Audits

On January 7, 2010, we issued a report on the Department of Transportation’s (DOT’s) Suspension and Debarment (S&D) Program. Our objectives were to assess: (1) the timeliness of Operating Administrations’ (OA) S&D decisions and reporting; and (2) DOT’s S&D policies and oversight of OA actions to exclude prohibited parties from obtaining contracts, grants, and cooperative agreements. We found that DOT’s S&D Program does not adequately safeguard against awards to improper parties.

Our audit focused on the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the Federal Transit Administration, which represent most of DOT’s S&D activity. We found that OAs’ S&D decisions and reporting have been significantly delayed, which increases the risk that DOT and other agencies will award contracts and grants to parties that DOT will ultimately suspend or debar. In addition, we found weaknesses in DOT’s S&D policies, procedures, and internal controls, which make them inadequate to safeguard DOT’s efforts to exclude prohibited parties from obtaining contracts and grants. We made specific recommendations to DOT’s Senior Procurement Executive and to FAA to address these areas. The DOT concurred with all of our recommendations. The FAA fully concurred with all but one recommendation –– partially concurring with our recommendation on issuing S&D notices in 45 days.