The Department of Transportation Should Improve Its Policies and Practices on Grant-Related Income

Gao ID: GGD-84-5 March 30, 1984

GAO completed a Government-wide review of Federal agency' and grantee' policies and practices for managing and reporting income generated under federally assisted programs.

GAO found that a number of Federal agencies, including the Department of Transportation (DOT), have not established regulations conforming to the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) grant-related income standards and are not adequately implementing agency grant-related income regulations. As a result, the income generated was not used to increase the size of the federally assisted programs or to reduce the Federal Government's and grantees' shares of program costs. The Federal Highway Administration (FHwA) and the Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA) have not adopted OMB standards or issued their own regulations on program income; therefore, they have lost some ability to direct the grantees' use of the income. In several cases, GAO found that DOT programs did not fully benefit from the income generated, and grantees are not always reporting income received. Because DOT regulations address only certain income, millions of dollars of grant-related income, such as interest and sales proceeds, are not being reported. In addition, some transportation grantees are earning and retaining interest on premature advances and withdrawals of Federal funds. Finally, GAO found that UMTA has not required grantees to return funds returned to it by a third party upon the settlement of a contract dispute. Federal cash management requirements state that these funds should be returned to the Federal Government if not authorized to meet immediate current expenses.

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.

Director: Roger L. Sperry Team: General Accounting Office: General Government Division Phone: (202) 275-6169


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