Audit of TVA Ethics Program

The OIG audited TVA's Ethics Program to determine (1) compliance with applicable statutes and regulations and (2) if management has identified and incorporated best practices. In summary, we did not identify any areas where TVA's Ethics Program did not comply with requirements for federal agencies' ethics programs in Title 5, Code of Federal Regulations, § 2638.203. Additionally, TVA's Ethics Program has incorporated many of the best practices identified, with the exception of having embedded ethics champions throughout the organization. We also found references to an Ethics Council in TVA's Code of Conduct, but we found the Council has been inactive since at least 2011. We recommended TVA's Executive Vice President and General Counsel and Designated Agency Ethics Official consider (1) having ethics champions embedded throughout the organization who could emphasize the importance of ethical conduct at an individual and organizational level and (2) reinstating the Ethics Council or removing references to it from the TVA Code of Conduct. TVA management agreed with our findings and recommendations and plans to take corrective actions.