This report presents the results of our analyses of the effectiveness of local efforts to ensure that the Property Assets Tracking System (PATS) accurately accounts for owned and leased property (non-ADP). The scope of the audit was limited to an assessment on the accuracy of information on the PATS database at the time we conducted our tests and did not include an evaluation of the internal control processes used to establish, maintain, and purge records from the system. Audit fieldwork was conducted in September and October 1998 and followed generally accepted government auditing standards.

PATS is an inventory control system for non-ADP personal property. The local PATS subsystem is comprised of three basic elements: barcode labels, laser scanners, and personal computers. These components are connected by a communication link and software package that allows data collected during inventory to be summarized and "uploaded" to computers containing the main PATS database.

The Chief, Covington Host Site requested the audit because a recent Federal Manager’s Financial Integrity Act (FMFIA) review validated the accuracy of only 46% of the PATS records on the Covington Host Site database. In response to this finding, Facilities Management Branch (FMB) personnel initiated an action plan to correct the deficiencies.

The condition of the local PATS database inventory significantly improved since the FMFIA review. Our audit, which was conducted after the FMB action plan was executed, determined that 89% of the records sampled were located and properly accounted for on PATS. In addition, we determined that 86% of a selected sample of serialized assets was correctly recorded on the database. While the condition of the PATS database has improved substantially, we noted that our results were slightly less than the Support Services goal of 90%. Furthermore, we did not project our results to the population since our validation rate was less than the expected 98% "rate of occurrence".

The audit identified an uploading problem where data entered on FMB laptops did not always upload complete information to the PATS database. If the problem had not occurred, then 93% of the sampled inventory would have been validated. FMB personnel could not determine the cause of the problem as laptop records showed that FMB had correctly entered the data during the execution of their action plan. FMB personnel initiated a memorandum to the National Office to inform them of the uploading problem.

Because management has taken action on the possible systemic problem, we did not request a response to this report.