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Agriculture and Food Research Initiative

Report Information

Date Issued
Report Number:
13601-0002-22
Report Type
Audit
Component
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Description
USDA OIG determined whether National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) designed and implemented adequate internal controls to properly select Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) grant recipients and monitor AFRI projects’ compliance.
Joint Report
No
Agency Wide
Yes (agency-wide)
Questioned Costs
$80,524,235
Funds for Better Use
$18,543
View report on Oversight.gov

Recommendations

Complete both unfinished compliance reviews from 2019.

Establish a process to document and report on the reasons why any compliance review is not completed within the required year, including any plans to address those reasons in the future.

Establish a process to document the review and monitoring of grantees’ annual and final progress reports, including sections related to grantees’ progress to fulfill their stated objective(s).

Establish a process to document the monitoring of all grantees’ Federal Financial Reports to ensure they are submitted and reviewed within the required timeframes.

Establish a process to periodically review all ended grants to ensure they were timely closed out and unused funds are deobligated.