Grant Management:

United States Information Agency's Monitoring of Selected Grantees

NSIAD-86-14: Published: Jan 16, 1986. Publicly Released: Feb 19, 1986.

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Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed how well the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) monitored 10 private organizations to ensure that they complied with the terms and conditions of the grants awarded to them.

GAO found that: (1) 8 of the 10 grantees were generally using funds to carry out the purposes for which the grants were awarded, but they did not always comply with specific grant terms and conditions; (2) monitoring of the grants was consistently hampered by poor recordkeeping and untimely and incomplete grantee reporting; (3) in most cases, overhead costs were handled in accordance with existing requirements and were allocated in an equitable manner; and (4) USIA frequently amended grants, which resulted in a lack of clear objectives. GAO also found that: (1) two grantees used grant funds to pay for activities that the grants did not specifically authorize; (2) two grantees failed to maintain grant funds in bank accounts separate from nonfederal funds; (3) grant documents were not specific enough to determine what USIA expected from the grantee; (4) there was little evidence that the agency's review of a grant proposal addressed a grantee's prior performance and record of compliance with previous USIA grants; (5) the method used for allocating indirect costs varied among the grantees; and (6) there was no systematic way of determining whether a particular report had been received or that a reminder notice had been sent to the delinquent grantee.

Recommendations for Executive Action

  1. Status: Closed - Implemented

    Comments: USIA, after repeated requests for the required reports, conducted a comprehensive audit. The result was that USIA stop funding the Youth Council.

    Recommendation: The Director, USIA, should specifically instruct the Office of Contracts to obtain the required financial and program reports from the U.S. Youth Council.

    Agency Affected: United States Information Agency

  2. Status: Closed - Implemented

    Comments: USIA, after repeated requests for the required reports, conducted a comprehensive audit. The result was that USIA stop funding the Youth Council.

    Recommendation: The Director, USIA, should specifically instruct the Inspector General to assign priority to the audit of completed grants to the U.S. Youth Council before the time period expires for retention of records.

    Agency Affected: United States Information Agency

  3. Status: Closed - Implemented

    Comments: The Inspector General's recommendations were satisfactorily resolved.

    Recommendation: The Director, USIA, should specifically instruct the Office of Contracts to resolve the Inspector General's audit recommendations pertaining to questionable costs incurred by the National Committee on United States-China Relations and the National Association of the Partners of the Alliance.

    Agency Affected: United States Information Agency

 

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