSAs secure network with prohibited access from outside of SSAs firewall. SSASy is web-basedand the data resides on an Oracle 10g database.

SSASy is a comprehensive acquisition management system, supporting the complete acquisitionlifecycle: advanced procurement planning, requirements and commitment approval, solicitation,award, and award closeout. SSASy ensures awards are Federal Acquisition Regulation-compliantand SSASy is fully integrated with the Integrated Acquisition Environment applications. Since2004, SSA has implemented a policy to maintain completely paperless contract files in SSASy, thuscreating an electronic system of record for all contracts.


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SSA conducts reviews to determine the adequacy and efficiency of our operations and systems toprovide an overall assurance that our business processes are functioning as intended. The reviewsalso ensure that management controls and financial management systems comply with standardsestablished by FMFIA and OMB Circular Numbers A-123, Management's Responsibility for

Internal Control, A-127, Financial Management Systems, and A-130, Management of FederalInformation Resources. An independent public accounting firm performs Financial ManagementSystem reviews in accordance with GAGAS and in compliance with the GAO FISCAMmethodology for evaluating internal controls over the integrity, confidentiality, and availability ofdata maintained in computer-based information systems. The results of the review indicate theinternal controls of SSASy tested appear to be effective in meeting SSAs expectations forcomplying with Federal guidance.

SSA conducts risk assessments for SSASy on a three-year rotation and when major changes to theapplication occur within our requirements set forth in the Information Systems Security Handbook.

SSA manages all contracts for the agency, including regional offices, field offices, teleservicecenters, processing centers, hearing offices, and Headquarters components through SSASy. Allcontracting personnel at SSA use SSASy.

14.For each system identified in response to Request No. 13, explain how it interacts with anybusiness or accounting system identified in response to Request No. 1.

We integrated SSASy and SSOARS via an Oracle database for batch processing of awards, stagingtables for requisitions, and real-time validation checks of commitments.

Commitments:

To ensure that requisitions contain valid accounting codes and have sufficient funds, SSASyvalidates all requisitions online, against SSOARS. SSASy will not release requisitions with invalidaccount coding or insufficient funds for the allowance associated with each accounting string. TheSSASy end users must correct any errors prior to continuing, prohibiting any insufficiently fundedrequests for acquisitions. SSASy stages, extracts, and transmits validated commitments in batch toSSOARS.

Obligations:

A batch program extracts contract awards from SSASy and transmits them to SSOARS for posting

of the obligation of the funds supporting the contract award.


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15.For each system identified in response to Request No. 13, state whether information found in thatsystem is regularly or periodically submitted to any of the govermnent-wide contract management

and reporting systems, e.g., FPDS, FPDS-NG, FAPIIS, etc., and describe how and at whatintervals those submissions occur, including descriptions of both automated and manual

processes.

Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation (FPDS-NG)

SSASy has an online interface with FPDS-NG. The Contracting Officer, through SSASy, updatesthe FPDS-NG system prior to release of an award to the contractor. We update FPDS-NG withSSAs award actions on a flow basis, as awards are made.

USAspending.gov

Twice a month, on the 5th and 20th, SSA executes a batch program to extract program source data

for each contract entered since the last extract. An SSA employee, with access rights toUSAspending.govs DSVT, transmits the text file to USAspending.gov. USAspending.gov trackseach agency transmission via the DSVT Agency Transmission Chart (iChart).

USAspending.gov pulls contract data directly from FPDS-NG on a monthly basis.

16.For each system identified in response to Request No. 13, describe recent, current, and plannedmigration or modernization projects.

Recent

Disaster Recovery Improvements

We took several recent steps to ensure continuous, uninterrupted access to SSASy users. To preventa loss of data from a hardware failure, SSA implemented Oracles Standby Database functionalityfor the SSASy database. This functionality provides for a seamless rollover of the current, up-to-date, SSASy database. To prevent data loss from a power failure at the SSASys host site, SSAimplemented an offsite database repository.

Vendor Communication Improvements

SSA implemented a Vendor Portal, FedConnect, for a secure path between vendors and SSASy.

This portal enables SSASy to import vendor bids, vendor proposals, and vendor questions intoSSASy from FedConnect, on a near real-time basis. This portal eliminates duplicate data entryeffort, improves data quality and captures all communication associated with each contract in theelectronic, paperless contract file.


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Current

SSASy 7.0/PRISM 7.0

This new version brings several new features to users of the SSASy application. We will test andpilot a new Business Intelligence approach using prebuilt and user defined dashboards. Thesedashboards will provide up to the minute data. Additionally, we migrated the requisition module tothe .net environment and it provides a user friendly, commercial look for the infrequent users easeof use.

Planned

Continued Vendor Communication Improvements

SSA plans further deployment of the FedConnect Vendor Portal through vendor outreach, and

ongoing training of the contracting personnel to increase use by the vendor community.

Integration with Social Security Online Accounting and Reporting System (SSOARS) throughthe SOA

Working with the SSOARS SOA team, the interface between SSASy and SSOARS will be migratedto the real-time web services approach, eliminating both staging and batch file imports.

17.In addition to your agency's submissions to government-wide contract management andreporting systems, described in response to Request No. 15, does your agency publish any of the

same information online for public viewing? If so, describe how and in what format that

information is published.

SSA displays recent contracting history, listing awards made by the contracting office on SSAsInternet web site, in html 508 compliant format:

http://www.socialsecurity.gov/oag/foia/contract/htmactcv.htm

The listing shows all awards with completion dates of six months or less and is in alphabetical orderby contractor name as the name appears on the award document. SSASy refreshes the informationweekly. The display includes the Contractors Name, Contract Number, Description of Contract,Award Type, Award Date, and Obligated Amount. The display excludes modifications, delivery

orders, task orders against SSA contracts, and task orders against blanket purchase agreements.


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18.Briefly describe your agency's efforts to comply with OMB's memorandum on the OpenGovernment Directive -Federal Spending Transparency, dated April 6, 2010. In particular,

describe whether and how your agency has begun to collect and report sub-award data, asrequired by the memorandum, and describe how your agency's reports on OMB's data quality

metrics, as required by the memorandum, are generated.

In July 2010, SSA issued a written announcement about the upcoming changes to the FederalAcquisition Regulation with regard to sub-award data. In October 2010, we briefed our contractingstaff on the Executive Compensation and First-tier Subcontract Reporting Requirements. We willissue quarterly reminders for staff to ensure contractors are complying with the reportingrequirements. We are also considering sending contractors periodic reminders of theirresponsibilities to report sub-award and executive compensation data. In May 2011, contractingofficers will begin checking the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act Sub-awardReporting System to ensure contractors are reporting sub-award data as required.

As of October 1, 2010, all SSA grants awards were continuation awards of existing grants. We arenot required to report executive compensation and first-tier subcontract reporting data forcontinuation awards.

19.If your agency interacts directly with USASpending.gov, in addition to submitting information tothe systems that feed USASpending.gov, describe the nature, frequency, and purposes of that

interaction.

SSA executes a batch program twice a month, on the 5th and 20th, to extract program source data foreach contract entered since the last extract. An individual from SSA, with access rights toUSAspending.govs DSVT, transmits the text file to USAspending.gov. USAspending.gov tracks

each agency transmission via the DSVT Agency Transmission Chart (iChart).

SSA uploads Federal Assistance Awards (Grants) and Federal Assistance Payments (Mandatory andEntitlement Programs) data twice a month, on the 5th and 20th, through the DSVT. Mandatory andEntitlement programs include Old-Age and Survivors Insurance, Disability Insurance, andSupplemental Security Income. We also report one-time economic recovery payments required by theAmerican Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 as Federal Assistance Payments.

SSA directly interacts with USAspending.gov in query mode at least quarterly to ensure thetimeliness, completeness, and accuracy of data that is available to the American public. We willinteract in query mode monthly when we begin monthly reporting in April 2011.


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20.Describe the data quality controls and procedures that your agency has implemented forinformation that is submitted to USASpending.gov, including information submitted directly and

information submitted to one of the systems that feeds USASpending.gov.

Contracts:

SSAs procedures for ensuring the timely direct submission of information include the followingcontrols:

We schedule a task to perform the extract on the 5th and the 20th of every month using theMicrosoft Network Scheduler.

The office network staff reviews logs each month of all regularly scheduled tasks, to ensureall scheduled tasks were executed successfully.

We email at least one individual when the extract is complete, with instructions to post thetext files to USAspending.gov. After each posting, we review the USAspending.gov Agency Transmission Chart to ensure

that USAspending.gov accepted the previous transmission. FPDS-NG records, containingaward information such as start and end dates, competition, and vendor information, arerequired for every contract over $3,000.

We perform a statistical valid sample test to certify the quality of the data in the FPDS-NG.We use a statistically valid sample size and follow OMB guidance for annual verification andvalidation.

A team leader or division director is required to review the records for every contract over$100,000.

Contracting Officers and their immediate supervisors certify that the records in SSAsSSASy are in a Finalized state in FPDS-NG. They do this by executing a report fromSSASy that lists any awards not finalized in FPDS-NG. The immediate supervisor isresponsible for resolving issue(s) preventing the posting of a valid FPDS-NG record for eachaward on the list. We take corrective action and rerun the report.

SSA has instituted the use of FPDS-NG Adhoc Reports to identify data anomalies that reflectpotential data inaccuracies. We correct inaccuracies identified in the FPDS-NG system.USAspending.gov imports data from the FPDS-NG on a predefined schedule and appliescorrections at that time.


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Grants:

GrantSolutions software has the ability to conduct quality control checks throughout the grant awardprocess. SSA ensures all awards are included in the proper reporting period and monitors the

timeliness, completeness, and accuracy of the USAspending.gov information.Our performance metric is 99.5 percent for submission, completeness, and accuracy. The grantsmanagement team has consistently met that metric since we began submitting data toUSAspending.gov and fully expects to continue at this performance level.

Federal Assistance (Mandatory and Entitlement Programs):

We have a project coordinator (PC) responsible for reporting direct payments made to beneficiaries.After the reporting system produces the output file, the PC ensures the amount on the system outputreport agrees with the general ledger and financial statement control totals.

After transmitting the information, the PC ensures that the amounts published on USAspending.govalso match the control total. The PC also ensures the information is reconciled to the financialsystem and to the amounts certified for payment with Treasury.

SSA is modernizing the reporting system with appropriate checks and controls that will enhance ourability to ensure the accuracy of information, meet the monthly reporting requirements, and enableautomated collection of data for performing data quality assessments and gathering data qualitymetrics. We expect the new reporting system to be in place in the third quarter of FY 2011.

Information Technology (IT) Dashboard

SSA uses a number of mechanisms to ensure quality of the information posted onUSAspending.govs IT Dashboard. These include existing Earned Value Management qualitycontrol processes, using authoritative sources for data inputs, staff reviews of dashboard dataelements, management approval, and validation testing using the electronic Capital Planning andInvestment Control tool.

21. State whether all of your agency's current grants, contracts, and loans are accurately reflected onUSASpending.gov, and, if not, estimate the percentage of current grants, contracts, and loans that

are not accurately reflected, using both the number of transactions and dollar figures.

USAspending.gov accurately reflects all of SSAs grant dollars.

We are not required to report all contract actions in FPDS-NG. As a result, we do not report almost20 percent (19.6 percent) of SSAs contract actions on USAspending.gov for FY 2011. Forexample, we do not report purchases through the GSAs Global Supply through FPDS-NG. BecauseFPDS-NG does not capture all of SSAs contract actions, 6.8 percent of SSAs contract spending inFY 2011 is not included on USAspending.gov.


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22. State whether your agency incurs any reporting burdens or costs as a result of its obligationsunder the Federal Financial Assistance Transparency Act ("FFATA") that it does not incur as a

result of other reporting obligations, and estimate those burdens and costs in worker-hours anddollars.

The reporting burden for contracts and grants is minimal. We spend one-half hour each month toreport to USAspending.gov, the estimated cost is $36 monthly.

We encountered some challenges with reporting Federal assistance paid to individuals. InitialFFATA guidance did not require that we report assistance payments to individuals (i.e.,beneficiaries); but at the direction of OMB (Memorandum M-09-19), we are now reportingassistance payments to individuals in aggregate to the USAspending.gov web site.

FFATA encouraged the use of FAADS as the data source. Because FAADS required that Federalassistance be reported on a quarterly basis using the FAADS file format, SSA systems and data

reporting procedures were specially designed and established to report on a quarterly basis. Toincorporate monthly reporting and the new FAADS Plus file format, it would have involvedexcessive efforts in rewriting and supporting outdated program code. Additionally, the processesused to aggregate by State-county code were also outdated.

Therefore, to address current needs more effectively and efficiently, we are developing a databasethat will have the capability to store and retrieve data for analysis. The database will incorporate theFAADS Plus file format and facilitate the assignment of geographical location codes. This willintegrate reporting so that it is accurate and in compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Theestimated cost for this project is 4.25 work years, with an estimated cost of $545,207. Theanticipated implementation date is May 2011.

We have developed a process to report beneficiary payments until the new database is available.The process is complex and requires special developments and design, allocation, reconciliation,verification, and reasonableness acceptance to get the most accurate payment data by geographicallocation while protecting personally identifiable information.

23.Identify the individual(s) who serve(s) as Senior Accountable Official(s) ("SAO") over federalspending data quality for your agency, as defined by OMB.

SSA named Ronald T. Raborg, Deputy Commissioner for Quality Performance, the SAO for thequality and objectivity of, and internal controls over, our spending information disseminated throughpublic venues such as USAspending.gov and other similar web sites.

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