Internal Controls of the Transportation Computer Center and Pollution Incident Reporting System

The Department of Transportation's (DOT) Office of Audits has not participated in the design and development of controls for the Coast Guard's computer-based Pollution Incident Reporting System (PIRS) and is not involved in efforts to improve PIRS.

Auditor participation is important to ensure managers and users that time the PIRS network of controls is adequate and effective. The internal audit staff should review automated information systems such as PIRS to provide assurance that the systems are properly designed, operating effectively and economically, and producing reliable results. As part of its review, the audit staff should test the adequacy of controls and point out control weaknesses to management for corrective action. Officials from the Office of Audits indicated that their involvement in PIRS was doubtful because PIRS was not a major DOT system, and their present capability to perform computer-type audits was limited. The Office of Audits should assign a high priority to a review of the DOT computer center's controls and include in that review appropriate test checks of PIRS.