The National Park Service Did Not Oversee Its General Agreements

September 23, 2020

2019-CR-035

Audit

We evaluated the National Park Service’s (NPS’) general agreements (GAs) to determine if the NPS oversees its GAs to ensure compliance with policies and governing laws. We found that the NPS did not oversee its GAs to ensure compliance with policies and governing laws. The NPS did not maintain a central inventory for its GAs and was unaware of the number of active GAs. Therefore, we selected three parks to review in the Intermountain Region: Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Rocky Mountain. We found the NPS was misusing GAs at all three parks we reviewed, which is likely a result of the informal review process associated with these instruments. During our evaluation, we determined that the NPS used the GAs to provide financial assistance or transfer goods or services to non-Federal entities, in apparent contravention of policies and laws. Further, we noted that personnel who were not authorized to commit NPS resources signed the GAs that inappropriately transferred something of value, which puts the NPS at risk of unauthorized commitments. The NPS has neither provided clear, consistent guidance, nor provided training on how to develop and use GAs at the national level. We make five recommendations to help the NPS improve oversight of its GAs. Based on the NPS’ response to our draft report, we consider one recommendation unresolved, one recommendation resolved and implemented, and three recommendations resolved but not implemented. We will refer the recommendations to the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget for resolution and to track implementation.

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