Sneak Preview: GAO Still Deems Highway Grants, Medicaid High Risk
(The following was excerpted from a recent article in the Single Audit Information Service.) Even though the Government Accountability Office (GAO) did not add any new grant-related concerns to its recently updated High-Risk List, the watchdog agency continued to include two previously included areas related to federal financial assistance on the biennial list — improving oversight of the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) discretionary grant programs for highway maintenance, and strengthening Medicaid integrity under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Every two years, GAO issues its High-Risk List, which focuses attention on government operations with greater vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement, or that are “in need of transformation to address economy, efficiency or effectiveness challenges.” There are 35 “areas” on the High-Risk List. GAO uses five criteria to assess progress in addressing high-risk areas: (1) leadership commitment, (2) agency capacity, (3) an action plan, (4) monitoring efforts and (5) demonstrated progress.
This year, GAO removed two areas from the High-Risk List in light of program improvements — the Department of Defense’s supply chain management and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s efforts to mitigate gaps in weather satellite data. However, two other areas were added — the federal government’s personnel security clearance process and acquisition management under the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“Substantial efforts are needed on the remaining high-risk areas to achieve greater progress and to address regression in some areas since the last high-risk update in 2017,” said Comptroller General Gene Dodaro. “Continued congressional attention and executive branch leadership attention remain the key to success.”
The 293-page High-Risk List report addressed concerns with DOT’s discretionary programs, noting that about 12 new grant programs were authorized under the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act (Pub. L. 114-94), including the Fostering Advancements in Shipping and Transportation for the Long-term Achievement of National Efficiencies (FASTLANE) program. FASTLANE funds freight and highway projects of regional or national importance, and in 2016, DOT awarded about $760 million to 18 projects under the program.
Among the challenges DOT faces, according to GAO, are problems with the transparency of the application review and selection process under the programs authorized by the FAST Act, and a lack of documentation of key pre-award decisions. For example, due to inconsistencies in assessing applications for the FASTLANE program, GAO in a December 2017 report could not determine the rationale DOT used when awarding the 18 projects selected. Also, GAO found in a December 2016 report that the Federal Transit Administration did not document key decisions in awarding $3.6 billion in discretionary grants for projects to increase the resilience of transit systems to withstand future disasters in areas affected by Hurricane Sandy.
(The full version of this story has now been made available to all for a limited time here.)
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