Department of Homeland Security

We verified that Refugio County, Texas awarded contracts that complied with Federal procurement regulations and FEMA guidelines. We determined that the County initially did not have written procurement policies to comply with all Federal procurement regulations. Instead, for purchases and...

The Diamondhead Water and Sewer District (District), received a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant award of $49.3 million from the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (Mississippi) for damage resulting from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. We had concerns because it took the District...

In two of the four areas – training and collaboration – Washington’s Emergency Management Division (EMD) and FEMA complied with applicable policies, procedures, and regulations. In the third functional area – project execution, monitoring and oversight – we did not identify any significant...

At the time of our onsite work in July 2017, Box Elder County had not awarded any contracts under this grant. Therefore, we could not determine whether the County had complied with Federal procurement regulations. However, in reviewing Box Elder County’s written procurement policies and procedures...

Between 2011 and 2018, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) processed an average of $896 million in drawback claims annually; however, a lack of internal controls could affect the validity and accuracy of the drawback claims amount. This occurred, in part, because CBP did not address internal...

DHS developed a strategy to apply 29 lessons learned from prior system updates to the current Financial Systems Modernization (FSM) TRIO program. Since DHS’ actions provides a positive outlook on the future progress of the FSM TRIO project we made no recommendations for improvement. The report’s...

The Department and its components have worked with us to correct hundreds of issues and improve the economy and efficiency of programs and operations. Based on the Department's actions this period, we closed 146 recommendations issued in this and prior periods. Our work this reporting period...

DHS did not have the Information Technology (IT) system functionality needed to track separated migrant families during the execution of Zero Tolerance. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) adopted various ad hoc methods to record and track family separations, but this practice introduced...

From fiscal years 2015 through 2018, in the midst of a growing opioid epidemic, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Transportation Security Administration, and U.S. Secret Service appropriately disciplined employees whose drug test results indicated...

Except for identified questioned costs, reported DHS Purchase and Travel Card transactions for FY 2017 were appropriate and complied with relevant laws and regulations. The auditor, CohnReznick LLP, identified 17 control deficiencies within DHS Purchase and Travel Card Programs related to...