Federal Reports

Under federal law, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) cannot employ individuals if they have been formally excluded from having a paid position in a federal healthcare program. Exclusions can result from an individual committing healthcare fraud, patient abuse, controlled substance violations, acts resulting in license revocation, and other misconduct as specified by federal law. The List of Excluded Individuals and Entities (LEIE) is maintained by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. LEIE screening is meant to prevent individuals who have been found unsuited for working in a federally funded healthcare program from having access to medical facilities that need to protect their assets, patients, and information systems.The OIG matched VHA personnel pay against LEIE data for the first pay period of January 2022 and found VHA was employing four former nursing professionals excluded from having VHA positions. They had housekeeping, clerical, or support positions—not engaged in patients’ health care. Three of them were on the list because of nursing license revocation or suspension, while the fourth was convicted of healthcare fraud. When notified, VA took prompt action to terminate the employees and the OIG confirmed they are no longer with VHA. VHA leaders also outlined actions to address the process failures the OIG identified. In addition, leaders concurred with the report’s three recommendations for completing those policy and process improvements, taking additional actions to prevent violations from recurring, and conducting a one-time audit to confirm compliance with the federal law outside the review period. The OIG will continue to monitor VA’s progress until sufficient documentation has been received to close the recommendations as implemented.

We present the status of the Office of Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation’s tribal consultation process and activities.

What We Looked AtWe performed a quality control review (QCR) on the single audit that FORVIS, LLP performed for the Indianapolis Airport Authority’s (IAA) fiscal year that ended December 31, 2021. During this period, IAA expended approximately $48.5 million from a U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) grant program, the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Improvement Program, which FORVIS determined was a major program. Our QCR objectives were to determine (1) whether the audit work complied with the Single Audit Act of 1984, as amended, and the Office of Management and Budget’s Uniform Guidance, and the extent to which we could rely on the auditors’ work on DOT’s major program; and (2) whether IAA’s reporting package complied with the reporting requirements of the Uniform Guidance. What We FoundIn our QCR, we determined that FORVIS’ audit work complied with the requirements of the Single Audit Act, the Uniform Guidance, and DOT’s major program. We found nothing to indicate that FORVIS’s opinion on DOT’s major program was inappropriate or unreliable. In addition, we did not identify deficiencies in IAA’s reporting package that required correction and resubmission.

We found the DOI can improve its oversight of tasers to reduce the risk of injury to the public and law enforcement officers.