More often than not components within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are failing to report conferences they hosted or attended as required, the department’s Inspector General (IG) said in a recent report.
Department records show that in FY ’14 components hosted 428 conferences at a total estimated cost of $11.6 million, with 164 exceeding $20,000 in costs, the threshold for reporting, said the IG report, Management Advisory on Department of Homeland Security Components’ Reporting of Conference Spending (OIG-15-121-MA). Yet the components only reported 21, or 13 percent, of the conferences, the IG said.
For the first quarter of FY ’17, DHS components hosted 62 conferences at a cost of about $1.6 million. Of these, 23 conferences should have been reported but only seven, or 30 percent, were, according to the report.
Under Office and Management and Budget regulations, DHS is required to report on its website conference-related expenses exceeding $100,000 for each event but the IG said that information isn’t accessible without a direct link. It said it couldn’t access the information through the public website.
The IG said that DHS’ Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) believes that some components aren’t aware of the mandatory conference reporting requirements. The office also said that the required timeframe for reporting conferences–15 days–can be challenging because the components may not know the final cost within that period.
Between Oct. 1, 2013 and Dec. 31, 2014, DHS components hosted 490 conferences at a cost of $13.1 million and attended 1,393 events at a cost of $7.2 million, the IG said.