American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Oversight Advisory Report - VHA Non-Recurring Maintenance Contract Award Oversight Needs Strengthening

The Office of Inspector General reviewed the effectiveness of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) non recurring maintenance (NRM) contract award monitoring processes. This review evaluated eCMS data for VHA’s initial Recovery Act NRM contract awards to assess compliance with Recovery Act requirements and objectives and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and OAL&C Recovery Act implementation guidance. We found that improved Recovery Act NRM oversight would ensure that VHA contract awards met the Recovery Act’s requirements and accountability, efficiency, and transparency objectives. During the initial implementation of the Recovery Act, contracting officers did not properly publicize and prepare NRM contract solicitations and awards because they lacked a familiarity with OMB and OAL&C’s implementation guidance and because errors were made during the preparation of the solicitation and awards in eCMS. In addition, eCMS Recovery Act NRM monitoring and reporting processes needed to be strengthened to ensure that contracting staff uniformly use eCMS, and that eCMS data is accurate, complete, and reliable. In the advisory report, we made four recommendations to strengthen oversight for Recovery Act NRM contract awards. The then Acting Under Secretary for Health and the Executive Director for OAL&C agreed with the findings and recommendations and provided acceptable corrective actions. We will follow up on their corrective actions.