ARRA Lessons Learned: FTA Needs to Improve Its Grant Oversight to Prevent Improper Payments

In February 2009, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) received an allocation of $8.4 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) for economic stimulus and recovery grants. FTA and other Federal agencies reimburse grantees for project costs, and ARRA, along with the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 (IPIA), requires agencies to hold grantees accountable for their expenditures. In its implementation of these statutes, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has directed agencies to increase their oversight of grantees. The Office of Inspector General (OIG) initiated this audit to assess FTA’s oversight of ARRA expenditures. Specifically, the objectives were to assess whether (1) FTA’s oversight of ARRA grantees has prevented and detected grantees’ improper payments for project costs, and (2) FTA’s oversight of grantees’ use of their own workforces for preventive maintenance work was effective. As part of this audit, OIG selected a statistical sample of 627 invoices/line items totaling over $380 million made to 16 transit grantees which allowed OIG to project the total amount and percentage of improper payments, if any, within the universe of FTA’s payments to its ARRA grantees.

• Record URL:
  • http://www.oig.dot.gov/sites/dot/files/FTA%20Oversight%20of%20ARRA%20Expenditures%5E04-02-14.pdf
• 
• Corporate Authors:

  Department of Transportation

  Office of Inspector General, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  Federal Transit Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Publication Date: 2014-4-2

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Tables;
• Pagination: 25p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Expenditures; Grant aid; Oversight; Preventive maintenance; Public transit
• Identifier Terms: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009; U.S. Federal Transit Administration
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Finance; Public Transportation; I10: Economics and Administration;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01522278
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: FI-2014-034
• Files: TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Apr 22 2014 3:04PM