Federal Reports

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Congress, NIH, and Federal intelligence agencies have raised concerns about foreign threats to the integrity of U.S. medical research and intellectual property. This includes foreign programs that may unduly influence and capitalize on NIH-funded research. In August 2018, NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins raised concerns that peer reviewers-who review applications for NIH extramural grants and have unique access to confidential information in those applications-were, in some cases, inappropriately sharing this information with foreign entities. Subsequently, Congress appropriated funding for OIG to conduct oversight of NIH grant programs and operations, including examining the effectiveness of NIH's efforts to protect intellectual property derived from NIH-supported research. This study describes and assesses NIH's oversight of peer reviewers' handling of confidential information.

We completed our risk assessment of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI’s) grant closeout process as required by the Grants Oversight and New Efficiency (GONE) Act of 2016. Our objective was to determine whether an audit or review of the DOI’s grant closeout process was warranted.Our assessment revealed that the DOI’s current closeout process is at high risk of inaccurate reporting and potential violation of the GONE Act. We identified five significant risks related to the DOI’s grant closeout process and compliance with the GONE Act: the DOI had an unresolved FMFIA internal control material weakness to improve management and oversight of financial assistance and tribal awards made under PL 638 on its FY 2018 Financial Agency Report; all required award data may not have been reported; some grants and cooperative agreements may have inaccurate information within the FBMS; there are gaps in the closeout policy; and the DOI could not provide adequate support for the FY 2017 and FY 2018 GONE Act reports.Overall, we concluded that the Department’s risk of inaccurate reporting was high. As a result, we will initiate an audit of DOI’s grant closeout in FY 2020. We will use this risk assessment, which contains one resolved and implemented recommendation, to determine the scope of the audit of the DOI’s grant closeout process.

We completed our risk assessment of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI’s) grant closeout process as required by the Grants Oversight and New Efficiency (GONE) Act of 2016. Our objective was to determine whether an audit or review of the DOI’s grant closeout process was warranted.Our assessment revealed that the DOI’s current closeout process is at high risk of inaccurate reporting and potential violation of the GONE Act. We identified five significant risks related to the DOI’s grant closeout process and compliance with the GONE Act: the DOI had an unresolved FMFIA internal control material weakness to improve management and oversight of financial assistance and tribal awards made under PL 638 on its FY 2018 Financial Agency Report; all required award data may not have been reported; some grants and cooperative agreements may have inaccurate information within the FBMS; there are gaps in the closeout policy; and the DOI could not provide adequate support for the FY 2017 and FY 2018 GONE Act reports.Overall, we concluded that the Department’s risk of inaccurate reporting was high. As a result, we will initiate an audit of DOI’s grant closeout in FY 2020. We will use this risk assessment, which contains one resolved and implemented recommendation, to determine the scope of the audit of the DOI’s grant closeout process.

We audited the costs claimed by the by the State of Colorado, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (Division), under grants awarded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) through the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program. The audit included claims totaling approximately $87.5 million on 147 grants that were open during the State fiscal years that ended June 30, 2017, and June 30, 2018. The audit also covered the Division’s compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and FWS guidelines, including those related to the collection and use of hunting and fishing license revenues and the reporting of program income.We found that the Division complied, in general, with applicable grant accounting and regulatory requirements. We found, however, grant funds totaling approximately $3.1 million that were idle since the Division does not require subrecipients to begin work on their projects within a reasonable time period from the grant start date. We also determined that the State potentially diverted license revenue in the amount of $56,759 due to the loss of control of vehicles purchased with license revenue that were required to be transferred to State Fleet Management. In addition, we found that the Division had (1) unreported barter transactions, (2) difficulty identifying the funding source for equipment, (3) inadequate support for in-kind contributions, and (4) not completed the prior recommendation for its land inventory reconciliation.The FWS concurred with our eight recommendations and three repeat recommendations and will work with the Division to implement corrective actions.

We reviewed Recommendations 2 and 4 presented in our 2016 management advisory titled The Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse and Burro Program Is Not Maximizing Efficiencies or Complying With Federal Regulations to verify whether the Bureau of Land Management implemented them.We confirmed that both recommendations have been resolved and implemented.

Semiannual Report to Congress: October 1, 2019-March 31, 2020