Federal Reports

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) had a process in place to ensure that Head Start grantees took corrective action on A-133 audit findings. Head Start grantees are required to have Single Audits conducted in accordance with Office of Management and Budget Circular A 133 (also known as A-133 audits) for fiscal years beginning before December 26, 2014. However, for Region II Head Start grantees that submitted audit reports to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse, ACF did not always resolve recurring audit findings in accordance with Federal requirements and ACF policies and procedures. Specifically, ACF did not issue letters transmitting management decisions for six of the eight audit reports we reviewed within 6 months after receiving the reports. In addition, although ACF provided the grantees with letters stating that the corrective actions planned or taken should prevent recurrence of the findings, ACF did not establish specific dates for grantees to correct deficiencies noted in the audit reports. Finally, ACF did not always follow up with grantees to ensure that they actually took corrective actions to resolve audit findings. The prompt resolution of audit findings helps ensure that Federal funds are effectively and efficiently used to carry out the activities for which they were authorized.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) awarded Henry J. Austin Health Center, Inc. (HJAHC), a not-for-profit organization, $8.3 million in grant funds through several Community Health Center Program grants to provide comprehensive primary care services in the Trenton, New Jersey, area. Of this amount, $281,000 was to support certain activities (i.e., one-time equipment purchases).

OIG investigated allegations that an employee at the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST) lied about her cancer diagnosis, forged medical records, falsified documents, and abused her own sick leave and leave donated by coworkers.Our investigation confirmed the allegations. We found no evidence that the OST employee had been diagnosed with cancer or that she received medical care for cancer as she claimed. On 15 occasions, the employee submitted physicians’ notes to OST containing forged signatures from 5 separate medical providers. As a result of the falsified physicians’ notes, the employee was authorized 256 hours of her own sick leave and received 28 hours of donated leave from her coworkers.The employee left the Department before we issued our report.

The OIG investigated allegations that the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) Wyoming State Office (WYSO) had entered into an unneeded contract for oil-and-gas-record digitization services, had improperly selected the contractor, and had improperly carried the funds for the digitization project across fiscal years. We also investigated an allegation that WYSO had not received proper compensation for record copying and other clerical services it had performed for an oil and gas company.Our investigation did not substantiate these allegations. The BLM Washington (DC) Office had encouraged WYSO and other state offices to identify high-value records, which included WYSO’s oil and gas records, and to begin digitizing them to improve record retention and reduce costs for storing physical records. WYSO used a contractor that was competitively selected by the U.S. Government Publishing Office to provide scanning and digitization services to multiple Federal agencies. We confirmed that WYSO had carried funds used for this project across fiscal years, but we learned that it had the authority to do so and used the appropriate financial mechanism. We also confirmed that WYSO was paid for the copies and the other services it provided to the oil and gas company.

What the Office of Inspector General Evaluated

The Office of Inspector General conducted this Audit to evaluate the Library’s actions taken to remediate deficiencies and weaknesses identified in Office of Inspector General Special Report No. 2011-SP-106, Ongoing Weaknesses in the Acquisition Function Require a Senior Management Solution (2012 Audit Report).

What the Office of Inspector General Found

• Incremental improvement has been made to modernize the Office of Contracts and Grants Management
• More Library senior leadership involvement is needed to implement a cross-cutting Strategic Plan
• A sustainable strategic workforce plan is essential to improve procurement function performance
• The Office of Contracts and Grants Management needs greater involvement of Human Resources Services to create a workforce plan
• The Office of Contracts and Grants Management needs to strengthen its oversight of Contracting Officer’s Representatives
• Improvements are needed in the management of procurement data.

What the Office of Inspector General Recommends

• The Librarian require the Chief Operating Officer to articulate a strategic, integrated, and agency-wide vision for the procurement function where the Chief Operating Officer holds managers accountable for their contributions to the procurement process.
• Institute successful strategic planning practices as outlined by the Office of Strategic Planning and Performance Management, with heads of Office of Contracts and Grants Management, Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Human  Resources Services, and other key stakeholders (project team), produce agreed upon strategic goals with short-term (one year), mid-term (three years), and long-term (five years) goals. The Chief Operating Officer should have the plan ready by the end of the second quarter of Fiscal Year 2018.
• Develop strategies and tactics (as part of 2 above) to accomplish the target state of the procurement function for the short-, mid-, and long-term strategic goals along with valid annual performance goals and valid and reliable performance measures.
• Use PMBOK best practices to develop and implement a project plan with a critical path for achieving the procurement strategic plan that includes all components (e.g., work breakdown structures, milestones, performance targets and metrics, and methods for tracking and reporting progress).
• Include in the crit ical path activities to address the 18 recommendations Office of Inspector General made in the March 2012 report that remain outstanding. The Director should submit  an action plan to the Chief Operating Officer with planned steps and target dates for fully resolving all of the recommendations. The Chief Operating Officer should make the development of the plan an element in the Director’s Fiscal Year 2018 performance plan.
• Report quarterly to the Executive Committee and Librarian the  Chief Operating Officer's progress toward annual strategic and performance goals for the procurement function.
• Engage the Director and Human  Resources Services to immediately priority ize the development of a strategic workforce plan for the procurement function that has metrics focused on reducing average vacancy terms, reducing attrition, and emphasizing position longevity. 
• As indicated by the strategic workforce plan, expedite Human  Resources Services’ efforts to fill key senior- and staff-level vacancies.
• Update the Director’s performance expectations to include performance metrics and timeframes for filling key positions as indicated by the strategic workforce plan.
• Develop a mechanism for evaluating and predicting procurement staff levels to anticipate trends and hiring needs in order to initiate the hiring process in a timely manner when positions need to be filled.
• Develop and implement policies and procedures for Office of Contracts and Grants Management , and the relevant contracting officer, to participate in evaluating COR performance as part of the annual employee performance appraisal process. 
• Develop and maintain an accurate roster of active Contract Officer’s Representatives and the contracts they manage.
• Evaluate Contract Officer’s Representative workload in an effort to distribute Contract Officer’s Representative assignments more evenly, which should facilitate the elimination of unnecessary Contract Officer’s Representatives and the reduction of costs associated with training Contract Officer’s Representatives.
• Conduct a full evaluation of the Momentum acquisition module’s internal control design to ensure the appropriate controls are implemented for assuring the reliability and accuracy of contract and related financial data.
• Revise Office of Contracts and Grants Management's policies and procedures to require quality assurance processes for verifying all systems are operating as designed and compliance is adequate.
• Develop and implement an Office of Contracts and Grants Management quality assurance program to assure the completeness of contract documentation and consistency between Momentum system data and hard copy contract files.
• Obtain assistance from cataloging and systems experts within the Library to design and install an Office of Contracts and Grants Management contract file management process that appropriately tracks contracts files. 
• Develop and install a daily automated reconciliation process for balancing contract/task order open obligations by number and amount between Momentum’s acquisition and financial modules.
• Update the November 2014, Momentum Acquisition System Gap Analysis by evaluating the design of system internal controls, the electronic Audit  trail\workflow, and data input validation.
• Develop quality assurance program performance metrics.