Pursuit's Take
The United States has provided more than $2.6 billion in Conventional Weapons Destruction (CWD) assistance since 1993 to help foreign governments destroy excess stockpiles of conventional arms, better secure the stockpiles they retain, and clear landmines and unexploded ordnance.
OIG found that PM/WRA was not fully complying with Federal and Department guidance and its own policies and procedures for overseeing grants in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Lebanon. Among the 31 grants reviewed for this audit, OIG identified the following deficiencies:
- Risk assessments and monitoring plans were not prepared for 16 percent of the grants.
- Annual risk assessment and monitoring plan reviews were not conducted for 75 percent of the grants for which they were required.
- Monitoring plans lacked a sufficient mitigation strategy for 36 percent of the grants considered “high-risk.”
- Required reviews were not conducted for 67 percent of the performance progress reports and 99 percent of the Federal financial reports.
These deficiencies occurred because PM/WRA did not always follow monitoring requirements outlined in the Department’s Federal Assistance Policy Directive, Grants Policy Directives, or its own policies and procedures.
OIG also found that PM/WRA did not develop expected outcomes or target levels of achievement to effectively measure performance of the CWD program. For example, 22 of the 31 grants (71 percent) had at least 1 objective without an expected performance outcome or target level of achievement.