DoD Education Activity Didn’t Monitor $50M in Grants
The Department of Defense Education Activity potentially wasted $50 million from 2016 to 2020 on grantees that did not meet the terms and conditions or goals of their grants, according to a report from the DoD Inspector General.
The DoDEA is a federal school system that runs pre-kindergarten through 12th grade educational programs for the DoD. It also runs a grant program to support projects that help students who attend schools on military bases.
When a government entity gives out a grant, the entity receiving the money must meet a certain set of terms and conditions, and it also must provide updates to prove that it is meeting its goals.
In the case of the DoDEA, it didn’t quite work out that way. The Inspector General found that for 70 of the 186 grants given from 2016-2020, the DoDEA didn’t verify that the terms and conditions of the grant were being met.
Additionally, there were 139 grants that would have required verification that interim goals were being met, but the DoDEA didn’t verify that goals were being met on 100 of those 139 projects.
The Inspector General blames the missing verification on the lack of a process to handle late or nonexistent financial and performance reports. These mistakes could potentially cost taxpayers $49.9 million for grants that do not meet federal standards of conduct or progress.
The DoD is routinely one of the most well-funded federal agencies. The lack of basic oversight on millions of dollars going to entities that may not even meet preliminary terms is concerning.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com
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