Reports - Audit

The three USDA agencies that we reviewed did not consistently implement USDA’s position designation process or review position designations, increasing the risk of improperly vetted research scientists.

This report states that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has made progress towards full compliance with the Geospatial Data Act (GDA) and was fully compliant with 12 of the 13 responsibilities governed by the GDA.

We determined USDA saved $64.4 million by terminating contracts in fiscal year 2025, after incurring no litigation costs and at least $4.9 million in settlement costs, as of March 20, 2026.

The objective of this performance audit was to determine the effectiveness of USDA’s information security program. We found USDA’s maturity level is 3, which is ineffective according to OMB’s criteria. We found weaknesses still exist and made 10 new recommendations to address five identified deficiencies within USDA’s information security program. 

USDA was not compliant with the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 requirements for fiscal year 2025.

We found that USDA lacked adequate security protocols to prevent the unauthorized transfers of agricultural research and funding to foreign adversaries.

We found that FAS’ review process adequately ensured RAPP participants’ proposed activities aligned with the program’s purpose but did not adequately ensure that participants’ performance measures could sufficiently assess progress toward RAPP’s goal of increasing export sales.

This report presents the results of our audit of the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2025.

The report contains an unmodified opinion on Commodity Credit Corporation’s (CCC) financial statements as of September 30, 2025, as well as an assessment of CCC’s internal control over financial reporting and compliance with laws and regulations.

The report contains an unmodified opinion on Natural Resources Conservation Service’s financial statements as of September 30, 2025, as well as an assessment of NRCS' internal controls over financial reporting and compliance with laws and regulations.