The USDA’s Office of Inspector General says that the officials of the Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) need to work on improving how they conduct their random conversation compliance reviews.
According to OIG, only the producers enrolled in one FSA program – the Direct and Counter-cyclical Program (DCP), which wasn’t re-authorized by the 2014 farm bill – were subject to random sample reviews from 2012-2014, even though all recipients of payments, loans or other benefits from NRCS and FSA programs were required to comply with the highly erodible land (HEL) and wetland conservation requirements.
OIG recommended that NRCS, FSA and RMA develop and implement a memorandum of understanding (MOU) outlining the roles of each agency in conducting random reviews. It also suggested the agencies establish a working group to define which data will be used for 2016 reviews, and to develop and implement a methodology for conducting those reviews.
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