Issues Found With the Award and Monitoring of Financial Assistance Agreements Made by the FWS International Affairs Program

We inspected 15 financial assistance agreement files of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS’) International Affairs Program (IA).Across all 15 agreements reviewed, we found instances where the IA did not comply with Federal regulations, FWS policy, or agreement terms and conditions when awarding and monitoring the agreements. Specifically, the grants management specialists did not:• Determine which laws and regulations apply to the agreements• Use the proper risk assessment form• Properly evaluate recipients’ financial management systems• Complete the required business evaluation and budget analysis• Properly review recipients’ financial reports• Monitor the equipment schedulesThese failures could lead to fraud, waste, and mismanagement and affect the success of IA programs.We make 11 recommendations to help the IA better award and monitor its agreements with foreign recipients. The IA concurred with all recommendations.