A Message From the Office of Inspector General
On behalf of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board (the Board),
the U.S. Department ofthe Interior’s Office oflnspector General (DOl OIG) is
pleased to present this final report, entitled “Lessons Learned from the Recovery
Act: An Agency and OIG Retrospective.”
The report summarizes the results of a recent review of lessons learned by Federal
agencies and OIGs during the implementation of the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of2009 (Recovery Act). The review, led by DOl OIG,
identified actions, processes, or mechanisms implemented by agencies, OIGs, and
the Board that either benefitted or posed challenges to their meeting the
requirements ofthe Recovery Act. Sixteen agencies, their OIGs, and the Board
staff participated in the review:
• Internal Revenue Service
• National Aeronautics and Space
Administration
• National Science Foundation
• U.S. Department of Agriculture
• U.S. Department of Commerce
• U.S. Department of Defense
• U.S. Department ofEducation
• U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services
• U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development
• U.S. Department of the Interior
• U.S. Department of Justice
• U.S. Department of Labor
• U.S. Department of Transportation
• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
• U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency
• U.S. General Services Administration
This report is not a formal audit or evaluation. Rather, it is a capstone report
identifying the major themes highlighted by agencies and OIGs as they reflected
on their experiences during implementation.
We appreciate the opportunity to coordinate with the Board and the participating
OIGs for this important initiative. We want to thank the staffs of the participating
OIGs for their hard work and cooperation throughout this review, and we give
special thanks also to the Department of Education OIG and the Board staff for
their assistance to the DOl OIG review team.
Mary L. Kendall
Deputy Inspector General
Department of the Interior Table of Contents
Results in Brief …………………………………………………………………………………………. 1
Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3
The Recovery Act…………………………………………………………………………………… 3
Our Objective: Identifying Lessons Learned ……………………………………………… 4
Beneficial Practices ……………………………………………………………………………………. 5
Top-Down, Centralized Governance Structures Improved Agencies’
Monitoring and Oversight ……………………………………………………………………….. 5
Close Collaboration Promoted Effective Implementation ……………………………. 6
Unprecedented Direct Outreach to Recipients Mitigated Noncompliance in
Reporting and Increased Fraud Awareness ………………………………………………… 7
Accelerated Timeframes Led to Enhanced Business Processes and Focused
Oversight ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 9
Challenges ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 11
Agencies and OIGs Faced a Significant Learning Curve …………………………… 11
Increased Workload Taxed Agency and OIG Staffs ………………………………….. 12
Condensed Timeframes Inhibited Agency Planning and Performance Metric
Development ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 1
