The Bureau of Reclamation Needs To Improve Transparency for Inflation Reduction Act-Funded Water Conservation Efforts in the Upper Colorado River Basin

Date Issued

Friday, April 10, 2026

Submitting OIG

Department of the Interior OIG

Agencies Reviewed/Investigated

Department of the Interior

Report Number

2024-WR-007

Report Description

We found that UCRC misclassified its agreements and did not verify whether subcontractors were on an exclusions list prior to awarding funds.

Report Type

Audit

Agency Wide

Yes

Number of Recommendations

Questioned Costs

Funds for Better Use

Report updated under NDAA 5274

External Link

Open Recommendations

This report has 3 open recommendations.

Recommendation Number	Significant Recommendation	Recommended Questioned Costs	Recommended Funds for Better Use
2024-WR-007-01	No	$0	$0
We recommend that BOR Direct the Upper Colorado River Commission to develop and implement controls to ensure it considers Federal guidance in 2 C.F.R. 200.331 when it classifies agreements and documents justifications for its classifications.
2024-WR-007-03	No	$0	$0
We recommend that BOR direct the Upper Colorado River Commission to develop and implement policies and procedures in compliance with 2 C.F.R Part 1400 and 2 C.F.R. Part 180 to document review of the System for Award Management exclusions list before issuing agreements that use Federal funds.
2024-WR-007-02	No	$0	$0
We recommend that BOR to the extent the Upper Colorado River Commission classifies agreements as subawards, direct the Upper Colorado River Commission to develop a mechanism to ensure adherence to applicable Federal subaward requirements, including guidance for performing risk assessments, determining monitoring plans, and reporting subawards to USASpending.gov, as required by the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act.