Sneak Preview: GAO Calls for Transparency in TSGP Award Decisions
(The following was excerpted from a recent Thompson Grants Compliance Expert article.) To better explain which applications will be selected to receive awards under its Transit Security Grant Program (TSGP), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will update language in the TSGP notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) over the next year clarifying the award scoring and selection process, in response to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommendation.
TSGP provides discretionary grants to public transit agencies to protect critical transportation infrastructure and the traveling public from terrorism. FEMA awarded about $614 million to public transit agencies for law enforcement activities and equipment from federal fiscal years (FYs) 2015 through 2021. TSGP dollars also funded related infrastructure projects, training and exercises, public awareness campaigns and planning.
Although GAO found that FEMA included a description of the scoring criteria in the FY 2021 NOFO as required under the uniform guidance (§200.204), the agency did not accurately describe how it would assess certain criteria. “By accurately describing scoring criteria and their associated weights in the NOFO, FEMA would help ensure transit agencies are making informed decisions about which security improvement projects are likely to score highly,” GAO explained.
In addition, FEMA did not select project applications to recommend for award based solely on the selection process described in the NOFO. For the FY 2021 TSGP NOFO, the agency explained that it would review and select project applications based on the final scores from four criteria — risk group, risk mitigation, regional collaboration and funding priority areas. However, FEMA did not award grants to 38 of 93 high-scoring applications in FY 2021. Further, the agency did not always award grants to high-scoring applicants, instead favoring lower-scoring applicants from FYs 2015-2021.
“FEMA described the merit review process to competitively score applications in its NOFO, but did not use the results of its process as the sole basis for award decisions,” GAO said. “By not selecting applications to recommend for award in accordance with its publicly disclosed merit review process, FEMA risked affecting the objectivity, fairness and transparency of the process and could face questions about the integrity of the decisions.”
(The full version of this story has now been made available to all for a limited time here.)
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