Pursuit's Take
The Department of Energy (DOE) has not fully developed or consistently adhered to loan monitoring policies for its loan programs. In particular, DOE has established policies for most loan monitoring activities, but policies for evaluating and mitigating program-wide risk remain incomplete and outdated.
DOE adhered to the policies inconsistently or not at all because the Loan Programs Office had staff vacancies and was still developing management and reporting software and procedures for implementing policies. As a result, DOE was making loans and disbursing funds from 2009 through 2013 without a fully developed loan monitoring function. During this time, inconsistent adherence to policies limited assurance that DOE was completing activities important to monitoring the loans and protecting the government’s interest.