Federal Reports

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) assessed the oversight and stewardship of funds by the VA Northeast Ohio Healthcare System and sought to identify potential cost efficiencies. This inspection examined four financial activities and administrative processes to determine whether appropriate controls and oversight were in place: use of managerial cost accounting information, open obligations oversight, purchase card use, and supply chain management operations.The inspection team found that the healthcare system’s use of managerial cost accounting information did not fully align with federal financial accounting standard practices regarding performance measurement, budgeting, cost control, and making economic decisions. The healthcare system also did not always comply with policy to review open obligations and deobligate funds no longer needed. As a result of the healthcare system’s lack of follow up and reconciliations, the team estimated at least $5.5 million in open obligations were invalid, should have been deobligated, and could have been put to better use.Further, the OIG found that 18 of 52 sampled purchase card transactions did not comply with VA policy. Violations included lack of supporting documentation and untimely approvals of reconciliations. The team estimated 100 transactions totaling about $561,000 were modified into smaller parts. And, the healthcare system could benefit from improving the efficiency of inventory oversight by ensuring inventory values are recorded correctly in the Generic Inventory Package. Establishing local processes and procedures for the timely review of data to detect and correct errors would increase the reliability of inventory data and could help ensure metrics are met.The OIG made 10 recommendations for improvement. The recommendations address issues that, if left unattended, may eventually interfere with financial efficiency practices and the strong stewardship of VA resources.

Since 2020, the Department of Homeland Security has taken certain actions to address cyber and physical security threats to the election infrastructure but has adjusted its efforts to combat disinformation. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added a new Election Security Advisor position in each of its 10 regions to provide specialized assistance to election infrastructure stakeholders. CISA also continues to provide security resources to state and local partners to improve election infrastructure security, such as cyber and physical security assessments and tabletop exercises.

To meet the healthcare needs of eligible veterans, VA contracts with community providers for dialysis. These contracted community providers must accurately price dialysis procedures when submitting claims for payment.
In October 2013, VA awarded a contract to a dialysis provider. When that contract expired in March 2019, the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) was asked to assist in determining whether money was owed by either party. The OIG provided a report to VA with its finding and recommendation. During that audit, the OIG identified concerns related to pricing accuracy and local billings for both the expired contract and a new contract. As a result, the OIG conducted this attestation examination to determine whether the contractor complied with each contract’s billing terms and conditions.
In the OIG’s opinion, except for instances of incorrect billings to local VA facilities, the contractor’s assertion that it billed in accordance with the terms and conditions of its old and new contracts is fairly stated in all material respects. The OIG found fewer pricing errors in the new contract than the old. But the OIG also found the contractor incorrectly billed 1,212 claims to local VA facilities and received almost $6.4 million from these facilities. For some of these claims, the contractor billed both the Financial Services Center and a local VA facility, thereby receiving payments from both for the same claim. The contractor asserted that incorrect billings have stopped and that it had begun providing refunds. The OIG contacted eight VA facilities for confirmation of these refunds. Some of the eight facilities confirmed refunds, while others did not. Accordingly, the OIG made two recommendations to the contracting officers, requesting that the contractor perform a self-audit of local VA claims and verify that the contractor has completed the process of refunding local VA claims.