Audit of Peace Corps/Healthcare Benefits Administration Contract

We recommend that the chief financial officer, chief acquisition officer, and Office of Health Services associate director assign sufficient resources for purposes of assisting in improving the overall Volunteer healthcare administration contract surveillance program and to provide greater assurance that the contractor is fully complying with the contract and its performance is acceptable.

We recommend that the Office of Health Services associate director ensure that the contracting officer’s representative develop a detailed plan for reviewing and testing sufficient selected data supporting contractor invoices submitted to the Peace Corps for payment. The plan should be designed to achieve better assurance that the amounts billed are accurate, fully supported, and authorized by the contract.

We recommend that the chief acquisition officer develop written policy for improving the process for selecting and designating contracting officer’s representatives that will better match experience and skill sets with the contracts they are slated to monitor.

We recommend that the chief acquisition officer and the Office of Health Services associate director establish procedures to ensure that the Office of Acquisitions and Contract Management, contracting officer’s representative, and Office of Health Services senior staff collaborate on administering and monitoring the Peace Corps’ healthcare administration contract, including maintaining an environment for fostering open and effective communications regarding contractor performance.

We recommend that the chief acquisition officer implement policy that requires all invoicing documents be maintained in the official contracting files for the minimum period of time as prescribed in Federal Acquisition Regulation Subpart 4.8.