Recovery.gov - Track the Money

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) aims to create or save over 3.5 million jobs over two years and to jumpstart and transform our economy in the process. Since our nation’s greatest resource is its workers, the Recovery Act targets investments to key areas that will create and preserve good jobs. DOL has two key roles in this recovery effort: providing worker training for these jobs; and easing the burden of the recession on workers and employers by providing extended and expanded unemployment benefits and assisting and educating them regarding expanded access to continued health benefits.

The Recovery Act provides a significant boost in funding for DOL employment and training programs to help Americans acquire new skills that will help them qualify for good jobs. To this end, the Department is overseeing the allocation and expenditure of over $4 billion for training and employment services targeting adults, dislocated workers, and youth – including State formula grants and competitive grants for training in health care and green jobs.


Specific goals and expected outcomes:

• The Department measures the success of its training and employment efforts using the job training program common measures, which include the percent of program participants who enter or re-enter employment, the percent who retain those jobs, and their average earnings. DOL will also measure the performance of the unemployment insurance program by the timeliness of first payments to unemployment insurance benefit claimants and by how quickly they were re-employed. Results for these measures will be posted on the Web each quarter on both www.recovery.gov and on www.dol.gov/recovery.
  
• To help Americans who have lost their jobs retain access to health care, the Department is implementing Recovery Act legislation that expands COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986) eligibility via premium assistance. We will measure our efficiency at processing appeals and report the results monthly on both www.recovery.gov and on www.dol.gov/recovery.
  
• The Department is also using Recovery Act funds to provide youth summer employment opportunities. Results of this program will be measured by job readiness and completion rates. These results will be available quarterly on both www.recovery.gov and on www.dol.gov/recovery.
  
• The Department is also using Recovery Act funds to enforce worker protection laws and regulations, provide oversight, and coordinate activities related to the infrastructure and unemployment insurance investments in the Recovery Act.
  
• DOL continues to provide guidance and technical assistance to Recovery Act fund recipients and is committed to transparency and accountability in implementing this Recovery Plan.

• DOL awarded 84% of its contract dollars via competition in FY 2008. Between 2005 and 2007, DOL has had the highest or second highest contract competition percentages among the major cabinet level departments spending $1 billion or more.
  
• DOL projects that the majority of its Recovery Act funding contract dollars, approximately 80% to 85%, will be awarded using a competitive process. A significant portion of the remaining contract dollars will be obligated using the authorized and encouraged small business set-aside programs, especially for the Office of Job Corps Recovery Act construction procurements.
  
• As time progresses, DOL projects that Recovery Act contracts awarded via competition will remain steady due to the continued use of authorized and encouraged small business programs.
  
• To promote competition, DOL has released two internal guidance memoranda to all contracting offices reinforcing the preference for competition. Additionally, DOL has strict internal controls over non-competitive actions. These controls include a process that requires planned, non-competitive actions above $100,000 to be reviewed by a board consisting of legal, acquisition, policy, and program representatives with a final approval by the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management.

The agency shall review its use of fixed-price contracts as a percentage of all dollars spent and describe the steps taken and planned to maximize the use of fixed-price contracts wherever practicable for ARRA-funded contracts. The discussion shall include a projection of the expected use of fixed-price contracts based on anticipated ARRA dollars (not numbers of contracts) and the rationale for the projection. If the agency projects a decline, the plan shall address steps to be taken by fiscal quarter to address this. Agencies should achieve increased use of fixed-price contracts over time.

• 35% of DOL’s contract dollars were awarded using fixed-price contract vehicles in FY 2008.
  
• DOL projects that at least 71% of Recovery Act contract dollars will be awarded using fixed-price type contract vehicles. All of the major Job Corps Recovery Act construction procurements, which represent the majority of DOL’s Recovery Act discretionary contract dollars, are being awarded on a fixed-price basis.
  
• The Department expects that usage of fixed-price contract vehicles will remain constant or slightly increase from the 71% level as time progresses. The steady trend is a result of the majority of Recovery Act dollars, primarily the major Job Corps construction procurements, being awarded before November 2009.

To promote the utilization of fixed-price type contracts, DOL has released two internal guidance memoranda, which stress the preference for fixed-price contracts. Additional guidance is provided to contracting professionals on an ongoing basis via email reminders and weekly conference calls. The Department is also creating a supplemental checklist for all contracting professionals to fill out when processing Recovery Act actions. This checklist requires the contracting professional assess the type of contract vehicle best suited to the acquisition and to provide justifications for the use of other than fixed-price contract vehicles.

The Department is providing oversight and coordination of its agencies’ and programs’ efforts. For example, weekly meetings with senior agency representatives provide department-wide guidance on meeting the Act’s requirements for accountability and transparency. In addition, Departmental leadership conducted a budget justification and review process to determine the allocation of the $80 million that was provided to the Department for distribution to worker protection, oversight, and coordination activities, with the goal of ensuring that funds were allocated based on demonstrated need and consistency with Recovery Act goals.

Reviewing Performance Results
Each quarter, the Department’s Budget and Performance Management Review (BPMR) requires DOL programs to report the status of their budgetary expenditures, completion of their improvement actions, and progress meeting annual performance targets for senior leadership review. Recovery Act spending, milestones, and progress toward achieving Recovery Act goals and targets have now been added to the quarterly BPMR.

Holding Program Managers Accountable
The DOL Human Capital Strategic Plan for 2008-2011 commits the Department to ensuring that each employee is aware of his or her role in the accomplishment of the Department’s mission by aligning all employee performance plans with the objectives of the agency.

The Department's Senior Executive Service (SES) Performance Management System is certified by Office of Personnel Management and the Office of Management and Budget. As such, the system meets requirements for mission/goal alignment and performance results. Currently, SES performance expectations for DOL executives clearly link to the mission, program/policy objectives, annual performance plans, budget priorities or other strategic planning documents. Performance expectations include results that reflect expected outcomes or outputs, performance targets or metrics and must be observable, measurable and or demonstrable.

At the first practicable opportunity, the performance appraisal plans of all DOL employees with Recovery Act implementation responsibilities will include performance elements that tie to specific Recovery Act goals. Guidance from the Department is forthcoming.

Strategic Partner Accountability
The Department is developing reporting guidelines for fund recipients that will minimize any new collection burdens yet provide timely and accurate accounting of grantee performance and outcomes. We are working with our programs and fund recipients to update or modify grant agreements and reporting guidance so that all grant recipients clearly understand the transparency and accountability requirements associated with the receipt of Recovery Act funds.

In addition to the laws, regulations, and polices currently in place to ensure contractor accountability, new contract clauses have been added to the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) that strengthen the existing requirements. These new contract clauses are mandatory and are inserted in all contracts that are funded with Recovery Act funds. The clauses include additional reporting requirements and expand the rights of Government Accountability Office and respective agency Inspector General in conducting investigations.

Risk Mitigation
Accountability for risk mitigation will be maintained through the careful monitoring of agency risk management performance measures and mitigation strategy triggers. Using risk management plans as a baseline, senior DOL leadership will regularly review findings and results from performance reviews, with emphasis placed on programs with highest risk.

To address oversight risks, the Department will issue recommended revisions to performance appraisal plans for officials who monitor grants and contracts issued by the department. Under these recommended revisions, agency leadership will include elements that tie monitoring of contracts and grants to performance standards.