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Date Issued
Submitting OIG
Department of Transportation OIG
Agencies Reviewed/Investigated
Department of Transportation
Components
Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation
Report Number
FI2026012
Report Description

Our Objective(s)To assess whether GLS's contract award and administration practices comply with Federal and Departmental requirements. Specifically, we evaluated GLS's compliance with contract award and administration requirements and overseeing contracting officer warrants.
Why This AuditBetween 2021 and 2024, GLS received around $154.8 million in Congressional funds to carry out its mission. In this time, GLS has managed a $65.1 million contract portfolio. Our prior work and that of DOT's Office of the Senior Procurement Executive previously identified that GLS did not always comply with Federal and Departmental acquisition requirements, including the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), across the acquisition lifecycle. Considering these issues and the importance of GLS's mission, we initiated this audit.
What We FoundGLS cannot demonstrate compliance with several contract award and administration requirements.

For 43 of the 48 contracts in our sample-totaling $40.4 million-GLS could not demonstrate that it complied with key contract award and administration process requirements set by DOT's Transportation Acquisition Manual and the FAR.
These noncompliance issues put up to $18.7 million at risk.

GLS could not always verify that its contracting officials held proper warrants.

GLS officials could not provide evidence that three of its contracting officers who awarded six contracts in our sample between fiscal years 2021 and 2024 totaling around $1 million, were correctly warranted.
Further, between July 2023 and April 2024, GLS's Chief of the Contracting Office awarded 12 contracts totaling approximately $11.7 million without warrant authority.

RecommendationsWe made 5 recommendations to improve GLS's compliance with Federal and Departmental contracting requirements.

Report Type
Audit
Agency Wide
Yes
Number of Recommendations
5
Questioned Costs
$11,500,000
Funds for Better Use
$18,700,000
Report updated under NDAA 5274
No
External Link
https://www.oig.dot.gov/library-item/47067

Open Recommendations

This report has 4 open recommendations.
Recommendation Number Significant Recommendation Recommended Questioned Costs Recommended Funds for Better Use Additional Details
1 Yes $0 $0

Implement standardized, written procedures to verify that applicable contract award and closeout contract file documentation requirements are met for each GLS contract.

2 Yes $0 $18,700,000

Implement standardized, written procedures to verify that applicable Federal and Department independent government cost estimates and fair and reasonable price determination requirements are met prior to awarding a GLS contract. Implementing this recommendation could put up to $18.7 million in Federal funds to better use by improving GLS's ability to establish fair, reasonable, and realistic contract pricing.

3 Yes $0 $0

Conduct an assessment of acquisition staff levels and needs, and based on this assessment, develop a plan to address shortages of critical acquisition personnel needed to carry out the Agency's contracting needs.

5 Yes $11,500,000 $0

Review and take corrective action to address the approximately $11.5 million in questioned costs related to contracting officers awarding contracts without evidence that they had the proper warrant authority to do so.

Department of Transportation OIG

United States