Review of the Management Recovery Act Funds for Monument and Memorial Repairs
"The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) provided funds to Federal agencies to acquire goods and services to help stimulate the U.S. economy. We conducted this review to determine if the National Cemetery Administration (NCA) implemented effective policies and procedures to ensure accountability and transparency for $50 million it received in ARRA funds.

What We Found
NCA was on track to meet the deadline for obligating ARRA funds. However, NCA needed to improve management processes to guarantee efficient administration of the funds in line with ARRA accountability and transparency objectives.

NCA did not use a formal process to document the prioritization and selection of ARRA-funded projects. NCA did not ensure that staff completed the documentation of procurement information, as required by Departmental guidance, by recording it in the Electronic Contract Management System (eCMS). Further, NCA did not establish outcome-based (original signed by:) performance measures for its projects to enable the achievement of ARRA-related objectives..."