Department of Commerce

In May 2016, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) initiated an investigation into an allegation that a high-level political appointee (Political Appointee) at an agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce (Agency) was using the Agency’s account with a local taxicab company (Cab Company) for...

In May 2014, a private party filed a sealed qui tam complaint in federal court, alleging that Frontier, West Virginia, Inc. (Frontier), a subrecipient of a National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) grant to the State of West...

In early 2015, a confidential complainant contacted OIG alleging potential policy and regulatory violations taking place in the office of a high-ranking political appointee. The evidence developed over the course of inquiry established that a variety of problems arose in the appointee's office...

OIG's comprehensive analysis focused on two overlapping periods: a 9-month period (8.6 million hours) and a 15-month period (14.6 million hours). The 1-year average of unsupported time amounted to nearly 180,000 unsupported hours. However, the total unsupported hours over the 9- and 15-month periods...

This report summarizes work we initiated and completed during this semiannual period on a number of critical Departmental activities. Over the past 6 months—in addition to issuing our annual Top Management and Performance Challenges Facing the Department of Commerce—OIG completed nine audits...

For our report on the Department's Digital Accountability and Act of 2014 (DATA Act) submission for the second quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2017, we contracted with K.PMG LLP, an independent public accounting firm, to examine the Department's submission (which included seven files containing...

For this review of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA’s) Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) program, the objectives were to (1) determine the progress of Polar Follow-On program planning, (2) monitor ongoing JPSS acquisition and development (i.e., JPSS-1 and JPSS-2 missions...

For our audit of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Office of Acquisition and Agreements Management’s (OAAM’s) management, monitoring, and administration of NIST firm-fixed-price (FFP) contracts during FYs 2011–2013, our objectives were to determine whether (1) NIST OAAM has...

For our final report on the Bureau of Industry and Security's (BIS') continuous monitoring program, our objective -- in accordance with the Federal Information SecurityManagement Act of 2002 -- was to determine whether BIS' continuous monitoring strategy and practices, including ongoing security...

Our audit of the Census Bureau’s regional office alignment and field management reforms included two objectives: (1) identify and assess the benchmarks—including the manner in which response rates are calculated and reported on surveys such as the American Community Survey—that the Bureau is using...