U.S. Senators Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and several Senate colleagues have called for an investigation into the Department of Commerce’s (DOC) new financial management system, which has caused significant disruptions at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The system failures have delayed crucial weather forecasts, hindered disaster aid for fisheries, threatened safety information for aviators and mariners, and left employees without reimbursement for official travel expenses.
NOAA was the first agency to adopt the DOC’s new $341 million “Business Application Solution (BAS)” system, aimed at modernizing financial and business management processes. However, the implementation has been plagued by delays, system failures, and cost overruns, severely impacting NOAA’s operations.
In a letter to the Department of Commerce, the Senators expressed their concern over the detrimental effects of the system. “The first rollout at NOAA in October 2023 caused a backlog of thousands of unpaid invoices, reportedly resulting in a loss of both tornado alerts and vital weather information for pilots. Even a short-term interruption of critical weather information is an unacceptable risk during the transition to a new financial management system,” the Senators wrote.
In addition to weather disruptions, the Senators noted that the system failures have caused delays in distributing aid for fishery disasters. Seven unfunded fishery disaster requests remain pending, with small communities like St. Paul Island, Alaska, suffering severe economic consequences due to the collapse of crab fisheries.
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The Senators also criticized the DOC for ignoring earlier warnings from its Office of the Inspector General (OIG).
“One year after the Department awarded the contract for the new system—known as the Business Application Solution (BAS)—the DOC Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued a Management Alert, stating that DOC needed to develop key inputs and align with known best practices. The Department failed to heed this warning as two subsequent OIG audit reports pointed, again, to a failure to implement basic management controls,” the letter continued.
The OIG’s most recent report suggests that fixing the issues with the BAS system could lead to significant cost increases.
The Senators are seeking clarity on the extent of NOAA’s operational issues, the broader impacts on U.S. citizens, and a timeline for resolving these problems.
Joining Senators Britt and Cruz in this inquiry were Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska).
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