Following up on a request from Congress, the Department of Transportation's Inspector General has begin work on an audit of the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program.

The agency is going to look into the quality of CSA data used to evaluate carrier performance, said Assistant Inspector General Joseph Comé this week in a memo to Anne Ferro, chief of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

The audit also will cover FMCSA's effectiveness in implementing enforcement interventions, Comé said.

This work will supplement an ongoing review of CSA by the Government Accountability Office.

The IG audit was requested following a hearing last September by the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit.

At that hearing trucking interests aired concerns that CSA data does not accurately and reliably identify unsafe carriers.

Ferro said at the hearing that the agency is reviewing the uniformity and consistency of police accident reports, as well as the process for making crash determinations and getting public comment.

She also said the agency is undertaking regular, scheduled revisions to CSA to address concerns about the program.

Meanwhile, the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee is preparing recommendations regarding CSA that it will submit to FMCSA later this year.