The burdens of data for IGs and auditors alike
The results are in for AGA & Kearny’s latest survey for federal IGs and state auditors, listing data analytics and cybersecurity at the forefront of their concerns.
What: A survey of federal inspectors general and state auditors conducted by AGA and Kearney & Co.
Why: Among the many issues explored in the report are IGs' challenges and concerns regarding data analytics, cybersecurity and IT auditing in their investigations.
Seventy-one percent of respondents said data analytics played a role in identifying targets to audit and investigate, and 40 percent said "at least 1/4 of their … work was initiated based upon data analytics."
Yet IGs reported having "no growth or a decline in staff resources over the last several years," and named "IT security" as the skillset for which it was most difficult to hire. Still, 20 percent of federal IGs indicated that they had doubled their data analytics investments, and 73 percent had invested moderately.
IGs also reported that "antiquated and often incompatible" IT systems and questionable data integrity had hindered their investigative abilities.
Verbatim: "Successful approaches to using data analytics … are the results of sustained efforts to identify reliable systems and scrub data."
Read the full report here.