Federal Reports

Our Objective(s)
To assess the Maritime Administration's (MARAD) actions to address the 24 recommendations from National Academy of Public Administration's (NAPA) 2021 report specified by Congress. Specifically, we assessed MARAD's progress in addressing the 24 specified recommendations and identified challenges to fully addressing them.

Why This Audit
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020 directed the Secretary of Transportation to enter into agreement with NAPA to conduct an independent, comprehensive assessment of U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA or Academy). The NDAA for fiscal year 2023 required us to assess MARAD's actions to address 24 of the 67 recommendations in NAPA's 2021 report.

What We Found
MARAD made progress on 21 of the 24 NAPA recommendations subject to OIG review before terminating actions on 5 due to an Executive Order.
The recommendations were in areas such as USMMA's facilities and infrastructure, institutional culture and learning environment, and sexual assault prevention and response policies and program.
The Agency completed two and partially completed five of eight recommendations to improve Academy facilities and infrastructure.
MARAD also partially completed 9 of 10 recommendations related to improving the Academy's institutional culture before terminating actions on 5 of these recommendations due to an Executive Order.
MARAD completed one and partially completed four of six recommendations on the Academy's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program and policies.

Funding, staffing, and management challenges impacted MARAD's ability to fully address the recommendations.
For example, USMMA staff and officials described plans to develop or identify specific metrics required by some recommendations, but none of these metrics had been established in part because funding requested for assistance in this area has not been enacted.
In addition, MARAD had not designated a senior official with the authority to hold the various offices accountable, hindering collaboration among DOT, MARAD, and USMMA, which all had responsibilities for addressing recommendations.

Recommendations
We made 1 recommendation to facilitate MARAD's progress addressing NAPA recommendations.

What Was Reviewed 

The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation Office of Inspector General (OIG) contracted with the independent public accounting firm RMA Associates, LLC (RMA) to audit DFC’s charge card program in accordance with Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2012 (Charge Card Act). The Charge Card Act requires the OIG to conduct periodic reviews of DFC’s charge card program for illegal, improper, or erroneous transactions to prevent fraud, delinquency, or misuse. 

The objectives of this audit were as follows: 

1. To determine the scope, frequency, and number of audits or reviews, conduct a risk assessment to assess, identify, and analyze the risks of illegal, improper, or erroneous purchases and payments within DFC’s charge card program. 

2. Address the requirements of the Charge Card Act, OMB and General Services Administration (GSA) requirements and standards. 

What Was Found 

In its audit of DFC, RMA found that DFC implemented an effective Government Charge Card Program for FY 2024. As a result, there were no recommendations. RMA concluded that based on the results of their review of the current information, the results of their sample testing, and Appendix B guidance, that the next audit of the charge card program should be in FY 2026 for FY 2025 transactions. There were no prior year recommendations findings and all recommendations prior to 2022 were closed.

Report on the results of our performance audit of the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC) for the period of August 1, 2021 through July 31, 2024. During this period the National Endowment for the Arts (Arts Endowment) closed four MSAC awards, totaling $4,545,800 in Arts Endowment funds and $24,614,504 in total reported costs. 

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted a healthcare inspection to review allegations regarding internal endocrine consult management, endocrine clinic utilization, and patient access to gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) at the VA Fayetteville Coastal Healthcare System (system) in North Carolina. The OIG also reviewed leaders’ awareness of and response to these concerns.

The OIG substantiated that the chief of medicine (COM) did not effectively manage internal consults. Specifically, the COM did not communicate endocrine consult management process changes to key stakeholders, did not process consults according to Veterans Health Administration (VHA) timeliness requirements, canceled a large volume of consults without communicating to sending providers, converted face-to face consults to e-consults without providing a mechanism for sending providers to communicate concerns, and delayed implementation of a required service line agreement. 

The COM’s deficient management of endocrine consults negatively impacted endocrine clinic utilization and resulted in provider-created workarounds and patients not receiving timely endocrine appointments. From February through early October 2024, patient access to GAHT was delayed because of the COM’s actions, resulting in adverse clinical outcomes. The OIG found the COM’s interpersonal communication skills did not reflect the high reliability organization (HRO) values of clear communication and respect for others, and negatively affected system staff across multiple services.

The OIG made one recommendation to the Veterans Integrated Service Network Director to review the leadership performance of the COM, and six recommendations to the System Director related to reviewing the endocrine consult management process, reviewing patients affected by delayed endocrine consults, ensuring service line agreements are developed, confirming effective utilization of endocrine clinic appointments, ensuring there is a process for monitoring and tracking clinic profile modification requests, and evaluating communication gaps between leaders to comply with HRO goals.

This Office of Inspector General (OIG) Healthcare Facility Inspection program report describes the results of a focused evaluation of the care provided at the West Palm Beach VA Healthcare System in Florida. 

This evaluation focused on five key content domains:
     •    Culture
     •    Environment of care
     •    Patient safety
     •    Primary care
     •    Veteran-centered safety net

The OIG issued no recommendations.