Continuity of Operations Plan

Continuity of operations (COOP) is an effort within the executive office of the President of the United States and individual federal executive departments and agencies to ensure that mission essential functions continue to be performed during disruption of normal operations. Mission essential functions are a limited set of agency-level functions that are directly related to accomplishing the mission of the organization and must be continued throughout, or resumed rapidly after, a disruption of normal activities.We included an audit of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) COOP plan on our annual audit plan due to the operational risks that could result from noncompliance with federal continuity guidance and/or inadequate COOP plan implementation. Our audit objective was to determine if TVA's COOP plan complies with applicable laws, regulations, and executive orders and has been adequately implemented. Our audit scope included the TVA COOP plans and applicable laws, regulations, and executive orders implemented as of December 31, 2022.We determined TVA’s COOP plan generally complies with applicable laws, regulations, and executive orders and has been adequately implemented. However, we identified three instances in which TVA’s COOP plan is not currently in compliance with federal continuity directive guidance, including:• Annual COOP training for TVA employees is not currently required.• COOP program essential records are not adequately maintained.• One organization’s COOP plan does not include a defined review cadence to ensure timely updates.Additionally, we determined COOP program guidance does not address TVA’s information management policy.