The Administration for Children and Families Should Improve the Oversight of Tribal Grantees' Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Programs

The Administration for Children and Families' (ACF's) oversight of the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) did not ensure that grant funds were (1) used to provide the maximum available LIHEAP benefits to eligible households and (2) consistently administered in accordance with Federal laws, regulations, and guidance. (For this audit, we reviewed ACF's oversight in the context of the results of our previous audits of three Indian Tribes' (Tribal grantees') administration of their LIHEAP grant funds.) ACF's oversight of Tribal grantees focused on the reporting of obligated funds and not on whether the grantees had adequate policies and procedures to ensure that they used obligated funds to provide the maximum available LIHEAP benefits to eligible households. Furthermore, ACF selected only a limited number of Tribal grantees for onsite compliance reviews each year. These reviews did not ensure that grantees complied with Federal regulations. ACF did not have adequate policies and procedures to effectively oversee the Tribal grantees' LIHEAP grants.