ETA did not Sufficiently Plan and Execute the American Apprenticeship Initiative Grant Program

Date Issued

Thursday, September 30, 2021

Submitting OIG

Department of Labor OIG

Other Participating OIGs

Department of Labor OIG

Agencies Reviewed/Investigated

Department of Labor

Report Number

05-21-004-03-375

Report Type

Audit

Agency Wide

Yes

Number of Recommendations

Questioned Costs

Funds for Better Use

Additional Details

Open Recommendations

This report has 2 open recommendations.

Recommendation Number	Significant Recommendation	Recommended Questioned Costs	Recommended Funds for Better Use
1	Yes	$0	$155,582,864
We recommend the Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training Administration improve funding opportunity announcements for discretionary grant programs by: a. Evaluating program goals using the SMART concept or a similar approach, and including required metrics that directly measure the success of each program goal, are clear, and are easily verifiable; b. Having a scoring element covering completeness of applicant proposals for items requested in the announcement that reduces in points when the proposal is missing an element(s), significantly changes the wording of an element(s), or incorrectly addresses an element(s); and c. Identifying targeted occupations in the FOA language and/or scoring elements, or requiring submission of the career pathway to an H-1B occupation as support during apprenticeship program registrations or apprentice registrations
7	Yes	$0	$0
We recommend the Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training Administration establish internal controls to verify participant eligibility, verify submitted ETA Forms 671 (Program Registration and Apprenticeship Agreement) are the current OMB approved version and completed correctly, and encourage use of interim credentials when the form indicates a competency or hybrid model apprenticeship.