Recovery.gov - Track the Money

The borrowing authority granted to Western in the Recovery Act is for the purpose of facilitating the development of high-voltage transmission lines necessary to bring new renewable energy resources to market. This program will ensure Western efficiently and effectively carries out this authority while providing funding transparency and accountability. Western activities to implement the program include significant interaction, collaboration and coordination with a large number of stakeholders, industry partners, DOE program offices, other Federal agencies and state and local governments to avoid duplication and to best leverage authority and funding for projects developed.

Western has yet to identify any specific projects to be funded through borrowing authority provided by the Recovery Act.

Note: The provisions of Recovery Act that apply to Western provides borrowing authority rather than authorizing appropriations, which Western does not receive. This significant difference does make Western’s approach to Recovery Act projects different than those DOE projects funded though appropriations. The project selection process and the funding mechanism reflect the unique Western structure. Therefore, Western will not issue any grants or other financial awards involving Recovery Act funds, but will use standard procurement processes to issue any contracts for projects to be funded by loans from the Treasury.

Corporate Controls

Recovery Leadership & Operations - The DOE Recovery Office is the central point for implementation and execution of Recovery Act activities. A Recovery Operations Team will oversee implementation management, such as monitoring project status, evaluating cost and schedule progress, ensuring thorough reporting, coordinating with external entities, and holding monthly performance and review meetings with senior departmental managers on the implementation status of specific recovery projects.

Recovery Funding Oversight, Performance - In addition to DOE’s standard funds control mechanisms, Recovery Act funds are subject to additional process controls to ensure funds are not co-mingled, are tracked to enable reporting, and are spent responsibly. DOE recovery funds are released for implementation in a staged approach. Programs develop initial project plans which include performance metrics which require management approval.

Office of Internal Review (OIR) - DOE’s OIR helps programs ensure that internal controls are in place, effective, and support the risk based approach to managing Recovery Act activities. OIR programs are being implemented or expanded to ensure the Recovery Act objectives are met and DOE managers and partners are both held accountable for successful execution and also have the appropriate tools to ensure that success. These programs include coordinating DOE’s “Internal Control Acknowledgment” program, conducting agency wide assessments and analyses and performing oversight of Recovery Act programs, including site and field visits. OIR worked with key impacted programs to produce initial vulnerability assessments identifying potential program specific and cross-cutting risks to ensure successful execution.

Western Processes

In implementing the requirements of the Recovery Act, the Transmission Infrastructure Program Office will:
• Develop a project plan with milestones and deliverables to track progress.
• Monitor individual project status, evaluate cost and schedule progress, ensure comprehensive reporting, coordinate with external entities, and hold monthly performance and review meetings with Western management on the implementation status of individual construction projects.
• Ensure funds are maintained and tracked separately, and are spent responsibly and as mandated in the Recovery Act.
• Establish internal controls and perform oversight on Recovery Act activities and projects to ensure successful execution, and that Western managers and project partners are accountable.

DOE leverages its existing corporate systems to track and report on Recovery Act activities and to ensure effective funds management. The DOE’s iManage Data Warehouse (IDW) is a corporate enterprise system integrating financial, budgetary, procurement, and program information to monitor project execution. Each Recovery Act program is tracked using unique Treasury Appropriation Fund Symbols, and each component project is identified by a unique Project Identification Code.

The IDW is a central data warehouse linking common data elements from each of the Department’s corporate business systems and serving as a “knowledge bank” of information about portfolios, programs or projects including budget execution, accumulated costs, performance achieved, and critical milestones met. The IDW contains information from multiple corporate systems and will be a tool used to meet information needs for Recovery Act oversight and reporting to Recovery.gov.

The Performance Measure Manager (PMM) is the Department’s performance tracking system. PMM tracks high-level budgetary performance and is being expanded to accommodate Recovery Act performance tracking needs. Performance evaluations will be organized and reported along with results from the Department’s annual budgetary activities in the Annual Performance Report and posted on: www.energy.gov/recovery. Performance results will be uploaded into the IDW for required agency reporting.

See DOE’s Agency Wide Recovery Plan for additional information on DOE’s financial and performance tracking mechanisms, found here: www.energy.gov/recovery.

As specific to Western, please refer to the Monitoring and Evaluation Section (#5 above) for project-specific details. Western is committed to ensuring regular access to clear and transparent financial information and opportunities for input into Western’s cost and program decisions.

Western will prepare quarterly and annual financial statements/reports which conform to generally accepted accounting principles and are a fair representation of program operations in all material respects. These documents will be made available to the general public on our external website. The annual report will be audited as part of the annual financial statement audit.

Western will leverage its existing risk management processes and oversight practices, including key controls over financial management reporting of Recovery Act activities in Western’s A-123 review process.

The Recovery Act provided Western with borrowing authority to build transmission infrastructure (e.g. power lines and related facilities). However, these funds will not be used to build or rehabilitate Federal buildings, and, as such, the provisions for reporting do not apply.