	Background

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is tasked with providing  human resources, leadership, and support to federal agencies to manage  their human capital functions. The Enterprise  Human Resources Integration (EHRI) system is OPM’s primary repository  for human capital data to support these efforts. Internal Controls and Data Reliability

OPM relies on agencies and service centers to ensure that the data they  submit are timely, accurate, complete, and compiled in accordance with  OPM standards. Underlying requirements for data standards and data quality  efforts are the standards for internal control which apply to all executive  branch government functions. Because the EHRI payroll database has potential to be used for  accountability, research, and data-driven human resource management  and policy decision making, making it available would support OPM’s  strategic and open data goals. Specifically, (1) OPM used EHRI payroll data to  calculate rough estimates of official time—paid time that employees  spend on union-related activities—for its 2009 to 2012 reports to  Congress; (2) we made similar use of EHRI payroll data to estimate use  of official time in selected federal agencies in a 2014 report, which  revealed limitations in OPM’s method of estimating the governmentwide  costs of official time; (3) we used EHRI payroll data in a 2014 review that  found inconsistencies in how agencies recorded and reported the use of  administrative leave; and (4) we used EHRI payroll data in 2016 to report  on the use of administrative leave at the Department of Homeland  Security (DHS). OPM has taken specific steps to make these other human  resources-related data available, but has not taken any of these steps for  the EHRI payroll database. EHRI Payroll Data Have the Potential to Support Human Resource Analytics and Decision Making

Our review of the literature and interviews with OPM officials suggest that  key elements in the EHRI payroll data have the potential to be used to  understand a variety of human capital outcomes in the federal  government. This is  because the EHRI payroll data were designed to provide standardized,  governmentwide information by pay period regarding actual pay, incentive  pay, telework and leave hours, and numerous other data elements related  to federal work activities and compensation. Internal Control Weaknesses Increase the Risk of EHRI Payroll Data Reliability Issues

While OPM internal controls provide some assurance of the reliability of  EHRI payroll data, weaknesses in the design or implementation of certain  control activities and monitoring controls for the EHRI payroll database  increase the risk of reliability issues that may limit OPM’s ability to fully  leverage the data in support of its mission. (For selected results of electronic  testing of the data, see appendix I.) This was due, in part, to  inadequate monitoring controls, which are described in more detail below. As designed,  these user controls are intended to provide reasonable assurance that  control objectives will be achieved if OPM monitors them. Data Reliability Issues Limit OPM’s Ability to Fully Leverage EHRI Payroll Data in Support of Its Mission

While OPM’s internal controls provide some assurance of the reliability of  some of the EHRI payroll data, the weaknesses in control activities  (controls for completeness, accuracy, and validity of information  processing and appropriate documentation) and monitoring controls  (ongoing during normal operations) may increase the risk for data  reliability issues to arise and persist in the EHRI payroll data. While data collection and  storage is not without cost, EHRI’s centralized, standardized, and  comprehensive features offer the promise of efficient, cost effective, and  more precise analytics. Recommendations for Executive Action

GAO is making five recommendations to the Director of OPM. GAO recommends that the Director of OPM take the following action to  support its strategic and open data goals:  Improve the availability of the EHRI payroll data—for example, by  preparing the data for analytics, making them available through online  tools such as FedScope, and including them among the EHRI data  sources on the OPM website and Data.gov.
Why GAO Did This Study

OPM is tasked with supporting federal agencies' human capital management activities, which includes ensuring that agencies have the data needed to make staffing and resource decisions to support their missions. The EHRI system is OPM's primary data warehouse to support these efforts. The payroll database—one of the four databases in the EHRI system—became operational in 2009. Payroll data provide information on federal employees' pay and benefits and how they allocate their time, as reflected in hours charged to work activities and use of leave. EHRI data are essential to governmentwide human resource management and evaluation of federal employment policies, practices, and costs. The ability to capitalize on this information is dependent, in part, on the reliability of the collected data.
GAO undertook this review to examine the extent to which (1) EHRI payroll data have supported OPM's strategic and open data goals and (2) internal controls are in place to assure the reliability of the data. GAO reviewed literature, interviewed officials and reviewed documents from OPM and the payroll Service Centers, compared OPM's data quality processes to GAO's Standards for Internal Control , and performed electronic tests of the payroll data.

What GAO Found

The Enterprise Human Resources Integration (EHRI) payroll data are not fully supporting the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) strategic and open data goals. This is because OPM has not taken the steps necessary to make the data widely available for use by other agencies and researchers. EHRI payroll data are intended to provide a centralized, standardized, and comprehensive source of pay and leave related data across the federal government. In this capacity, these data have the potential to provide a more efficient, cost effective, and precise data source for federal agencies and researchers who wish to assess human resources and policy decision making across the federal government. Because these data are not widely available, federal agencies and researchers must rely on other proxy sources for payroll data, which are more limited in the scope of analysis they can provide or the level of detail needed for data-driven human capital studies.
Although some elements of the data are sufficiently reliable for general use, weaknesses in OPM's internal controls for the EHRI payroll data will need to be addressed to enhance the reliability of other data elements. As shown in the table below, GAO's assessment of key internal control activities that are critical to ensuring the reliability of the EHRI payroll data found a number of areas where there is insufficient assurance that the control objective will be achieved. These weaknesses increase the risk of data errors, incomplete data fields, and ineffective monitoring of the EHRI payroll data. Unless OPM takes steps to correct these internal control weaknesses, it will be unable to fully leverage these data to meet its mission and allow others to make full use of these data for their research needs.

What GAO Recommends

GAO is making five recommendations, including that OPM improve the availability of its payroll data and implement additional internal control activities to better ensure data reliability.
OPM agreed with all of GAO's recommendations.