Interim Costs Claimed by Partner-Impact, LLC, Under Agreement No. F15AC00480 With the Fish and Wildlife Service

We audited costs claimed by a private marketing company, Partner-Impact, LLC, under a $256,100 cooperative agreement with the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The primary purpose of the agreement was to form a broad coalition of public and private organizations with the mission of developing an education and outreach campaign to help fight the trafficking of wildlife and wildlife products.

 

We identified deficiencies in the award, execution, and reimbursement of the agreement. In addition, we were unable to determine the value of the services FWS received from Partner-Impact. We also found that Partner-Impact failed to fulfill the agreement’s requirements. We are questioning as unsupported the entire $256,100 FWS paid to Partner-Impact.

 

In our report, we make nine recommendations to FWS to improve how it awards and monitors its assistance agreements. FWS concurred with seven of our recommendations and is working to implement them.

 

The original version of this report was issued on September 2, 2016. This is an updated version.