Federal Reports

OIG reviewed FS use of settlement funds for damages to National Forest System lands.

Lauren Jones, a former Hertz employee in Chicago, Illinois, pleaded guilty in Circuit Court of Cook County on March 24, 2021, to felony theft charges and was sentenced to two years’ probation on the same date. Our investigation found that Jones stole validated parking passes for the Chicago Union Station parking garage, valued at over $500, from Hertz. In addition, three other individuals were previously charged and convicted of theft charges in this investigation.

 As part of its assessment of NASA’s overall information security program for FY 2020, the NASA Office of Inspector General a Contractor-Operated Communications System at Glenn Research Center.

Harper, Rains, Knight & Company, P.A.was engaged by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC"), Office of Inspector General ("OIG"), to conduct a performance audit of the EEOC charge card program, which includes both purchase and travel cards. EEOC uses purchase cards to reduce the administrative cost of processing small dollar purchases and travel cards to reduce the cost of official travel and for the convenience of the traveler.The EEOC charge card program had previously been audited in FY 2018, which covered activity in FY 2017 and 2018. The previous audit resulted in two (2) recommendations to improve the management of the charge card program and one (1) finding. We found that while EEOC has made improvements to the account closing process procedures, the procedures have not been properly updated in EEOC directives nor have they been followed in practice.We found that EEOC has properly designed their internal controls over its charge card program to detect and prevent fraud, waste, abuse and misuse.