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FHWA’s FIRE Program Is Addressing State Vulnerabilities, but Opportunities Exist To Make Improvements

Self-Initiated
Project ID: 
ST2015083

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) oversees States’ use of approximately $40 billion in Federal funds provided annually for thousands of projects. By issuing these grants to State and local governments, FHWA incurs contractual obligations. In 2004, we reviewed $1.3 billion in Federal-aid highway obligations and concluded that $284 million of them were no longer needed because they were associated with canceled, reduced scope, or completed projects. In response to that report and to safeguard funds against mismanagement, FHWA established the Financial Integrity Review and Evaluation (FIRE) Program in 2005. FHWA Division Offices annually conduct FIRE reviews that assess States’ management of Federal funds in key areas, such as inactive obligations and improper payments.

The five FHWA Division Offices’ FIRE reviews we assessed generally complied with Agency policies and procedures in carrying out the components of the FIRE Program. However, we identified three program areas where they lacked adequate oversight or documentation. First, four of the five Division Offices we sampled used outdated guidance to define materiality for FIRE reviews. Second, Division Offices did not consistently document the decisions they made in identifying risk areas and planning the required financial management reviews (FMR). Third, none of the five Division Offices maintained complete records for staff financial management training. We also found that, while Division Offices generally used the FIRE program as a tool to address financial management vulnerabilities, all five offices had outdated, incomplete, or missing follow-up information on the status of their FMR recommendations.

We made four recommendations to improve the implementation of the FIRE Program. FHWA concurred with all of our recommendations.

Recommendations

Open

Closed

Closed on 04.15.2016
No. 1 to FHWA

Develop and implement a mechanism to oversee Division Administrators' decision making process to validate that all material weaknesses have been reported and that materiality has been appropriately assessed.

Closed on 10.06.2016
No. 2 to FHWA

Require Division Offices to clearly document how the financial management reviews responded to the risk assessments or other internal control weaknesses.

Closed on 08.31.2016
No. 3 to FHWA

Require Division Offices to keep complete records for key training related to the FIRE Program and track this information in a centralized system.

Closed on 12.15.2016
No. 4 to FHWA

Require Division Offices to transfer open, pre-existing FMR recommendations and corrective action plans to INPUT.