Darwin McDaniel
A new study by Deloitte and the Data Foundation predicts the federal government may face challenges in implementing a law to establish an open data set to improve federal spending transparency, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
The study states the implementation of the Data Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 faces technical and cultural challenges within the government due to incompatible legacy reporting systems, failure of the law’s information model schema to disclose full federal budgeting lifecycle and mistreatment of the law as a reporting requirement.
To address the challenges, the government should increase transparency to enable agencies and the public to leverage data analytics, said Dave Mader, civilian sector chief strategy officer at Deloitte’s consulting business.
He added federal chief financial officers should also collaborate with chief data officers to integrate financial and performance data across agencies.
“Thoughtful use of the resulting data-driven insights can help agency leaders monitor performance, evaluate results and make evidence-based decisions,†Mader said.
The government aims to fully implement DATA Act in 2022 in an effort to enable automatic flow of federal spending data through public websites.
Mader said the law will help CFOs better monitor financial performance across their agencies and prioritize investments to meet mission objectives.
The study is based on interviews conducted with over 20Â DATA Act stakeholders.
