Why We Performed This Audit
The GSA Office of Government-wide Policy’s (OGP’s) Procurement Management Review Division (PMRD) performs procurement management reviews (PMRs) to monitor and evaluate GSA’s acquisition programs. In response to a PMR report, the contracting activity may be required to develop a corrective action plan (CAP) to address PMR findings and recommendations. During our annual audit planning, we identified a risk that the PMRD is not verifying submitted CAP-supporting documentation; therefore, there may not be adequate controls to ensure corrective actions are taken. As a result, this audit was included in our Fiscal Year 2023 Audit Plan.
Our audit objective was to determine whether the OGP’s PMR process effectively identifies, assesses, reports, and corrects internal control deficiencies in accordance with applicable policies, regulations, and procedures.
What We Found
GSA relies on its PMR process as a critical internal control to monitor its acquisition programs and evaluate if they are operating effectively, efficiently, and in compliance with applicable policies, regulations, and procedures. However, the PMRD should strengthen its PMR reporting process to more effectively identify deficiencies and ensure corrective actions are taken. We found that PMR reports lack a clear relationship between the PMR scorecard results, findings, recommendations, and whether corrective actions are required. By not requiring corrective actions for findings and recommendations in PMR reports, weaknesses or issues in GSA acquisition programs may not be corrected. In addition, we found that the PMRD is not ensuring that all supporting documentation for CAPs is maintained in the appropriate system.
What We Recommend
We recommend that the OGP Associate Administrator:
- Strengthen the PMRD’s policies and procedures to:
- More clearly define the PMR scoring system and its relevance to the PMR report findings and recommendations;
- Clearly identify the findings and recommendations in the PMR report, including whether corrective action is required to address each finding; and
- Ensure all required corrective actions are included in a CAP and implemented.
- Perform training and oversight to ensure proper administration and closeout of CAPs.
In his response to our report, the OGP Associate Administrator agreed that improvements can be made in the PMRD’s reporting to clarify when a CAP is required. OGP’s response can be found in its entirety in Appendix C.
