Summary
Congress has created 20 federal employment-related programs that are aimed at helping people with disabilities obtain jobs. Little is known about the effectiveness and the management of some of these programs. GAO was asked to review four of these programs; the Department of Education (Education) oversees three--Projects with Industry (PWI), Supported Employment State Grants, and Randolph-Sheppard. An independent federal agency, the Committee for Purchase, oversees the fourth, Javits-Wagner-O'Day (JWOD). Specifically, GAO assessed the extent to which (1) performance goals and measures have been established for these programs and (2) the agencies responsible have established adequate oversight procedures. We reviewed program planning and performance information, interviewed agency officials, and visited each of the four programs in four states.
Three of the four programs have federal performance goals. No federal performance goals or measures currently exist for the Randolph-Sheppard program, which provides opportunities for individuals who are blind to operate vending facilities on federal properties. Without goals, it is difficult to assess the program's performance, but Education officials told GAO they are developing them. Education has a goal and a measure for the Supported Employment State Grants program--a federal grant program that provides job coaching and other support to help individuals with severe disabilities secure jobs. The goal indirectly measures the program's performance because grant funds are mixed with other funding sources to provide supported employment services. Education has also developed one goal for the PWI program--a federal grant program that helps individuals with disabilities obtain competitive employment--that is consistent with the mission of the program. The goal is to create and expand job opportunities for individuals with disabilities in the competitive labor market by engaging business and industry, and one of the measures tracks the percentage of individuals placed in employment in work settings making at least minimum wage. The Committee for Purchase, which oversees the JWOD program--a program that helps to create jobs through the federal property management and procurement systems--first developed federal goals and measures for its fiscal year 2005-2007 strategic plan and has since revised them. The revised measures still have limitations, such as not being clearly defined or being difficult to measure. Education's and the Committee for Purchase's oversight of the four programs has been uneven. Education has established procedures, such as on-site reviews, for the PWI and Supported Employment State Grants programs that, if consistently followed, would provide reasonable assurance that the programs are in compliance with applicable laws and regulations. However, Education conducts limited oversight of the Randolph-Sheppard program. For example, Education does not routinely analyze or report the data it collects from states and has provided little guidance to ensure states comply with laws or consistently interpret program requirements. One area in which Education has not provided sufficient guidance is the circumstances under which federal agencies may charge fees to licensed vendors operating vending facilities on their properties. As a result, vendors in some locations were paying commissions or fees but those in other locationswere not. Finally, the Committee for Purchase delegates most of its oversight responsibilities to two central nonprofit agencies that also represent the interests of the JWOD nonprofit agencies they oversee. This arrangement, as well as the fact that they receive a percentage of the total value of the contracts from the JWOD nonprofit agencies, raises questions about their independence and gives them little incentive to identify instances of noncompliance that could result in the JWOD nonprofit agency losing its federal contract.
Recommendations
Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change
from "In process" to "Implemented" or "Not implemented" based on our follow up work.
Director:
Team:
Phone:
Daniel Bertoni
Government Accountability Office: Education, Workforce, and Income Security
(202) 512-9889
Recommendations for Executive Action
Recommendation: To improve program performance management and oversight, the Secretary of Education should provide more effective leadership of the Randolph-Sheppard program by establishing performance goals to identify desired programwide outcomes that assess states' licensed vendor programs performance as a whole in achieving established goals.
Agency Affected: Department of Education
Status: In process
Comments: The Department is developing performance goals for the Randolph-Sheppard program. These performance goals are expected to encompass the three explicit purposes of the program: (1) providing blind persons with remunerative employment, (2) enlarging economic opportunities for persons who are blind, and (3) stimulating self-support by persons who are blind. The Department intends to assess state performance in meeting performance goals in relation to the costs of the program. As part of this effort, the program's data collection instrument will be revised and expanded to obtain information necessary to measure program performance.
Recommendation: To improve program performance management and oversight, the Secretary of Education should provide more effective leadership of the Randolph-Sheppard program by being more proactive in disseminating clear, consistent and routine guidance about program requirements and prohibited practices to federal agencies and states.
Agency Affected: Department of Education
Status: In process
Comments: The Department is reviewing guidance for the Randolph-Sheppard program and is currently engaged in rulemaking to clarify program requirements in the key area of operation of military food service facilities. The Department is working with the Department of Defense and the Committee for Purchase to obtain a common federal understanding of how state vocational rehabilitation agencies and blind individuals may compete for military cafeteria contracts under the priority afforded by the Randolph-Sheppard Act. Policy guidance will be placed on the Department's Web site to be easily available to program participants, state government agencies, federal procurement officials, and property-managing agencies.
Recommendation: To improve program performance management and oversight, the Secretary of Education should provide more effective leadership of the Randolph-Sheppard program by strengthening their monitoring of State Licensing Agency (SLA) and Randolph-Sheppard program performance in a cost-effective manner.
Agency Affected: Department of Education
Status: In process
Comments: The Department is working to improve Randolph-Sheppard program monitoring and will post completed monitoring reports on the Department's Web site. The Department plans to reassess its monitoring approach once the program's goals have been established and the supporting data are available. The Department also intends to consider ways to strenghten Randolph-Sheppard program monitoring to increase cost-effectiveness.
Recommendation: To improve program performance management, the Chairperson for the Committee for Purchase should assess goals and measures for JWOD to ensure that they are clear, measurable and continue to capture key aspects of program performance as the Committee for Purchase continues to develop its performance management system.
Agency Affected: Committee For Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled
Status: In process
Comments: In July 2007, the Committee for Purchase held a two-day strategic planning conference that, based on GAO's findings and recommendations, focused on updating its 2007-2009 strategic plan. Subsequently, the Committee revised its strategic plan and the current draft plan would reduce the number of objectives and measures from approximately 30 to 9. In addition, the nine objectives and measures, supporting the plan's five goals, were selected because they best describe key aspects of program performance, and the associated metrics were refined to ensure they are both realistic and measurable. The Committee's proposed changes to the strategic plan are under review and, in the near future, will be circulated to the Committee members for their review and approval. The Committee's goal is to have the revised strategic plan approved by October 1, 2007.
Recommendation: To help ensure that JWOD nonprofit agencies comply with program laws and regulations, the Chairperson of the Committee for Purchase should improve procedures for overseeing these agencies. This could include requiring the central nonprofit agencies to enter into written contracts with the Committee for Purchase that clearly lay out their oversight responsibilities and the consequences for failing to fulfill them, providing a means of compensating the central nonprofit agencies for their services that provides an incentive for effective enforcement, or having the Committee for Purchase assume greater responsibility for oversight of JWOD nonprofit agencies, by performing more on-site compliance reviews.
Agency Affected: Committee For Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled
Status: In process
Comments: The Committee for Purchase is considering a new Goal 3 for its strategic plan-- Stewardship, Program Integrity, and Leadership--and an associated objective, "Implement effective oversight of the central nonprofit agencies' roles and responsibilities to ensure program integrity." This action is the Committee for Purchase's initial step to begin to address concerns about the central nonprofit agencies' independence and conflicts of interest. The Committee plans to complete this action by October 1, 2007. In addition, while no specified time frame has been set, the Committee plans to consider regulatory changes to withdraw some of the oversight currently the responsibility of the central nonprofit agencies, and reaffirm the Committee's oversight role for the program.
