August 25, 2011

The Department of Energy's Weatherization Assistance Program Funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the Commonwealth of Virginia

In May 2010, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a Preliminary Audit Report on the effectiveness of the Commonwealth of Virginia's implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) funded Weatherization Assistance Program (Weatherization Program).  The report, "Management Controls Over the Commonwealth of Virginia's Efforts to Implement the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Weatherization Assistance Program," (OAS-RA-10-11), identified several issues that contributed to a less than effective implementation of Virginia's Weatherization Program.  Subsequent to issuing the interim report, we completed work at three of Virginia's local agencies to evaluate their success in carrying out the Recovery Act funded Weatherization Program.  Specifically, we performed reviews at Crater District Area Agency on Aging (Crater), Community Housing Partners Corporation (CHPC), and Rappahannock Area Agency on Aging (Rappahannock).  In response to the May 2010 preliminary report, both the Department and the Commonwealth of Virginia indicated that corrective actions were in process.  During this review, we substantiated that the Department of Energy, DHCD, and the three community action agencies we evaluated had, in fact, either initiated or completed actions to address the issues identified by our Preliminary Report.  To its credit, Virginia had conducted financial monitoring visits at all 22 of its local agencies.  We concluded that the Department and DHCD had made significant progress in improving management controls over the Commonwealth's Weatherization Program.  DHCD made numerous changes that, if successfully implemented and executed, will increase the likelihood of successfully achieving the goals of the Program.  Virginia had also resolved all but $26,000 of the $1.2 million in questioned costs that we identified during our audit work at the local agencies.  While management had taken action to address the recommendations and issues identified, we suggest that the Department and DHCD continue efforts to evaluate performance, particularly in the areas of billed costs, eligibility determination and monitoring to ensure that the Weatherization Program operates effectively and efficiently.

Topic: Financial Assistance