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The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) followed established criteria and recommended practices when awarding funds under the High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail program, although the agency was vague when documenting reasons why certain projects were selected, according to a report issued today by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Entitled “Intercity Passenger Rail: Recording Clearer Reasons for Awards Decisions Would Improve Otherwise Good Grantmaking Practices,” the report reviews the FRA’s decision-making process for awarding $8 billion in federal high-speed stimulus grants, which were announced in January 2010.

Among the findings:

• FRA applied its established criteria during the eligibility and technical reviews, but GAO could not verify whether it applied its final selection criteria because the documented rationales for selecting projects were typically vague.

• FRA recorded general reasons for selecting applications and publicly posted broad descriptions of the selected projects. However, the documented reasons for those selection decisions were typically vague or restated the criteria listed in the funding announcement.

• Only general reasons were given for the applications not selected or for adjusting applicants’ requested funding amounts. FRA subsequently provided GAO with more detailed reasons for several of its selection decisions, but the information was not included in the department’s records of its decisions.

• FRA substantially followed recommended practices when awarding grants, including communicating key information to applicants prior to the competition, planning for the competition, using a merit review panel with certain characteristics, assessing whether applicants were likely to be able to account for grant funds, notifying applicants of award decisions and documenting the rationale for awards decisions (albeit generally).

However, without a detailed record of its selection decisions, the FRA is vulnerable to criticism, the report states. As a result, GAO recommends that FRA create additional records to document the reasons behind award decisions to better ensure accountability. In commenting on a draft of the report, the FRA agreed to consider the recommendation, according to GAO.