Internal Controls

Transportation Acts To Correct Weaknesses in Its Bus Program Gao ID: RCED-87-97 April 28, 1987

Pursuant to the Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act, GAO reviewed the Urban Mass Transportation Administration's (UMTA) actions to correct a material weakness in its bus grant program, in that it: (1) lacked policy guidance on grantees' bus fleet management; and (2) did not sufficiently direct grantees to properly maintain and rehabilitate their buses.

GAO found that the UMTA regional offices were: (1) following UMTA policy guidance on bus stockpiling and rehabilitation; (2) reviewing grantee compliance with program requirements on a triennial basis; and (3) documenting grantee noncompliance and withholding acquisition funds for grantees with excess buses. Although some regions were adhering to policy guidance, some transit systems needed stronger controls to ensure compliance with the service-life provision in replacing, stockpiling, and disposing of buses. Since UMTA policy does not specifically state how transit systems should calculate the service lives of buses, UMTA may expend more funds than allowed to replace buses before the end of their normal service lives or may not recover all funds representing the federal interest in the remaining useful lives of prematurely disposed buses.

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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