Congress wants the Census Bureau’s finances audited.
What took so long?
A few weeks ago, this memo popped up on the website of the Inspector General of the Department of Commerce: “As part of our fiscal year 2015 audit plan and in response to a Congressional request, we are initiating an audit of the Census Bureau’s Working Capital Fund.”
The memo came from Carol Rice, assistant inspector general for economic and statistical program assessment, and was sent to John Thompson, Census director.
Here’s the humorous part about this memo. At the top it was incorrectly dated April 24, 2014, instead of 2015, so it might have easily gone undetected. The correct year was in the body of the memo. (This gives me a lot of confidence in the auditors’ ability to work with numbers.)
Then there was some gobbledygook. “Our objective is to evaluate the budgetary controls over the fund. Specifically, we will assess the controls for building overhead rates and distributing charges to projects, review the appropriateness of the level of fund balance and evaluate compliance with appropriations laws.”
In my Tuesday column, I explained how the bureau’s own auditors couldn’t figure out how much the 2010 decennial Census cost, so it couldn’t figure out what the next one would cost in 2020.
But that report came out a year ago, and I just noticed it. The latest memo is brand new. Aside from my own investigation, nobody seemed to be looking into the matters of financial and statistical irregularities at Census.
The memo didn’t say which part of Congress requested the audit. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has regulatory authority over the bureau. Oversight completed an investigation of Census last year that was prompted by allegations made in this column. I also hear that the Senate Judiciary Committee may be looking into the Census Bureau.
Since I’ve been probing this for more than a year, let me give the auditors a hand: They should begin looking into all no-bid contracts signed by Census headquarters as well as the six regional offices. They should pay special attention to the Chicago and Philadelphia regions, where politicians seem to be particularly connected.
They should see if any supervisors in those six regions wrote themselves checks, or if any local groups were given financial benefits that might smack of political favors. They should look into people who suddenly retired after investigations were quietly closed down.
While they are at it, investigators need to look into the matter of statistical fraud — Census workers changing surveys to meet quotas and to make economic numbers look better than they really are.
Congress should begin by looking into the 120 computers that went missing from the Philadelphia office right before the last presidential election. The computers contained economic data that could have affected the unemployment rate at that crucial time.
Michael Neuman, a lawyer who happens to read this column, also uncovered some accounting chicanery during the 2010 Census. And Neuman says he wasn’t even looking into Census — he was doing research for a graduate degree in environmental law.
“Basically, instead of estimating actual costs, the Census Bureau estimates how much money Congress will pay. Then they create a ludicrous ‘cost estimate’ filled with nonsense,” Neuman told me.
For instance, in 2009, Census supposedly used “address canvassing” that required a $1.75 billion budget, according to Neuman. The purpose was simply to verify addresses — something that could have been done using Google Maps.
“The bureau claims it sent 140,000 temporary workers walking down every street, knocking on every door, interviewing people, asking them questions about their address, including whether or not the number printed on their door or mailbox is their address, and if not, what is their address,” Neuman said.
“I don’t believe they genuinely did this address-canvassing. It was an excuse to help justify the absurd $15 billion budget request,” he said.
Nobody came to my neighborhood. How about yours?
Good luck to Congress on this one. The Census Bureau is a corrupt but impenetrable organization that isn’t going to let auditors look at its books. The Post has learned that from the stone wall we’ve hit on Freedom of Information requests.
People need to go to jail before there will be cooperation.
In baseball, if your team isn’t hitting enough home runs, what do you do? You move in the fences.
Well, the economy hasn’t hit a homer in years. And right now we seem satisfied with singles or even walks. So what are the Commerce Department and the Federal Reserve trying to do? They are trying to move in the fences.
The Commerce Department is pushing to alter the seasonal adjustments that go into the nation’s Gross Domestic Product report.
Why? Basically because it feels like it. And because the GDP grew at an inconveniently slow pace this year that can no longer be explained away by lousy weather.
Here’s a novel idea. If you want to make the economy look better, fix the problems. Don’t just fool around with the optics.