Top Five Problems Agencies Encounter With SPR Processing |
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Inadequate Computer Security Safeguarding Procedures: Agencies do not provide adequate information in the computer security portion of the report. Therefore, report is either rejected or delayed due to further data collection efforts through conference call(s) with the agency personnel.
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Sluggish Agency Response Time To Finalize A Rejected SPR: Rejected reports are returned to the IRS beyond the required 30 days deadline on SPRs rejected due to missing critical information. Additionally, when conference calls are held with agency personnel to clarify the information needed, the agencies are slow to provide the requested information within agreed upon timeframes.
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Missing Supplemental Documentation: Rejected SPRs are received without the agency supporting supplemental material referenced in the SPR (e.g. IT policies & procedures, Disclosure Awareness Training, etc).
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Formatting And Submission Errors Cause Delays: Formatting or submission errors cause more time for IRS Office of Safeguards to format the report correctly and respond with an acceptance or rejection decision because:
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Report has to be converted from PDF to a Word document causing the reviewer to hand type approximately 35% of the report. (The average number of pages per SPR is 55.)
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Some agencies do not use the agency comment section for rejected reports, but instead use the IRS comment section. This causes delays since the reviewer must cut and paste to the proper section.
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Font/pitch (12 pitch w/Arial font, PDF) has to be changed throughout the report.
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Inconsistent Multiple Submissions By The Agency: The agency submits a new report instead of returning the rejected report, which causes the reviewer to cut and paste the data from the new report to the old report. Agencies should respond to a rejected report by placing the data within a paragraph and not adding the notation “AGENCY UPDATE”, which makes it difficult for the IRS Office of Safeguards to identify the agency’s updates made to the report.
References/Related Topics
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Page Last Reviewed or Updated: August 28, 2008