Recovery.gov - Track the Money

In order to accomplish the work, approximately 1,250 additional temporary telephone interviewers will be hired. These Interviewers will work from additional Commercial Call centers for about 18 weeks in FY 2010.
In this operation, telephone interviewers re-contact households where, based on specific criteria, we believe a person(s) may have been erroneously omitted or included in error on the census report form. When the households are contacted, interviewers verify the information on the census form, make corrections as warranted, and obtain any missing demographic information. The increase allows for further follow up when there is evidence of potential coverage error. To accomplish the work, we intend to expand a contract to hire additional 1,250 temporary telephone interviewers who will work from commercial call centers.

The Census Bureau Chief Financial Officer’s organization establishes and operates a comprehensive financial management and internal controls program for the agency. The robust accounting structure contains detailed coding that allows obligations and expenditures for all activities and operations to be individually tracked and monitored.

The Census Investment Review Board (CIRB) serves as the senior governance body for major investments. The board consists of senior program executives and is chaired by the Deputy Director. The Senior Advisor for Project Management facilitates the review of new initiatives and ongoing programs to monitor progress in achieving the desired program goals and objectives. The Census Bureau’s major investments must also be presented to the Department of Commerce Investment Review Board, which conducts periodic reviews of the major programs and projects across all agencies and bureaus within the Department.

The Decennial program offices manage the 2010 Census program requirements, schedule and budget. Program management is centralized within the Decennial Management Division (DMD). The 2010 Census program is divided into projects, and a program manager is assigned to each of these projects. The program managers oversee the budgets their assigned projects and work closely with the Census offices that participate in the projects to ensure that funds are being used to meet the project’s requirements, and to address any cost or schedule issues.

Monthly briefings are held with senior officials of the Department of Commerce and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on the status of the 2010 Decennial Census program. The Monthly Status Report (MSR), which is used as the basis of these briefings, includes information on status and progress of major decennial activities, including all major contracts being managed (including earned value metrics, schedule accomplishments, risks, and issues) as well as obligation and expenditure information.

Decennial management has established comprehensive project and contract management structures for the major Decennial contracts supporting the collection, tabulation, and dissemination of the 2010 Census data. Each contract has a senior Project Manager that leads a Project Management Office (PMO). They work closely with the budget and acquisition staffs in both the Census Bureau and the Department of Commerce to monitor the major contracts. The PMOs monitor the cost, schedule, and technical performance milestones for each system and ensure that financial and contractual controls are in place. They use earned value metrics, which are tools to analyze program cost and schedule performance – evaluating current results and predicting future performance. The PMOs conduct regular technical and cost reviews with each contractor that include discussions of actual and projected cost and schedule variances. These reviews enable the Census Bureau to anticipate and address any potential contract cost issues when they first occur. There is also a Program Integration Staff to ensure that all the contractor activities work with each other and with the efforts of government staff.

Transparency
The Census Bureau has established a new Treasury account to track the $1 billion received from the ARRA. We have also established a financial structure, including unique coding that will allow us to separately track obligations and expenditures for each activity funded through ARRA and to aid in the transparency of these expenditures. All financial transactions associated with this funding will be captured and retained in the Census Bureau’s Core Financial System.

The Census Bureau’s ARRA spend plan is being made available to the public on the recovery.gov website. In addition, weekly reports will be completed and posted on the recovery.gov website.

Accountability
The Census Bureau has reporting requirements established by the Department of Commerce in response to guidelines established by OMB to monitor ARRA funding. The Census Bureau’s Comptroller, according to those established guidelines, will monitor all ARRA funds.

The Acquisitions Program Management staff will also closely monitor work and progress on a daily basis. In addition, a task manager is assigned to each task under the contract. Budget and program staff conduct detailed monthly reviews of obligations compared to the operating plans, and Census Bureau Executive Staff members, including the Director and Deputy Director are briefed regularly. Budget spending reports are also sent monthly to the Department of Commerce.

Monthly briefings are held with senior officials of the Department of Commerce and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on the status of the 2010 Decennial Census program.

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