On February 5, 2024, the Inspector General (IG) of the U.S. Department of Commerce issued a report, �Independent Evaluation of the 2020 Decennial Census Evaluations and Experiments (EAE) Operation.� The IG contracted with an independent firm, the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), to produce the report.
In a memo to Census Bureau Director Santos accompanying the report, Arthur L. Scott, Jr. Assistant Inspector General for Audit and Evaluation, states that the report�s �objective was to determine whether the Census Bureau prepared adequate and timely operational assessments (OAs) that included the appropriate metrics to support planning for the 2030 decennial�s research and testing (R&T).� The report centers on six major findings regarding, among other things, the timeliness of 2020 evaluations, management practices, and processes that the agency used to examine scheduling delays.
Specifically, IDA found the following:
�I.� 2020 OAs, evaluations, and experiments were not completed in time to formally inform the development of the Census Bureau�s 2030 R&T agenda.
II.� The 2020 census EAE research program failed to prioritize the evaluation of two of the four key 2020 innovation areas and the investigation of a potentially significant2030 innovation.
III.� The Census Bureau has put management processes and tools in place but does not always use them to their potential.
IV.� The Census Bureau should standardize the reporting of cost data across EAE products.
V. The Census Bureau should examine delays with respect to the originally planned schedule and not just the latest re-baselined schedule.
VI. The Census Bureau should resource-load the activities in the decennial census integrated master schedule.�
Appendix D of the report includes the Census Bureau�s December 22, 2023, response to the draft report.
