Lawmaker questions data error in a Census Bureau report on states' finances

A lawmaker said an error in a Census Bureau financial report raises a concern about its ability to control data quality.

In a letter sent last week to Census Bureau Director Robert Groves, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said he was worried the bureau overstated state insurance trust revenues by 70 percent, or $59 billion, in an annual survey of state government finances. The sum of individual states' reported revenues and the total stated amount didn't match, according to the letter.

An outside analyst first identified the error using Extensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL, a programming language that relies on tags to make financial information uniform so computer applications can search and share data. XBRL supporters say the system streamlines analysis and reduces the potential for mistakes.

"If you have an error in your spreadsheet or formula, it takes somebody to actually look into all of the cells and formats from disparate resources to figure out that there is a major problem," said Neil Hannon, an XBRL strategy consultant at the content management practice firm Gilbane Group. "If you put everything into a common language like XBRL and spread it out over 50 different state reporting agencies, the analysis of something like this can happen at the snap of the fingers as opposed to consolidating information from 50 different spreadsheets."

Hannon said spreadsheet errors are common, and the application of routine rules to data can prevent errors from occurring.

"The way to get control of those things and make sure that errors are eliminated is by creating a system that allows you to use some very basic business rules and to be able to see automatically that those business rules are followed," he said. "If the information had been reported in XBRL language with a certain set of labels and business rules, chances are the error never would have been introduced into the system. Or it could have led to a quicker discovery of the underlying error."

XBRL is a reasonable solution for Census to improve the quality of information collected if all parties involved in the process can agree on using common labels, Hannon said.

Issa, the ranking member on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and committee chairman Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., have supported the Government Information Transparency Act (H.R. 2392), which would require the government to adopt a single data standard like XBRL for business information and make the information available to the public.

The letter requested information from Census about data accuracy, quality controls and plans to adopt XBRL for use on financial data.

A Census spokeswoman confirmed the bureau had received the letter and was working on a response.