Actions are needed to improve the transparency and reliability of the Labor Department’s data on the H-2A visa program, through which companies can hire foreign workers temporarily in anticipation of an agricultural labor shortage, GAO has said.
The number of applications submitted by employers for H-2A worker positions, the number of H-2A worker positions requested, and the number of worker positions approved by Labor cited in Labor’s annual reports from fiscal 2006 to 2012 sometimes differed from the numbers reported by Labor in the data it makes available to the public on its website, according to GAO-13-144R.
It said that much of the data Labor reported from applications submitted on behalf of multiple employers for this period contained inconsistencies and that Labor lacked internal controls to monitor and prevent inconsistencies.
Further, GAO said the new system Labor is using to allow employers to file their H-2A applications electronically, iCERT, does not contain data edit checks to ensure its accuracy.
GAO called on Labor to enhance the transparency of the data reported to the public on the H-2A program in the data files posted on Labor’s website by disclosing the limitations of the data, and by collecting separate data on where workers will be employed and where they will be housed, and by providing additional guidance on how to report the number of worker positions requested.
It also recommended that Labor improve the reliability of the data on H-2A applications filed on behalf of multiple employers in the new H-2A module of the iCERT system by assessing the feasibility of adding data edit checks to the module that would flag inconsistencies in the data.
