The Government Accountability Office has recommended for the Office of Personnel Management address the availability and reliability of payroll data to support other agencies and researchers.
GAO said Friday OPM has not taken steps to widen the availability of payroll data from the Enterprise Human Resources Integration system.
The lack of data availability lead federal agencies and researchers to use proxy sources that more limited in terms of scope of analysis and the level of detail required for data-driven human capital studies, GAO added.
Auditors also identified internal control weaknesses they believe affect the reliability of EHRI’s payroll data such as data error risks, incomplete data fields and ineffective monitoring.
The payroll database is one of four EHRI databases that was created to serve as a centralized, standardized and comprehensive source of pay- and leave-related data across the federal government.
