Audits

On September 30, we issued our final report on George Washington University’s (GWU) and FHWA’s corrective actions taken as a result of financial misconduct that occurred at its National Crash Analysis Center. About $1.6 million of improper or fraudulent payments occurred on cooperative agreements between FHWA and GWU because the Principal Investigator used three businesses he controlled to submit unsupported charges. The fraud was not detected due to inadequate internal controls at GWU and inadequate oversight by FHWA. GWU has reviewed the Center and is implementing recommendations made in our draft report on improving controls. Additionally, FHWA is strengthening its procedures for administering research grants and agreements and has intensified its monitoring of the agreement and is recommending that GWU be reinstated to the agreement. We support FHWA’s decision, provided that it keeps up its intensified monitoring of the agreement until all of GWU’s corrective actions are implemented.