The Government Accountability Office has found that the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau lacks certain procedures to handle interdependencies between the Census Enterprise Data Collection and Processing program and the 2020 Decennial Census initiative.
GAO said in a report released Thursday the bureau has failed to implement a single dependency schedule and does not have a combined list of risks for both CEDCAP and 2020 Census programs.
According to the report, the 2020 Census project relies on the CEDCAP program, which aims to provide systems designed to support the bureau’s efforts to redesign the way it counts the U.S. population.
GAO cited that the Census Bureau does not have defined requirements to validate responses from people that use their addresses to respond to surveys.
The bureau also faces a number of data security challenges related to the implementation of the 2020 Decennial Census initiative, including the risk of phishing attacks associated with the use of internet by respondents and security risks linked to the use of mobile devices by enumerators in data collection, according to the report.
“Officials have acknowledged these weaknesses and reported that they are taking, or plan to take, steps to address the issues,†the congressional audit agency noted.
