Department of Labor's Office of National Programs' Administration of Employment and Training Awards

The Department of Labor needs to better select, monitor, and evaluate contract awards made by the Employment and Training Administration's Office of National Programs (ONP). In a review of the procedures and practices used by ONP in its award process, GAO found that ONP: often used sole-source awards without adequately justifying them; rarely evaluated or negotiated award proposals sufficiently before funding them; sometimes authorized, without adequate safeguards, awardees to start work before the award was finalized; did not consistently and adequately monitor awardee performance to insure that award terms were met; and seldom evaluated awardees before renewing their awards. Most of the problems of ONP stemmed from Labor's failure to separate grant and contract management responsibilities from program responsibilities. The ONP officials charged with insuring that good award management practices were followed were also responsible for accomplishing program objectives. Labor specialists in grant and contract management were seldom involved in ONP award activities. Most of the award activities were handled by program staff who placed little emphasis on following good grant and contracting practices. A followup analysis of a selected sample of awards substantiated the findings contained in the earlier GAO report. A special departmental committee was established to review grant and contract proposals. However, GAO found no written criteria to explain why these individuals were appointed, no dates for their terms of appointments, and no written operating procedures detailing how they were supposed to carry out their responsibilities.