The fiscal year (FY) 2016 budget request for National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Inspector General (OIG) reveals OIG’s game plan — and it is one that could result in more audits of universities and other institutions.
In its request, NSF OIG said it plans to beef up staff in both its Office of Investigations (OI) and Office of Audit (OA) and to continue spreading the gospel of data analytics across the government, even as the technique has not yet immediately proven itself. If its funding request is approved by Congress, the NSF OIG will increase both its permanent staff and the contractors it uses to perform audits.
As it did in its FY 2015 budget request, OIG reaffirmed its commitment to data analytics, which it referred to as part of its “new business model” and defended as “already produced promising results.” According to the OIG, the OA “is employing enhanced technical capabilities and data analytics to improve oversight of NSF funds by 1) better targeting our audits toward the riskiest awardees and 2) more efficiently screening and analyzing large volumes of data.”