In the course of this audit, we identified concerns regarding DOJ’s financial and budget systems and Capital Planning and Investment Control cost reporting. We believe that DOJ should consider these concerns as it develops its CPIC cost reporting function.

FBI Requisition Databases and CPIC Cost Reporting

Officials from various FBI divisions told us that tracking purchase requisitions and the resulting expenditures using FMS, the FBI’s core financial system, is sometimes difficult and time-consuming. In order to make tracking requisitions faster and easier, these divisions have developed databases that duplicate and add detail to their requisitions in FMS.

The FBI has created and operates a number of requisition databases at many of its operating units. The CJIS Division was the first to create its requisition database, Budgetary Evaluation and Analysis Reporting System (BEARS) in 2002. Since 2002 other FBI divisions have adopted similar databases that are also called BEARS.

In addition to the various requisition databases using the name BEARS, the FBI Office Technology Development uses Project and Account Management System (PAMS). PAMS was created in the late 1990s for project management purposes, and in 2003 a requisition tracking function was added.

The multi-system approach the FBI uses for tracking requisitions may be reliable within a division, but we believe the coordination and sharing of cost data for CPIC reporting is weak across FBI divisions.

We discussed with FBI officials the future of BEARS and PAMS considering the planned replacement of FMS with the DOJ-wide Unified Financial Management System (UFMS). Officials told us they anticipate the UFMS will incorporate the requisition tracking functions of BEARS and PAMS, so that supplement systems to the core financial system will not be necessary in the future.

Funding More Easily Tracked Than Expenditures

Our testing of total costs reported by IT systems at the FBI, DEA, and JMD demonstrates that these costs can be more easily tracked when the funding for projects is earmarked in appropriations or segregated within a component’s budget. However, this testing also showed that components often support IT systems from multiple sources of funding even when designated funding exists. Therefore it is difficult to ensure the costs reported for any IT system are complete.

Using UFMS for CPIC Cost Reporting Function

Weaknesses associated with DOJ’s various core financial systems have been a longstanding concern. To address this issue, DOJ will be replacing the existing financial systems with the UFMS. The UFMS is designed to improve financial management and procurement operations across DOJ. It will also likely replace the requisition tracking databases at the FBI. Although CPIC cost reporting is not a requirement of a federal financial system, we believe DOJ should examine the possibility of using the UFMS to permit CIOs and other oversight bodies to obtain reliable cost data on IT systems.