Summary: The Department of Transportation (DOT) consolidated its internal audit staff into a single audit office reporting to the Assistant Secretary for Administration. The audit office functions independently within DOT and has a formalized system for auditing DOT.
Improvements are needed for the office of Audits' planning process. Work performed and planned by the program evaluation groups should be taken into account along with other management activity. The office of Audits, through its audit manual, has procedures for insuring that its audit reports are based on factual information. Procedures were not always followed, and there was some lack of supervisory review. The reporting of audit findings and the report distribution system of the office of Audits appears to adequately respond to the provisions of the standard on reporting. However, the office of Audits has generally deemphasized the need for followup and no longer has a systematic method of inquiring into the disposition of its recommendations.
