The Census Bureau’s 2010 census count was designated high-risk in 2008 because of IT problems and while the agency has since strengthened risk management efforts and made other improvements, GAO told the Senate financial management subcommittee recently that a number of challenges and uncertainties remain.
Over the last few months, the bureau has made important strides in improving oversight of testing key IT systems – for example it named a testing officer to monitor the testing of census-taking activities, according to GAO-10-132T.
It said the bureau has also made progress in system testing, but faces tight timeframes in finalizing the paper-based operations control system, which will be used to manage field operations.
If any significant problems are identified during the testing phases of PBOCS, there will be little time, in most cases, to resolve the problems before the system needs to be deployed, said GAO.
It said address canvassing finished ahead of schedule, but was over budget and up to a fifth of the 35,000 workers it hired to check out and verify addresses could not be verified through its fingerprinting process.
GAO also said it was unable to verify the accuracy of the $14.7 billion estimated cost of the 2010 census because key details and assumptions are unavailable.
However, it said the bureau is taking steps to improve its cost estimation process for 2020, including training its staff in cost estimation skills.
