An inspector general says the Census Bureau’s ability to recruit and hire hundreds of thousands of workers in time for next spring’s head count could be hampered by underperforming computer systems
By
MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press
December 2, 2019, 4:04 PM
1 min read
A report says the Census Bureau’s ability to recruit and hire hundreds of thousands of workers in time for next spring’s head count could be hampered by underperforming computer systems.
A report released last week by the Office of Inspector General says a payroll system and an employment check system failed two phases of a test last July. Because of inadequate infrastructure or software inefficiencies, they were unable to perform at the scale needed to support peak recruiting for the 2020 Census.
Solutions have been in the works, but the report questions whether there’s time to test them before next month, when the Census Bureau starts hiring up to 500,000 temporary workers in the federal government’s largest peacetime operation.
The report recommends the bureau come up with a contingency plan.