United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Health, Education, and Human Services Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1999-01-11 monographic deposited born digital 64 p. GA 1.13:HEHS-99-21 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-99-21 P0b002ee180386b3c f:he99021 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-HEHS-99-21 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-HEHS-99-21 HEHS-99-21 Income statistics Data integrity Minimum wage rates Labor law Payroll records Congressional oversight Construction contracts Wage surveys Letter Report HEHS

Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the: (1) Department of Labor's response to the House Appropriations Committee's directive that it verify a random sample of employers' wage data submissions and select a sample of submissions for on-site data verification; and (2) likely effect of these efforts on the accuracy and timeliness of Davis-Bacon Act wage determinations.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) in response to a Committee directive and GAO's recommendation, Labor has implemented a program to verify wage survey data submitted on standardized wage data forms by construction contractors and interested third parties, such as contractor associations and trade unions; (2) to verify these data, Labor has developed procedures to select samples of these forms for telephone verification that differ depending on whether the forms are submitted by contractors or third parties; (3) in addition, Labor has hired a private accounting firm to conduct on-site verification reviews; (4) as of September 30, 1998, the accounting firm had issued final reports for 9 of the 85 geographic area surveys scheduled for audit from April 1997 to June 1998 and had identified errors in wages reported in about 70 percent of the wage data forms reviewed; (5) in both the telephone and on-site verification processes, all data--regardless of the entity that submitted them--are verified only with the contractors; (6) even though Labor has identified and corrected numerous errors in the wage data submitted, its verification efforts will have limited impact on the accuracy of the wage determinations and will increase the time required to issue them; (7) specifically, errors the accounting firm identified and corrected in all nine area surveys averaged 76 cents per hour; (8) but, because Labor was only able to correct the limited number of wage data forms verified, which contain a small portion of the wage rates submitted, on average, changes to these wage determinations will be less than 10 cents per hour, according to Labor officials' estimates; (9) the extent to which correcting the errors found through verification will improve the accuracy of wage determinations is limited by: (a) the Committee directive to use a random sample of wage data forms for verification, given the characteristics of the wage data with respect to the universe being sampled; and (b) the procedures Labor uses to implement this directive; (10) for example, in its procedures, Labor assumes that data from contractors that refuse access to supporting documentation are correct and includes the wages in calculating wage determinations; and (11) while the time needed for verification reduced timeliness of wage determinations, telephone verification added less time to the process than did on-site verification--an estimated average of 2 weeks as compared with an average of 211 days for the 30 area surveys for which the auditor completed preliminary reports. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-99-21/html/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-99-21.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-99-21/pdf/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-99-21.pdf GAO/HEHS-99-21 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-99-21 Letter Report GAO/HEHS-99-21; Davis-Bacon Act: Labor Now Verifies Wage Data, but Verification Process Needs Improvement; Income statistics Data integrity Minimum wage rates Labor law Payroll records Congressional oversight Construction contracts Wage surveys Title 18 Section 1001 Title 18 Section 1341 18 U.S.C. 1001 18 U.S.C. 1341 H. Rept. 105-205 H. Rept. 105-635