Venable partners Jeff Tenenbaum and Diz Locaria were quoted in an October 3, 2016 Grants Compliance Experts article on how nonprofits receiving federal funds for services in foreign countries should perform due diligence to avoid corruption risks. Tenenbaum and Locaria made the quotes during their recent forum, "How to Protect Nonprofits' Federally Funded Programs with Global Anti-Corruption Controls," which also included counsel Carrie Kroll McMullan.
Tenenbaum urged organizations facing allegations of misconduct to bring the matter to an attorney and develop a plan to work with the federal government and resolve the issue. "What you really care about is that it doesn’t happen again," he said. "Developing a good strong relationship portraying trust and credibility with your agency is critically important."
While discussing factors award recipients should consider when monitoring subawards and contractors, Locaria recommended developing "monitoring plans based on where they are operating, as the risks for providing services in the United States may be completely different than when providing emergency relief in a foreign country." He urged recipients to perform due diligence when issuing subawards and contracts. "It’s important to document that information as you go," he said. Locaria also advised recipients to determine the good or service being procured. "Is it a type of service or product that can be manipulated that allows for fraud or kickbacks?" he asked. "There are opportunities for sole sourcing, but you need to be pragmatic. It’s difficult to come up with a plausible argument why you need to sole source a contract for three plus years for emergency response. If it’s no longer an emergency, you have a requirement to compete" for bids.