Department of Homeland Security

Office of Inspector General 

Review of the 
 

Department of Homeland Security’s 
 

Master List of Recovery Act 
 

Contracts and Grants
 


American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
 


OIG-10-102 July 2010 
Office ofInspector General 

U.S. Department of Homeland Security 

Washington, DC 20528 

Homeland 

Security 

MEMORANDUM FOR:	 Thomas Mason 

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Coordinator 

Department of Homeland Security 

FROM:	 Anne L. Richards ;(~J Assistant Inspector General for Audits 

SUBJECT:	 Final Letter Report: Review ofthe Department of 

Homeland Security's Master List ofRecovery Act 

Contracts and Grants 

At the request of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, we reviewed the 

Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Master List of Recovery Act Contracts and 

Grants to determine whether the contract and grant award amounts in the Master List 

were accurate. With minor exceptions, the DHS Master List of Recovery Act Contracts 

and Grants was accurate for the period ending March 31,2010. 

We recommend that DHS implement controls to ensure that updates to the Master List 

are made correctly. You concurred with the recommendation. We consider the 

recommendation resolved and open and will close it when implementation is complete. 

Consistent with our responsibility under the Inspector General Act, as amended, we are 

providing copies of our report to appropriate congressional committees with oversight 

and appropriation responsibility over the Department of Homeland Security. The report 

will be posted on our website. 

Should you have any questions, please call me, or your staff may contact Mr. Roger 

LaRouche, Director of Recovery Act Audits, at (202) 254-4100. 
 

Background 

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) made available to 

federal agencies approximately $787 billion for preserving and stimulating economic 

growth in the United States. Section 1512 of the Recovery Act requires recipients of this 

Federal financial assistance to submit quarterly reports on the amount of funds received 

and expended, projects sponsored, and jobs created or retained. According to 

Recovery.Gov, the U.S. Government’s official website for access to Recovery Act 

spending, Federal agencies distributed $275 billion through grants, contracts, and loans as 

of March 31, 2010. 

To improve the quality of data reported by recipients, the Office of Management and 

Budget (OMB) instructed1 Federal agencies to submit a comprehensive list of all awards 

subject to the reporting requirement in Section 1512 of the Recovery Act. Federal 

agencies must submit the list to the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board to 

assist the Board in its oversight of Recovery Act funds. On April 16, 2010, the Board sent 

to us a copy of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Master List of Recovery 

Act awards for the quarter ending March 31, 2010, and said it “would be interested in 

learning of any data quality issues you may discover with regard to this list.” 

DHS updated the Master List it initially submitted to the Board and forwarded a copy of 

the corrected list to us. The updated DHS list of April 26, 2010, contained 458 contracts 

and grants with a total value of $1,565,227,328. 

Results of Review 

The DHS Master List of Recovery Act Contracts and Grants was generally accurate for 

the period ending March 31, 2010. The Master List included all awards. However, our 

review identified 11 discrepancies in which recipient award amounts differed from 

amounts reported by DHS components or by recipients. For example, the Coast Guard 

awarded a recipient five contracts totaling $525,012; however, the contract amounts 

reported by DHS totaled $499,386 and did not reflect contract modifications. DHS 

Recovery Act officials made adjustments to the list based on discussions with our office. 

According to a DHS official, the main reasons for the discrepancies were that they did 

not have the supporting documentation to compare against the amounts reported to them 

by DHS components and that they were not always aware of subsequent modifications 

components made to the recipient awards. 

1 Memorandum 10-08, dated December 18, 2009, provides guidance to Federal agencies to improve the 

quality of data reported and establishes a process for Federal agencies to calculate control totals for the 

number of awards issued and the total dollars associated with such awards. Memorandum 10-14, dated 

March 22, 2010, instructs Federal agencies to submit on a systematic basis a detailed master list of all 

awards issued to include award date, recipient, and amount. 

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Recommendation 

We recommend that DHS implement controls to ensure that updates to the Master List of 

Recovery Act contracts and grants are accurate. 

Management Comments and OIG Analysis 

In response to a preliminary version of this report, DHS advised that they have taken 

steps to mitigate the issues associated with compiling and updating the Master List. 

Specifically, DHS established a data quality working group of members from applicable 

DHS components. The group meets bi-monthly to address gaps in reporting on all data 

elements and developing potential solutions. DHS also plans to build a data warehouse 

of recipient information based on weekly inputs of all necessary data fields from the DHS 

components. DHS will be able to automatically run reports on the data fields which will 

eliminate the type of errors that previously occurred during manual compilation of the 

master list. 

We consider the recommendation resolved, but not implemented. Please provide a 

response to this memorandum within 30 days on the status of implementation of your 

corrective actions. 

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Appendix A 

Purpose, Scope, and Methodology 

Our objective was to determine whether the contract and grant awards in the Master List 

were complete and accurate. To accomplish our objective, we: 

9	 	 Reviewed OMB guidance in M-10-08 and M-10-14; 

9	 	 Discussed with a DHS Recovery Act official the process used for compiling the 

Master List; 

9	 	 Examined DHS updates to the March 31, 2010, list; 

9	 	 Compared Master List awards for selected grants to grant awards; 

9	 	 Compared Master List awards for contracts and grants with awards reported by 

recipients in Recovery.Gov and with award amounts in weekly status reports 

submitted by DHS components. 

We performed our review in May and June 2010 in Washington D.C. We conducted our 

review in accordance with the "Quality Standards for Inspections" issued by the President's 

Council on Integrity and Efficiency, currently known as the Council of the Inspectors 

General on Integrity and Efficiency. 

We appreciate the cooperation by DHS management and staff in providing the 

information and access necessary to accomplish this review. 

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Appendix B 

Major Contributors to this Report 

Roger LaRouche, Director 

William Gillies, Audit Manager 

Jerome Fiely, Desk Officer 

Kendra Loper, Auditor 

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Appendix C 

Report Distribution 

Department of Homeland Security 

Senior Counselor to the Secretary 

Executive Secretary 

Director, GAO/OIG Liaison Office 

Assistant Secretary for Office of Policy 

Assistant Secretary for Office of Public Affairs 

Assistant Secretary for Office of Legislative Affairs 

Office of Management and Budget 

Chief, Homeland Security Branch 

DHS OIG Budget Examiner 

Congress 

Congressional Oversight and Appropriations Committees, as 

appropriate 

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND COPIES 

To obtain additional copies of this report, please call the Office of Inspector General (OIG) at (202) 254-4100, 

fax your request to (202) 254-4305, or visit the OIG web site at www.dhs.gov/oig. 

OIG HOTLINE 

To report alleged fraud, waste, abuse or mismanagement, or any other kind of criminal or noncriminal 

misconduct relative to department programs or operations: 

• Call our Hotline at 1-800-323-8603; 

• Fax the complaint directly to us at (202) 254-4292; 

• Email us at DHSOIGHOTLINE@dhs.gov; or 

• Write to us at: 

DHS Office of Inspector General/MAIL STOP 2600, 

Attention: Office of Investigations - Hotline, 

245 Murray Drive, SW, Building 410, 

Washington, DC 20528. 

The OIG seeks to protect the identity of each writer and caller.