Have we gleaned any insights after providing educational funds through federal stimulus programs?
The Department of Education is preparing for the next two years of stimulus funding, with a strategic focus on oversight and monitoring, data quality, and reporting. This comes as a reminder of the challenges faced in the past, particularly during the implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in 2009, which provided $98 billion for education-related programs and grants.
In light of these lessons, the Department is taking proactive measures to ensure that no one is held back by fund administration issues. The Office of Inspector General (OIG) has produced a pandemic relief oversight plan, which includes auditing ED and grantee management and spending of coronavirus response funds, examining the effectiveness of relief programs, and investigating misuse, theft, and other criminal activity involving these funds.
The OIG's coronavirus audit and related review work is well underway and will be updated regularly. In fact, the OIG has already written a report in 2014 detailing challenges in implementing processes to administer grants under ARRA. The report for COVID stimulus funds references this 2014 report and adds the context that the Department must remain alert and take necessary actions related to oversight and monitoring and data quality and reporting to reduce vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse, noncompliance, and other issues that could impact a grantee's or subgrantee's ability to achieve intended programmatic results.
Independent oversight is a key tool to promote transparency and accountability. The Department of Education received $14 million for the OIG to closely monitor the funds. The OIG has also produced a summary of the most significant management challenges facing ED related to coronavirus emergency relief and response efforts.
For future temporary legislation like the Recovery Act, the Department should work with Congress and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to provide supplemental funds for State and local audit agencies to oversee new or supplemental Federal grant funds. The Department should also work with the U.S. Treasury early in program implementation to determine whether the programs should be added to States' Treasury-State Agreements for cash management purposes.
The Department should identify effective corrective actions to resolve common issues across various recipients and subrecipients for future legislation like the Recovery Act. One lesson from the report was that grant recipients benefit from timely guidance, training, technical assistance, and outreach. The Department should assess outreach and technical assistance activities performed in response to the Recovery Act and consider conducting similar activities for new programs and for existing programs that receive substantial increases in funding.
Options to improve data quality include piloting new reporting requirements and mechanisms for new or existing programs, establishing a formal process to identify and remediate situations in which recipients or subrecipients demonstrate systemic or chronic reporting problems, ensuring that recipients implement adequate and effective internal controls to ensure high-quality data for key reporting elements, and requiring reporting entities to submit management certifications on data quality and to disclose known data limitations.
Lastly, the Department should ensure that its program offices responsible for monitoring recipients are using robust, risk-based monitoring strategies that devote available resources to the highest risk recipients and issues. By taking these steps, the Department aims to improve program integrity and compliance, and to ensure that stimulus funds are used effectively and efficiently.
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