Foreign Assistance Agency Sought Assistance Ensuring Financial and Programmatic Compliance for its Education Initiative Grants

Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs

Challenge

The Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) leads the U.S. Department of Labor's efforts to ensure that workers around the world are treated fairly and are able to share in the benefits of the global economy. The Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking (OCFT) within ILAB works to reduce child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking worldwide and to safeguard dignity at work by helping to ensure that other countries meet international labor standards. To achieve their mission, OCFT issues cooperative agreements to organizations seeking to fund projects to combat child labor through education. These organizations implement education initiative projects overseas and report project performance and financial data to OCFT. To this end, ILAB solicited support from Williams Adley to conduct attestation examinations of various OCFT grantees throughout the world to assist with its program oversight responsibilities and to overcome challenges in the following areas: 

Programmatic Reporting Accuracy – Many of the project activities take place in remote areas of low- and low-middle-income countries, making project monitoring logistically complex. This complexity makes ensuring programmatic compliance and reporting accuracy difficult.

Financial Reporting Accuracy – Grantees are required to submit periodic financial reports to OCFT with a summary of financial receipt and expenditure data. The accuracy of this information is difficult to confirm without an in-depth review.

Compliance with the Cooperative Agreement and Other Federal Requirements – Many grantees and subawardees are unfamiliar with U.S. Federal Government grant requirements such as 2 CFR 200, Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards, increasing the risk of noncompliance with OCFT requirements.

Solution

To address ILAB’s need to ensure program compliance, proper implementation, and reporting accuracy, Williams Adley implemented the following solutions:

  • Performed Site Visits to Ensure Accuracy of Performance Indicator Data – Since 2004, Williams Adley has performed site visits to ILAB project sites in over 50 countries throughout the world. Many of these site visits are in remote areas where travel between sites is difficult. We spoke with project beneficiaries, implementers, community members, and other stakeholders to determine program impact as well as data collection methods.

  • Conducted Detailed Reviews of Expenditure Data – We performed detailed reviews of transaction-level expenditure data. This included reviewing invoices, receipts, timesheets, and other source documentation to ensure transactions were allowable, allocable, and reasonable. We also recalculated indirect costs and evaluated internal controls surrounding project funds.

  • Provided Meaningful Recommendations on Compliance with Federal Requirements – Based on the results of our examination procedures, we provided grantees with actionable recommendations to improve project compliance. In addition, through our detailed on-site procedures, we were able to provide ILAB with insightful information about the project, its successes, and its challenges.

Impact

Williams Adley’s examination results have resulted in the following:

  • Through our examinations, we have provided grantees with recommendations for improved compliance and accuracy in reporting.

  • We provided insight to ILAB on project implementation and reporting challenges and successes.

  • We provided ILAB greater confidence in its performance indicator metrics.

These value-added solutions provided by Williams Adley have supported ILAB in mission achievement and advanced the success of the agency.