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Market Facilitation Program—Interim Report

Report Information

Date Issued
Report Number:
03601-0003-31 (1)
Report Type
Audit
Component
Farm Service Agency
Description
The objective of our ongoing audit is to evaluate FSA’s administration of MFP—this report provides interim results related to FSA’s demographic data collection policies.
Joint Report
No
Agency Wide
Yes (agency-wide)

Recommendations

Immediately discontinue the policy and practice of having employees determine producer race, ethnicity, and gender through visual assessment.

Update all relevant forms, handbooks, and notices to implement the requirements of the Departmental regulation for collecting only producer-provided race, ethnicity, and gender information and to allow producers the option of not providing that information.

Update the customer management data system used to collect race, ethnicity, and gender to document if producers decided to not provide their demographic information.

Once all demographic information collection forms are updated, use the appropriate form to update producer records in FSA’s customer management data system.

Evaluate the improperly collected data and determine how to manage it appropriately.