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Department of EnergyWashington, DC 20585

The Honorable Darrell IssaChairman, Committee on Oversightand Government Reform

June 27, 2011

United States House ofRepresentativesWashington, DC 20515Dear Chairman Issa:Thank you for your March 8, 2011, letter regarding your request for information relatingto the electronic systems in use at the Department ofEnergy to support business andaccounting functions; grants and loans management; contracts management; andrepOliing to government-wide systems such as USASpending.gov and Recovery.gov.I apologize for the delay in responding.The following responds to the 23 questions raised in your letter:

1. Identify and briefly describe each of your agency's business and accountingsystems. I f separate divisions, bureaus, or offices of your agency use separatesystems, identify which divisions, bm'eaus, or offices use each system.The Funds Distribution System (FDS) is an online, interactive, financial systemthat provides for the receipt, control, and distribution of all obligational authorityavailable to the Department ofEnergy (DOE).The Standard Accounting and Repoliing System (STARS) provides the DOE witha modern, comprehensive, and responsive financial management system that isthe foundation for linking budget formulation, budget execution, financialaccounting, financial repoliing, cost accounting, and performance measurement.The Budget Table System (BTS) provides a system/database to control, track, andrepOli the Department's budget numbers throughout the Budget Formulationcycle.The Strategic Integration Procurement Enterprise System (STRIPES) provides theDepartment with a standard system for all activities required or directly associatedwith planning, awarding, and administering various unclassified acquisition andfinancial assistance instmments. In general terms, the required activities arecomprised of the following nmctions: acquisition/financial assistance planning;pre-solicitation documentation generation; solicitation development; evaluationand award; administration, including approving payment requests; and instrumentcloseout.

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2. Explain how the business and accounting systems identified in response toRequest No.1 interact with one another.Apportionments and allotments are interfaced from FDS to STARS on an asneeded basis providing the authority required for obligations to be made. Fundscontrol is maintained within STARS at multiple levels.Recovery of prior year unpaid obligations and end-of-year unobligated canyoverbalances are interfaced from STARS to FDS.

3. For each system identified in response to Request No.1, state whetherinformation found in that system is regularly or periodically submitted toany of the government-wide accounting systems maintained by theDepartment of Treasury, e.g., GFRS, FACTS I, FACTS II , IFCS, etc., andexplain how and at what intervals those submissions occur, includingdescriptions of both manual and automated processes.STARS infotmation is provided to FACTS I and the Government-wide FinancialReport System (GFRS) annually, and FACTS II on a qmuterly basis as requiredby Treasury. The Intra-governmental Fiduciary Confirmation System (IFCS)interagency balances are submitted quarterly for the first three quarters. Treasuryutilizes the year-end GFRS submission in lieu of a separate fOUlth quarter IFCSsubmission. Information is uploaded automatically to FACTS I, FACTS II, andIFCS systems. Information is manually entered into GFRS.

4. For each system identified in response to Request No.1, state whetherinformation found in that system is regularly or periodically submitted to theOffice of Management and Budget's ("OMB") MAX Information System,and explain how and at what intervals those submissions occur, includingdescriptions of both automated and manual processes.Information from FDS is uploaded into the Office ofManagement and Budget's(OMB) MAX Apportionment System to request appOltionmentireapPOltionment.This occurs at least twice per fiscal year for each Treasury Appropriation FundSymbol (TAFS). The number of apportionments varies among TAFS, rangingfrom two a year, to ten or more per fiscal year.The SF-133s are generated fi'om STARS on a quarterly basis and submitted toTreasury's FACTS II system which feeds directly to OMB's MAX system.

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S. For each system identified in response to Request No.1, describe recent,current, and planned migration 01 ' modernization projects.FDS, STARS, and BTS are all currently steady-state systems and supported byoperations and maintenance funding with changes limited to modifications tomeet new/changing requirements and critical enhancements to improveoperational efficiency.FDS was recently migrated from a mainframe environment to a serverenvironment and the database migration to Oracle Version 11 is currently beingtested. The overall funds distribution process is currently being evaluated. Tinsevaluation will determine the future ofFDS.STARS is DOE's implementation of Oracle Federal Financials. The migration toVersion 12 is being planned; but plans have not been finalized at this time.BTS is being replaced by the Budget Formulation and Execution Line of Businesssolution developed by Treasury called Budget Formulation and Execution Module(BFEM). BFEM will be deployed at DOE to support the FY 2013 BudgetFormulation Process.

6. In addition to your agency's submissions to government-wide accountingsystems maintained by the Department of Treasury and OMB, as describedin response to Requests Nos. 3 and 4, does your agency publish any of thesame information online for public viewing? I f so, describe how and in whatformat that infol'mation is published.The Agency Financial Report (http;lIwww.energy.gov/mediaI2010parAFR.pdt)and SF-133s (http://www.mbe.doe.gov/cfl2/reports.htm)arepublished on theidentified websites in Adobe Acrobat form.

7. Identify and briefly describe each system that your agency uses to managegrants, direct loans, and/or loan guarantees. I f separate divisions, bureaus,or offices of yoU!' agency use separate systems, identify which divisions,bureaus, or offices use each system.The Funds Distribution System (FDS) provides for the receipt, control, anddistribution of all obligational authority available to the DOE. The FDS alsomanages the apportionment and allotment of funding related to grants, directloans and loan guarantees for the Department.The Strategic Integration Procurement Enterprise System (STRIPES) provides theDepartment with a standard system for all activities required or directly associatedwith planning, awarding, and administering various unclassified acquisition and

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financial assistance instruments. including grants, direct loans, and loanguarantees.The Procurement and Assistance Data System (PADS) collects, validates, tracksand repolts procurement and financial assistance actions for the Depaltment.These functions have been transitioning to STRIPES and the i-MANAGE DataWarehouse (IDW); however, PADS is still used for official financial assistancerepOlting to USASpending.gov.The Industry Interactive Procurement Systems (lIPS) is used to record, publish,and procure external contractual business transactions within DOE. Suchtransactions entail the viewing of current business oppOltunities, registering tosubmit proposals, and obtaining information and guidance on the acquisition andfinancial assistance award process. The functions of lIPS have been transitioningto STRIPES.STARS accounts for the Depmtment 's commitments, obligations, costs, andpayments associated with grants, direct loans, and loan guarantees.

8. For each system identified in response to Request No.7, explain how itinteracts with any business or accounting system identified in response toRequest No. 1.FDS interfaces apportionment and allotment data to STARS.STRIPES intelfaces commitments and obligations for approved grants, directloans and loan guarantees to STARS in real time.PADS does not interact with the systems identified in response to Request No. I.lIPS does not interact with the systems identified in response to Request No. I.

9. For eaeh system identified in response to Request No.7, state whetherinformation found in that system is regularly or periodically submitted to theCatalogue of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA), and descl'ibe how and atwhat intervals those submissions occur, including descriptions of bothautomated and manual processes.FDS, STARS, and STRIPES do not submit information directly to the Catalogueof Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA).Obligation data is manually extracted from PADS and then manually entered intothe financial sections of the CFDA program descriptions in the CFDS website aspart of the annual CFDA Catalogue update.

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10. For each system identified in I'esponse to Request No.7, state whetherinformation found in that system is regularly or periodically submitted toany of the government-wide grants management and reporting systems, e.g.,FAADS, FAADS PLUS, etc., and describe how and at what intervals thosesubmissions occur, including descriptions of both automated and manualprocesses.FDS and STARS do not submit information to government-wide grantsmanagement and reporting systems.STRIPES information was submitted to the Federal Assistance Award DataSystem (FAADS) via PADS using a batch process on a qualterly basis. TheF AADS reporting requirements were terminated in February 2011.Stripes information is submitted to USASpending.gov via the F AADS PLUS filegenerated by PADS. The F AADS PLUS text file is uploaded via theUSASpending.gov Data Submission and Validation Tool (DSVT) twice permonth.STRIPES interfaces with the Grants.gov system via a two way data transfer,DOE uses STRIPES to query Grants.gov for a list of grant applications submittedby applicants against grant 0ppolumities posted by the agency on Grants.gov.DOE also uses STRIPES to retrieve all applications matching its query andassigns a unique agency tracking number to each application. In addition, oncean application is successfully retrieved, STRIPES acknowledges its receipt toallow Grants.gov to initiate the disposal phase of the application. Grants.govmaintains the files associated with a grant application for a limited duration.STRIPES pulls data from the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) system topopulate the vendor information in STRIPES.DOE users manually enter data in the CFDA website for the annual CFDACatalogue update.STRIPES interfaces directly with the Federal Business Opporttmities (FBO)system to post and modify notices.STRIPES information is interfaced directly to FPDS-NG. Additional informationis manually entered into FPDS-NG prior to the award or modification beingissued. FPDS-NG then feeds data to FSRS, which feeds data toUSASpending.gov.

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11. For each system identified in response to Request No.7, describe recent,current and planned migration 01' modernization projects.Modernization and migration efforts associated with FDS, STARS, and BTS wereaddressed in response to question #5.STRIPES was recently upgraded to version 6.5 of Compusearch PRISM inDecember 2010. Future upgrades are on hold pending the availability of funding.The functions of PADS have been transitioning to STRIPES and the i-MANAGEData Warehouse (lOW).The functions of IIPS are also being transitioned to STRIPES.

12. In addition to your agency's submissions to government-wide grantsmanagement and reporting systems, described in response to Requests Nos. 9and 10, does your agency publish any o f the same information online forpublic viewing? I f so, describe how and in what format that information ispublished.DOE publishes the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act information onlineat http://www.energy.gov/recovery for public viewing and provides summaryrepOtts and dashboards. DOE also publishes the Annual Procurement andFinancial Assistance Repolt, which is available online athttp://management.energy.gov/documents/annual reports.htm for public viewing.

13. Identify and briefly describe each system that your agency uses to managecontl'8cts. I f sepal'8te divisions, bureaus, or offices of your agency useseparate systems, identify which divisions, bureaus, or offices use eachsystem.DOE uses the following systems to manage contracts:STRIPES encompasses activities required or directly associated with planning,awarding, and administering various unclassified contracts.PADS collects, validates, tracks and repOtts procurement and fmancial assistanceactions. These functions have been transitioning to STRIPES and the i-MANAGE Data Warehouse (IDW); however, PADS is still used for repOtting ofcontract actions.IIPS is used to record, publish and procure external contractual businesstransactions within DOE. Such transactions entail the viewing of current businessoppOttunities, registering to submit proposals, and obtaining information and

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guidance on the acquisition and financial assistance award process. The functionsof lIPS have been transitioning to STRIPES.

14. For each system identified in response to Request No. 13, explain how itinteracts with any business or accounting system identified in response toRequest No.1.STRIPES interfaces commitments and obligations for approved contracts toSTARS in real time.PADS does not interact with the systems identified in response to Request No.1.lIPS does not interact with the systems identified in response to Request No.1.

15. For each system identified in response to Request No. 13, state whetherinformation found in that system is regular ly or periodically submitted toany of the government-wide contract management and reporting systems,e.g., FPDS, FPDS-NG, FAPIIS, etc., and describe how and at what intervalsthose submissions occur, including descriptions of both automated andmanual processes.STRIPES information is interfaced "real-time" directly to the FederalProcurement Data System- Next Generation (FPDS-NG). Additional informationis manually entered into FPDS-NG prior to issuance of an award or modification.FPDS -NG then feeds CPARS for auto-registration.STRIPES interfaces directly with the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO)system to post and modifY notices.STRIPES pulls data from CCR to populate the vendor information in STRIPES.STRIPES interfaces with ORCA to obtain ORCA data via XML. The interfaceallows ORCA customers to do a real-time user-customized request forinformation on a single or small set of ORCA records for each transaction.EPLS, FAPIIS, and PPIRS receive data from manual input. PPIRS is fed fromdata entered through CPARS.

16. For each system identified in response to Request No. 13, describe recent,current, and planned migration or modernization projects.STRIPES was upgraded to version 6.5 of Compusearch PRISM in December2010. Future upgrades are on hold pending availability of funding.

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The functions ofPADS have been transitioning to STRIPES and the i-MANAGEData Warehouse (IDW).The functions of IIPS are also being transitioned to STRIPES.

17. In addition to your agency's submissions to govcrnment-wide contractmanagement and repor ting systems, described in response to Request No. 15,does your agency publish any of the same information online for publicviewing? I f so, describe how and in what format that information ispublished.DOE publishes the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act information onlineat http://www.energy.gov/recovery for public viewing and provides summaryreports and dashboards. DOE also publishes the Annual Procurement andFinancial Assistance Repott, which is available online athttp://management.energy.gov/docllments/annuai reports.hlm for public viewing.

18. Briefly describe your agency's efforts to comply with OMB's memorandumon the Open Government Directive - Federal Spending Transparency, datedApril 6, 2010. In particular, describe whether and how your agency hasbegun to collect and report sub-award data, as "equired by thememorandum, and describe how your agency's reports on OMB's dataquality metrics, as required by the memorandum, are generated.DOE is currently implementing the requirements identified in the OpenGovernment Directive - Federal Spending Transparency, dated April 6, 2010, byfollowing the guidance identified in OMB's memorandum, Open GovernmentDirective - Federal Spending Transparency andSubmvard and CompensationData Reporting, dated August 27,2010.DOE relies on FSRS for prime awardees of either Federal contracts or grantssubject to the Transparency Act to report subaward information.The FAADS PLUS file submitted by DOE to USASpending.gov is used to prepopulate FSRS records to facilitate prime awardee repotting of subaward andexecutive compensation data in FSRS.DOE has issued policy guidance to address the requirement for all new awards asofOctober 1, 2010, to include a new award term that delineates applicablereporting requirements pursuant to the Transparency Act. DOE policy guidancehas also been issued to address the requirement to communicate to primeawardees that prime awardees will be required to register into the CentralContractor Registration System (CCR) for all new grants as ofOctober 1,2010.

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In an effort to improve the quality of information submitted to USAspending.gov,a dashboard containing metrics for timeliness, completeness, and accuracy will bepublicly displayed (after the baseline has been established) and updated quarterly.The public dashboards will be displayed beginning in FY 2011 for each agencyand each type of award, including Federal contracts, grants, loans, and otherfinancial assistance.The initial baseline of data quality metrics will be available on OMB's MAXsystem. Each Federal agency will need to review its baseline metrics. Anydiscrepancies that an agency identifies with the data on OMB's MAX systemshould be communicated to OMB as soon as possible since the baseline will beused for the public dashboard and provide the basis for the supplement to the dataquality plans. The dashboard will provide the public the ability to monitoragencies' progress in improving the timeliness, completeness, and accuracy ofFederal awards information. Agencies will be expected to provide interimmilestones and targets in the supplement to the data quality plans such that theagencies will meet the data quality targets outlined in Question 3 of Section C.OMB will monitor the agencies' progress on meeting their milestones.

19. I f your agency interacts directly with USASpending.gov, in addition tosUbmitting information to the systems that feed USASpending.gov, describethe nature, frequency, and purposes of that interaction.STRIPES information is submitted to USASpending.gov via the FAADS PLUSfile generated by PADS. The FAADS PLUS text file is uploaded via theUSASpending.gov DSVT twice per month.Below is information regarding how DOE interacts with the following systemsthat are managed by the General Services Administration (GSA) that feed data toUSASpending.gov:FPDS-NG- STRIPES information is interfaced directly to FPDS-NG. Additionalinformation is manually entered into FPDS-NG prior to the award or modificationbeing issued.FFATA Subaward Reporting System (FSRS) - STRIPES information isintelfaced directly to FPDS-NG. Additional information is manually entered intoFPDS-NG prior to the award or modification being issued. FPDS-NG then feedsdata to FSRS, which feeds data to USASpending.gov.Central Contractor Registra tion (CCR) - STRIPES pulls data from CCR topopulate the vendor information in STRIPES.SmartPay - DOE charge card data is provided by a national bank

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Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) - DOE users manually enterdata in the CFDA website for the annual CFDA Catalogue update20. Describe the data quality controls and procedures that your agency has

implemented for information that is submitted to USASpending.gov,including information submitted directly and information submitted to oneof the systems that feeds USASpending.gov.Validation routines have been implemented to ensure accuracy.Contracting/Agreements Officers manually review data, and subsequent reviewsare performed after the information is submitted to USASpending.gov. Inaddition, a quarterly data quality review is performed on a sampling of theinformation, including the information sent to USASpending.gov. The results arereviewed and approved by the Procurement Director at each site, and certified bythe Senior Procurement Executive.

21. State whether all of your agency's current grants, contracts, and loans areaccurately reflected on USASpending.gov, and, if not, estimate thepercentage of current grants, contracts, and loans that are not accuratelyreflected, using both the number of tl'ansactions and dollar figures.The information reflected on USASpending.gov is accurate based on the controlsnoted in Response No. 20 above. The qumterly reviews as previously described,have documented the overall accuracy as high as 99 percent based on a samplingofthe information reviewed.

22. State whether your agency incurs any reporting burdens 01' costs as a resultof its obligations under the Federal Financial Assistance Transparency Act("FFATA") that it does not incur as a result of other reporting obligations,and estimate those burdens and costs in worker-hours and dollars.At this time, DOE has incurred minimal, if any, additional cost as a direct resultof the Federal Financial Assistance Transparency Act.

23. Identify the individual(s) who serve(s) as Senior Accountable Official(s)("SAO") over federal spending data quality for your agency, as defined byOMB.The Department of Energy's Senior Accountable Official is Steve Isakowitz,Chief Financial Officer.

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If you have questions about this matter, please contact Ms. Amelia Jenkins, PrincipalDeputy Assistant Secretary for the Office ofCongressional and IntergovernmentalAffairs at 202-586-5450.

Sincerely,

cc: The Honorable Elijah Cummings, Ranking MemberThe Honorable Todd R. Platts, ChairmanSubcommittee on Government Organization,

Efficiency and Financial ManagementThe Honorable Edolphus Towns, Ranking MemberSubcommittee on Government Organization,Efficiency and Financial ManagementThe Honorable Jim Jordan, ChairmanSubcommittee on Regulatory Affairs,Stimulus Oversight and Government SpendingThe Honorable Dennis J. Kucinich, Ranking MemberSubcommittee on Regulatory Affairs,Stimulus Oversight and Government SpendingThe Honorable James Lankford, ChairmanSubcommittee on Technology, InformationPolicy, Intergovernmental Relations,

and Procurement ReformThe Honorable Gerald Connolly, Ranking MemberSubcommittee on Technology, InformationPolicy, Intergovernmental Relations,and Procurement Reform