Federal Reports

At the request of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Supply Chain, the Office of the Inspector General examined the cost proposal submitted by a contractor, for engineering, design, and construction support for Holistic Industrial Wastewater Treatment Program services at TVA fossil plants. Our objective was to determine if the contractor's cost proposal was fairly stated for a planned $45 million contract. In our opinion, the cost proposal was overstated. We estimated TVA could save about $1.12 million on the planned $45 million contract by negotiating reductions to the proposed labor markup rates and fee rate, including labor markup rates for work performed at TVA sites, and removing the markup on subcontract costs. In addition, we identified compensation terms in the draft contract that need to be revised to reduce the potential for billing discrepancies.(Summary Only)

This is a publication by GAO's Inspector General that concerns internal GAO operations. The Cybersecurity Act of 2015 requires Inspectors General to report on federal computer systems that are national security systems or that provide access to personally identifiable information. This report satisfies the requirement for the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Because GAO has no national security systems, our report is specific to its computer systems that provide access to personally identifiable information (PII). Our objective was to collect specific information on GAO's information security policies and practices governing systems that provide access to PII and to assess whether logical access policies and practices over these systems are appropriate and were being followed. We did not independently validate the information that GAO provided for this report, except to determine that appropriate logical access standards and guidance were being followed, as required.

Cornerstone Hospital of Austin (the Hospital), in Austin, Texas, did not comply with Medicare requirements for billing Kwashiorkor on any of the 54 claims that we reviewed. The Hospital used diagnosis code 260 for Kwashiorkor but should have billed for other forms of malnutrition. The 54 inpatient claims that were coded incorrectly resulted in overpayments of $358,000. The Hospital believed that all claims identified by OIG were appropriately submitted for payment.