Coral Reef Conservation Program: Opportunities Exist to Better Track Expenditures and Share Information
Fast Facts
Coral reefs host rich marine ecosystems and protect coastlines from flooding and erosion—providing global benefits estimated to be worth trillions of dollars annually. But coral reefs face threats such as ocean warming, disease, and tourism. The federal Coral Reef Conservation Program plays a key role in conserving and restoring coral reefs.
In this Q&A report, we looked at the program's budget and accounting practices. The program promotes accountability and transparency in many ways but doesn't share full spending data or project results with Congress or others. We recommended doing so to better communicate resource needs and more.
A healthy coral reef ecosystem (left) and a bleached coral reef (right)
Highlights
What GAO Found
The Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) brings together expertise from several offices across NOAA that carry out projects related to coral reefs. The CRCP supports research and restoration in two states and five territories with jurisdiction over coral reef ecosystems—Florida, Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
To identify priorities for the program, the CRCP holds workshops or individual meetings with points of contact in each of the seven jurisdictions to identify jurisdictional priorities. After these jurisdictional workshops, the CRCP holds a national workshop with NOAA staff. The workshops inform the CRCP budget, which the program develops in 3-year cycles.
The CRCP tracks obligations and expenditures in the Commerce Business System, a Department of Commerce financial system. This system delineates obligations and expenditures by various codes, such as fiscal year and object class (e.g., contractual services or grants). Senior CRCP and budget officials told us they regularly use obligation data to monitor progress in obligating funds but do not typically access or use expenditure data for management of the program as a whole. These officials said that in managing the CRCP, they focus on obligating CRCP funds rather than on ensuring they are expended.
Even if CRCP officials regularly access expenditure data for the whole program, they cannot (1) determine project-specific expenditures for all CRCP projects from NOAA's financial system, or (2) compare expenditures to obligations for all projects in the CRCP's annual spend plans, according to our analysis of CRCP documents. This limitation is due in part to the CRCP not assigning task codes to identify its projects in the Commerce Business System.
Federal standards for internal control state that management should use quality information to achieve the entity's objectives. By regularly tracking and accessing expenditure data on CRCP projects from the Commerce Business System, the CRCP will be better informed about actual expenditures and be able to compare expenditures to obligations in its annual spend plans and respond to requests for this information.
The CRCP has policies and guidance and shares information to promote transparency and accountability within NOAA and with outside entities such as Congress and the public. However, GAO identified some information that the CRCP has not communicated. For example, the program has not communicated information about obligations or expenditures on specific internal CRCP projects with outside entities. In addition, the program has not made its performance results available to outside entities.
GAO's key practices for evidence-based policymaking and federal standards for internal control state that federal organizations should externally communicate relevant key information on their learning and results to key stakeholders. By communicating information related to its performance results and internal expenditures to outside entities, the CRCP can increase its transparency and accountability in administering the program.
Why GAO Did This Study
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 includes a provision for GAO to examine several aspects of the CRCP, including the CRCP's budget and accounting practices. This report discusses how the CRCP identifies priorities and develops its budget, tracks obligations and expenditures, and promotes transparency and accountability.
To do this work, GAO reviewed and analyzed relevant laws, policies, and guidance related to the CRCP and its budget and accounting practices. GAO also reviewed NOAA's system for tracking obligations and expenditures, data generated from this system, and audit documentation. GAO also interviewed NOAA officials and CRCP grant recipients, including representatives from all seven jurisdictions.
Recommendations
GAO is making three recommendations to NOAA to improve the CRCP's ability to track, access, and use expenditure data across the program and to communicate information related to expenditures and performance results to outside entities, as appropriate.
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | The Administrator of NOAA should ensure that the Director of the CRCP improves the program's ability to track and report expenditure data for the program as a whole by, for example, regularly assigning specific task codes to CRCP projects. (Recommendation 1) |
NOAA agreed with this recommendation. In a July 2024 letter, NOAA stated that to address this recommendation, the CRCP will work with CRCP budget officials to develop processes to improve tracking and reporting of expenditure data for the program as a whole. NOAA also stated that the CRCP will work with the NOAA Budget Office to produce expenditure reports for the program as a whole. As of July 2024, NOAA stated that the CRCP's Budget and Strategic Assessment and Evaluation Team was working on the development of specific task codes for CRCP-funded projects. NOAA estimated that the codes would be effective by January 1, 2025. In addition, the letter stated that the CRCP's Budget Team was working with NOAA's Budget Office to produce expenditure reports for the program, with a target implementation date of October 1, 2024.
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| National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | The Administrator of NOAA should ensure that the Director of the CRCP accesses and uses expenditure data in managing the program. (Recommendation 2) |
NOAA agreed with this recommendation. In a July 2024 letter, NOAA stated that the CRCP will use the Department of Commerce's new financial system to assess annual project expenditures to monitor progress and to inform future decision-making for the program. For example, the CRCP will use expenditure reports to monitor performance of program investments, including contracts and grants as well as internal investments, and use this information to inform future awards. It will also use expenditure reports to generate projections to inform future development of the CRCP's 3-year spend plans. In addition, the CRCP will use expenditure data for program reporting and evaluation. NOAA has a target implementation date of October 1, 2025, for this recommendation.
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| National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | The Administrator of NOAA should ensure that the Director of the CRCP takes steps to communicate information related to expenditures and performance results to outside entities, as appropriate. (Recommendation 3) |
NOAA agreed with this recommendation. In a July 2024 letter, NOAA stated that the CRCP will provide progress updates as appropriate to outside entities regarding expenditure data and performance results for the goals CRCP addresses. Specifically, the letter stated that the CRCP will continue to update indicator contributions from CRCP-funded projects to inform progress towards strategic objectives and will publish that information via the CRCP website. In addition, the CRCP will share selected performance information from activities undertaken to implement the National Coral Reef Resilience Strategy in its congressional reports. NOAA has a target implementation date of January 1, 2025, for this recommendation.
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