Federal Reports

EAC OIG, through the independent public accounting firm of McBride, Lock, & Associates, LLC, audited $3.7 million in funds received by the New Mexico Secretary of State under the Help America Vote Act. The objectives of the audit were to determine whether the Office: 1) used funds for authorized purposes in accordance with Section 101 of HAVA and other applicable requirements; 2) properly accounted for and controlled property purchased with HAVA payments; and 3) used the funds in a manner consistent with the budget plan provided to EAC.

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted a healthcare inspection to determine the validity of an allegation regarding a patient’s mental health care at the Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans’ Hospital (facility) in Columbia, Missouri, prior to death by suicide. The OIG reviewed the patient’s mental health care coordination, discharge planning, suicide risk screening and evaluation, administrative actions, and Mental Health Treatment Coordinator (MHTC) assignment. The OIG substantiated that the patient died by suicide within three days of discharge from the facility’s Inpatient Mental Health Unit. The OIG also substantiated that an inpatient psychiatry resident initiated antidepressant medication, and a registered nurse provided discharge instructions that included suicide prevention materials, consistent with Veterans Health Administration (VHA) guidance. Inpatient staff did not include Columbia Vet Center staff in discharge planning and failed to complete the VHA-required comprehensive suicide risk evaluation prior to the patient’s discharge, which may have contributed to missed information to adequately establish acute and chronic suicide risk factors and a risk mitigation plan. Facility leaders did not establish an MHTC policy and staff did not assign the patient’s MHTC while awaiting transfer to another level of care. Staff failed to comprehensively report a positive suicide risk screening result in an issue brief related to the patient’s death, and facility leaders, in part based on the issue brief, did not make an institutional disclosure to the patient’s next of kin.Veterans Integrated Service Network and National Center for Patient Safety leaders did not have knowledge of a memorandum of understanding that required Vet Center representation for shared patients during VHA root cause analyses. The OIG made one recommendation to the Under Secretary for Health and six recommendations to the Facility Director.

The Columbia Main Post Office is located in the Gateway District of the Central Area. This audit was designed to provide U.S. Postal Service management with timely information on potential scanning and mail delivery risks at the Columbia Main Post Office. The delivery unit has 38 city routes which are delivered by 47 full-time carriers and 12 City Carrier Assistants. The unit also has nine rural routes delivered by eight full-time, seven Replacement Carriers, and six Assistant Rural Carriers. We chose the Columbia Main Post Office based on the number of stop-the-clock scans occurring at the delivery unit. Our objective was to evaluate select mail delivery and customer service operations and determine whether internal controls were effective at the Columbia Main Post Office. We found issues related to package scanning and also the safeguarding of assets.