NASA OIG: Final Memorandum on Analysis of NASA’s Final Agency-Wide Recovery Act Plan
(Report No. IG-10-006; Assignment No. A-09-009-03) Full report
January 5, 2010
TO: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Senior Accountable Official American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Implementation Executive
FROM: Acting Assistant Inspector General for Auditing
SUBJECT: Final Memorandum on Analysis of NASA’s Final Agency-Wide Recovery Act Plan (Report No. IG-10-006; Assignment No. A-09-009-03)
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) requires Federal Offices of Inspector General (OIGs) to assess their agency’s compliance with Recovery Act mandates and with the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) April 3, 2009, “Updated Implementing Guidance for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009” (OMB Guidance). On the basis of this requirement, NASA OIG conducted a review of NASA’s Agency-Wide Recovery Act Plan for use of funds provided under the Recovery Act that was submitted to OMB on May 15, 2009. We analyzed the Agency-Wide Recovery Act Plan to assess compliance with the requirements of the OMB Guidance.
Executive Summary
Our initial review of the final NASA Agency-Wide Recovery Act Plan identified several compliance issues with respect to fulfilling requirements of the OMB Guidance. Specifically, NASA’s Agency-Wide Recovery Plan provided insufficient detail about the Agency’s broad Recovery Act goals in terms of outputs, outcomes, and expected efficiencies. In addition, the Plan did not include a projection of the expected rate of competition nor a rationale for those numbers, as required by the OMB Guidance. Lastly, the Plan did not address the use of fixed-price contracts as a percentage of all dollars spent or describe the steps planned to maximize the use of fixed-price contracts where practicable for ARRA-funded contracts.
Based on our discussion of these issues with the NASA Recovery Act Implementation Executive, we determined that the Agency is aware of these non-compliance issues and is taking steps to address them. In addition, OMB conditionally accepted NASA’s Agency-Wide Recovery Act Plan as submitted on May 15, 2009. NASA is currently awaiting guidance from OMB regarding deadlines and formats for updating its Recovery Act Program Plans. Once the issues noted by the OIG have been addressed and updates are submitted to OMB, we will conduct a follow-up review of NASA’s Agency-Wide Recovery Plan. We issued the draft memorandum on December 17, 2009. In NASA’s response, received January 5, 2010, the Recovery Act Implementation Executive stated the Agency concurred with the observations noted in this memorandum.
