Finding 1149607 (2024-003)

Assistance Listing, Federal Agency, and Program Name 81.087, U.S. Department of Energy, Research and Development Cluster Federal Award Identification Number and Year DE EE0009755 Pass through Entity N/A Direct award Finding Type Significant deficiency Repeat Finding No Criteria Under the terms and conditions of certain Department of Energy (DOE) award agreements, if the recipient anticipates involving foreign nationals in the performance of the award, the recipient must, upon DOE’s request, provide DOE with specific information about each foreign national to ensure compliance with the requirements for participation and access approval. GTI Energy's policies and procedures require project managers to inform the Contracts Manager when a foreign national will begin work on a project irrespective of whether it requires DOE approval. The Contracts Manager will input the foreign national employee's name into the internal foreign national tracking system and initiate the communication to the DOE, if required under the agreement. Condition Controls in place did not ensure a foreign national employee's involvement on a project were communicated to the Contracts Manager for tracking. Questioned Costs None Identification of How Questioned Costs Were Computed N/A There were no questioned costs identified. Context In one out of seven employees sampled for testing, the contracts manager was not informed of the employee's involvement on a DOE project. Although the contract did not require DOE approval, GTI Energy did not follow its procedures and controls to ensure the completeness and accuracy of foreign nationals working on projects. Cause and Effect GTI Energy's controls failed to track a foreign national employee's involvement before they charged time to the project. Without proper tracking of foreign national employees working on federal grants, there is an increased risk that the DOE is not notified and does not provide approval for the employee to work on the grant, which can result in unallowable costs being charged to the grant. Recommendation We recommend that GTI Energy review its procedures and controls to ensure that the involvement of foreign national employees is tracked and communicated internally in a timely manner to ensure communication to the Department of Energy (DOE) in a timely manner, when required. Additionally, we suggest that GTI Energy assess whether program managers need further training to help identify and appropriately track foreign national employees. Views of Responsible Officials and Corrective Action Plan Management takes its responsibility to comply with the terms and conditions of awards seriously, and, while this particular finding did not result in noncompliance with the terms of an award, a repeat occurrence could result in noncompliance. To prevent future occurrences, management will enhance internal controls to ensure consistent tracking and reporting of foreign nationals working on Department of Energy sponsored projects by taking the following corrective actions by July 31, 2025: 1) Update the company’s policy for tracking and reporting foreign nationals to include: a) A requirement that all team members must be approved by Contract Services before starting work on a DOE project. b) A requirement that Contract Services review a payroll report monthly to ensure all individuals who charged time to DOE projects were pre approved. 2) Train business unit leaders, project managers, and contract services staff on the revised policy and procedures for tracking and reporting foreign nationals.