A federal program that administers competitive grants for transportation projects that have national or regional significance needs to more clearly define how project criteria are evaluated, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released on Thursday.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DoT) Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects (NSFHP) program enables states to apply for FASTLANE competitive grants to help improve highways with regional or national significance by making them safer, more efficient and better connected.
The program was authorized under the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act of 2015, which authorized the DoT to administer $4.5 billion in grants from fiscal years 2016 to 2020. The program received 218 applications in fiscal year 2016 and awarded $759.2 million in grants.
The GAO review, which was required under the FAST Act, concluded that “DoT generally followed the process outlined in the Fastlane evaluation plan; however, the plan resulted in inconsistencies and allowed for broad discretion during certain team reviews.”
“GAO found the technical review teams — teams of modal administration representatives tasked with assessing potential projects against established criteria — used different definitions when assigning technical ratings, likely contributing to scoring variances,” the GAO found. “In addition, GAO found the evaluation plan gave the senior review team—a team of senior officials responsible for assembling the list of projects for consideration by the secretary — broad discretion when assembling the list….”
Absent clearly defined procedures and terms for the evaluation process to ensure that applications are considered consistently, the DoT could face questions about the integrity of the selection process, the GAO review concluded.
As a result, the GAO recommended that a clear evaluation plan be developed. It should outline how reviewers apply criteria, assess applications and assign ratings before more applications are solicited. The report also recommended that DoT better document key decisions made in the application review process.