A recently released report from the U.S. DOT Inspector General found that the FAA “has lacked effective management controls” in its project level agreement (PLA) process for NextGen developmental projects. For example, it found that 12 of the 22 PLAs the DOT watchdog sampled did not align with the FAA’s high-priority NextGen investment decisions, primarily because they were for support or implementation work.
Further, the DOT IG said the lengthy PLA approval process led to the FAA often funding projects without approved PLAs and contributed to difficulty obligating funds to developmental projects. Also, the FAA had not defined which types of projects are eligible for developmental work and lacked standard operating procedures for PLAs. In addtion, the FAA’s Office of NextGen did not effectively execute and measure the outcomes of NextGen developmental projects, it said.
“[The] FAA has lacked a clearly established framework for managing the overall oversight of developmental projects and addressing persistent problems,” the report concludes. The watchdog agency issued six recommendations to improve the FAA’s management and oversight of NextGen developmental funding. The FAA concurred with two, partially concurred with one, and did not agree with three. Since Fiscal Year 2008, Congress has appropriated more than $1.7 billion for NextGen developmental projects.