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Date

DOT Established Timely Controls for the TIGER Discretionary Grants Program, But Opportunities Exist to Strengthen Oversight

Requested By
Self-initiated
Project ID
MH2012188
File Attachment

On September 20, 2012, we issued a report on the Office of the Secretary’s (OST) Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Discretionary Grants Program, which uses competitive discretionary grants for capital investments in highway, bridge, public transportation, rail, and port infrastructure projects.  Congress initially appropriated $1.5 billion for the program through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, and the program has since grown to over $3.1 billion.  We conducted the review as part of our ongoing ARRA oversight work. We found that OST established TIGER program policies that generally adhered to best practices, but vulnerabilities remain in reviewing grant agreements, overseeing individual projects, assessing program risks, and measuring performance.  In addition, we found discrepancies in the requirements for safety standards in the grant agreements for rail infrastructure projects. OST concurred with three of our seven recommendations to strengthen oversight of the TIGER program and partially concurred with four.  We will close six of the recommendations, pending receipt of appropriate documentation of actions taken or planned. For one recommendation aimed at improving collaboration between Operating Administrations to avoid inconsistent grant requirements, we are requesting additional information to fully assess OST’s response.

Recommendations

Closed on
No. 1 to OST
Establish and implement a formal process to ensure all grant agreements include clear schedules, scopes, milestones, and outcome-based performance measures that will allow OST to assess a project's progress towards the long-term goals of the program.
Closed on
No. 2 to OST
Establish and implement a systematic process for documenting significant management decisions involving the program and individual TIGER projects, including follow-up actions resulting from meetings with the OAs.
Closed on
No. 3 to OST
Update OST's risk assessments to include an evaluation of the OAs' capabilities to manage the TIGER program.
Closed on
No. 4 to OST
Establish a methodology to identify program outcomes from grantee performance data for each TIGER project.
Closed on
No. 5 to OST
Establish a comprehensive methodology to aggregate performance measures to assess the overall impact of the TIGER program.
Closed on
No. 6 to OST
Require the OAs to fully implement their grant management policies, as appropriate.
Closed on
No. 7 to OST
Clarify the TIGER program guidance and grant agreements to indicate under what circumstances and by what manner OAs and grantees must collaborate on multimodal projects.