Federal Reports

The objective of our audit was to determine whether Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) implemented selected components of its statewide accountability system in accordance with Connecticut’s approved Every Student Succeeds Act State plan and any approved amendments. The selected components were (1) indicators used to measure student academic achievement and school success, (2) annual meaningful differentiation, and (3) identification of schools needing additional support. We evaluated CSDE’s processes for implementing selected components of Connecticut’s statewide accountability system for school year 2021–2022. We found that CSDE implemented two (student academic achievement and school success indicators and annual meaningful differentiation) of the three selected components of the statewide accountability system and provided additional funding and support services to local educational agencies with identified schools in accordance with Connecticut’s approved State plan and CSDE’s policies and procedures. However, its implementation of certain aspects of the third selected component (identification of low-performing schools) of the accountability system deviated from the plan. As a result, CSDE did not identify all schools for comprehensive support and improvement that it should have identified in the fall of 2022. Additionally, CSDE did not always identify or correctly identify the student subgroups needing additional targeted support and improvement in accordance with Connecticut’s approved State plan, which it attributed to a system coding error for additional targeted support and improvement. We recommended that CSDE amend Connecticut’s State plan by updating its procedures for identifying schools for CSI to ensure they align with the procedures in CSDE’s “Using Accountability Results to Guide Improvement” and the definition of a school identified for CSI in the ESEA and provide support to the five Title I schools that should have been identified for CSI. We also recommend that the Department verify that CSDE implemented corrective actions to fix the system coding error to ensure that it correctly identifies student subgroups needing ATSI in the future.

OIG reviewed the Agricultural Marketing Service’s monitoring over grantees’ use of funds within the Farm and Food Workers Relief Grant Program.

During our unannounced inspection of Eloy Federal Contract Facility (Eloy) in Eloy, Arizona, we found facility and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) staff complied with ICE’s Performance-Based National Detention Standards 2011, revised December 2016, for admission, classification, kitchen conditions, timely request responses, the voluntary work program, and medical care.   Facility and ICE staff did not fully comply with standards for use of force, staff-detainee communications, access to legal materials, segregation, grievances, personal hygiene, and recreation.  We found: • Facility staff did not preserve closed-circuit television footage  for four of five use of force incidents we reviewed and did not  fully record staff member introductions for one calculated use  of force incident. • Facility and ICE staff did not always respond to detainee  requests in a language they could understand. • The facility did not install word processing or legal research  software on all computers in the law library, and computers  were not accessible to wheelchair users.  • ICE did not always provide detainees with their segregation  orders in a language they could understand or provide access to meaningful physical exercise in an appropriately equipped  area. • Facility staff did not always place a copy of grievances in  detainee files or reply to detainee grievances within the  required timeframe. 

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) met requirements of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015.  However, CISA has not finalized its plans for the continued use of Automated Indicator Sharing (AIS).  Without finalizing this plan, CISA could be hindered in how it shares information on cyber threats, which would reduce its ability to protect the Nation’s critical infrastructure from cyber threats.     

Observations on the SEC’s Rulemaking Process, Report No. 588

Over the last 5 years, the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) has been unable to pass a financial audit, receiving disclaimers of opinion year after year. The independent public auditor has been unable to offer an opinion on the financial state of SBA because it has not received sufficient evidence to support a number of balances. We reviewed SBA’s history of disclaimers and material weaknesses from fiscal years 2020 to 2024, open recommendations, and SBA’s new strategy for addressing material weaknesses and obtaining a clean audit opinion.

SBA’s accounting deficiencies were primarily related to administering an unprecedented amount of disaster assistance aid and guaranteed loan funds to help eligible small business owners and entrepreneurs adversely affected by the pandemic. Over the course of 18 months, the agency delivered 22.1 million pandemic assistance loans and grants, totaling $1.2 trillion. To address the systemic financial reporting deficiencies, SBA launched its Financial Statement Audit Remediation Strategy in January 2025 to resolve the seven material weaknesses and 56 open audit recommendations.

We made four recommendations to enhance implementation of SBA’s financial statements remediation strategy. We recommended the Administrator appoint a senior executive to lead the effort and emphasize audit remediation priorities through consistent agencywide communication. We also recommended that the remediation strategy be incorporated into SBA’s next strategic plan and individual performance plans to ensure accountability. SBA management agreed with all four recommendations.