FEDLINK Hotline Complaint Regarding the Timeliness of Processing Customer Orders

What Office of Inspector General Evaluated

We evaluated two complaints received by the Office of the Inspector General Hotline about the Library of Congress’ Federal Library and Information Network (FEDLINK).

What Office of Inspector General Found

We found that both customers were late in submitting their orders, which led to the serial subscriptions arriving at their destinations after the requested date of January 1, 2018. To ensure timely delivery of serial subscriptions for the new year starting January 1, 2018, FEDLINK advised customers to submit  all required documentation by September 22, 2017. However, neither customer met this deadline. 

What Office of Inspector General Recommends

We identified areas for process improvement as follows:

• FEDLINK needs a formal process in place for tracking, reviewing, and resolving issues from customers and vendors; IT  would allow FEDLINK to quickly Identify Fiscal  Year and resolve systemic issues, thereby improving the services that FEDLINK provides to its customers.
• FEDLINK needs to confirm that the vendor actually provided the services to the customer before paying the invoice; instead, it sends a copy of the invoice to the customer for review after making the payment.
• FEDLINK should make efforts to increase customer awareness of the procurement timeline. FEDLINK management should expand notification of its  90–120 days procurement action lead time (PALT) by publishing IT  on its  website to help ensure that customers understand the importance of submit ting documentation and funding in a timely manner, as well as ensuring that customers are aware of the timeline for contract award.