The government’s modernization fund has money problems – By Andrew Eversden (Federal Times) / Dec 14 2019
The General Services Administration-operated Technology Modernization Fund is not sufficiently recovering its operational costs as it should, a federal watchdog found.
According to a Dec. 12 report from the Government Accountability Office, the TMF, which loans money to federal agencies for modernization projects, has fallen well-short of collecting administrative fees from recipients. Administrative fees are supposed to offset the cost of operating the fund.
The TMF, established in late 2017, has awarded $89 million to seven government agencies to pursue modernization projects. As part of receiving award money, however, agencies are also expected to pay an administrative fee to offset GSA’s operating costs. As of August 2019, GSA had set aside $1.2 million in operational costs, but collected just $33,125 in administrative fees, or 3 percent of GSA’s total expense.
The GAO analysis found that the GSA will not fully recover the $1.2 million until the end of fiscal year 2025 if the current rate continues. Of the seven projects awarded money, just three have paid any administrative fees.
The GAO outlined several factors contributing to the administrative fee shortfalls. The first reason is simple: Guidelines from the Office of Management and Budget allow agencies to forgo fee payment until one year after receiving an award — meaning that projects allocated money since TMF became operational in June 2018 didn’t have to make fee payments until fiscal 2019.
Continue to article: https://www.federaltimes.com/federal-oversight/watchdogs/2019/12/13/the-governments-modernization-fund-has-money-problems/
