Labor Needs To Better Select, Monitor, and Evaluate Its Employment and Training Awardees

The Department of Labor's Office of National Programs administers about $600 million each fiscal year in grant and contract awards under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act and the Older Americans Act. GAO reviewed the activities of the Office to assess how well it carried out its administrative processes.

The Office often used sole-source awards for special projects and, for most of the awards reviewed, did not adequately consider the awardee's prior performance when making a renewal award. Because of the potential for better work agreements and lower costs resulting from competition, the Office should justify each instance when it considers only one organization for a special project award. For 140 of the sole-source awards reviewed, GAO found little evidence supporting the award decisions. The Office did not separate grant and contract management from program responsibilities. Consequently, most of the award activities, such as evaluating and negotiating proposals, were handled by program staff who placed little emphasis on following proper grant and contracting practices. More than two-thirds of the awards which GAO studied were not fully reviewed and negotiated. Many contained vague statements of the proposed work, questionable or unjustified costs, and budget errors. Some awardees were authorized to begin work before the awards were made without the Government's interests being protected by specifying the terms of the work authorizations. Many awardees were placed on a letter-of-credit payment system without adequate documentation that they met the system's requirements. The effective date of the award was frequently predated. The Office has not adequately monitored its awardees. When Office representatives identified awardee problems, they did not always attempt to resolve them. Also, GAO found many problems that had not been identified.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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