Andrew Meehan, a Spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), said that they have Obligated more than 90% of the Funds provided in FY 2017 and 2018.
An Obligation is definite as a Commitment that Creates a Legal Liability, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). An Agency incurs an Obligation, for example, when it places an Order, Signs a Contract, Awards a Grant, Purchases a Service, or takes other Actions that require the Government to make Payments to the Public or from One Government Account to Another, the GAO explained.
More specifically, “nearly 60% of those funds are obligated onto a contract – referred to as contract award – by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,” Meehan said. The Expenditure occurs after the Work is Completed, “making expenditure an inaccurate measure of execution,” he said.
Some Actions had been taken to Transfer Funds to the Army Corps of Engineers and further to Award Contracts. GAO Spokeswoman Martina McLennan said, “Of the $1.3 billion Congress appropriated in FY18, as of the latest data Congress received from the Administration on November 26th, only 6 percent has been ‘expended,’ a term which means the same as ‘spent.’
While the Administration argues they have Signed Contracts with Companies for more of the Funds, those Contracts do not mean Funds have been spent, and Construction has not yet even started on any of the Projects Obligated for the $1.3 Billion Congress Appropriated in FY18, which ended in September.
Let’s go through the Numbers, provided by CBP.
The Fiscal year 2017 and 2018 Appropriations included a Total of $1.7 Billion to CBP for New and Replacement Border Fencing and Barriers. And nearly All of that has been Obligated to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. About $300 Million is yet to be Awarded to a Contract, but was On Hold during the Government Shutdown. And there was $175 Million left for CBP Project Management Support.
Specifically, of the $341 Million Appropriated in Fiscal 2017, $300 Million was on Contract by late December 2018, and 35 of the 40 Miles of Scheduled Replacement Pedestrian and Vehicle Barriers had been Completed.
The Fiscal 2018 Appropriations included $1.375 Billion for 82 Miles of New and Replacement Barriers. By July 2018, CBP had Obligated by Transferring $1.2 Billion to the Army Corps. And by Dec. 31st, 2018, nearly $700 Million of that had been Awarded to Contracts.
A Member of Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT) Staff said the Obligations to the Army Corps amounted to just “a bureaucratic shift to another government agency.” But then, of course, there are the Actual Contract Awards. CBP says nearly 60% had been Awarded to Contracts, and that’s Documented by various CBP Press Releases on such Contracts.
CBP’s Meehan said the Fiscal 2018 Funds were Obligated in less than Nine months, a period of time he called “the equivalent of light speed in the federal contracting world.” In fact, the 2018 Appropriations Bill was belatedly Signed into Law on March 23rd, 2018, that’s nearly Six Months after Fiscal 2018 started on Oct. 1st, 2017.
Joshua Gordon, Policy Director at the Concord Coalition, a Nonpartisan Organization that Advocates Fiscal Responsibility, said the Problems is with the Budgeting Process. Agencies face difficulties when there are Continuing Resolutions and Late Passage of Appropriations Bills, “sometimes so late in the fiscal year, it’s almost impossible to get things done in that fiscal year.”
Gordon says while the Concord Coalition Primarily looks at Outlays, which occur when the Checks from the Government actually Clear, in this Mini-Controversy, the Contracted Amount “makes the most sense as a measuring stick.” One “piece of irony,” he notes, is that “it seems like the government shutdown is actually going to hamper the ability to get some of these contracts done.”
Meanwhile, President Trump claimed in the Jan. 2nd Cabinet Meeting that he and Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan had Instituted a New System to Not Pay Government Contractors if their Work was Unsatisfactory. “Somebody said that we didn’t spend the money,” the President began. “Well, we have spent it, but we don’t pay contractors before they finish the job. That’s one of the other things that Pat and I sort of instituted. We like to have people do the work. … We pay it when it’s finished so they do a good job. This way, if they don’t do a good job, we don’t pay them.”
Sounds familiar!
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
