Federal Reports

Irena Shut, a medical marketer based in Los Angeles, California, was sentenced in United States District Court, Central District of California, on October 5, 2020, to two years’ probation for conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Our investigation found that Shut was paid commissions for facilitating the referral of prescriptions for medically unnecessary compounded drugs and other items reimbursed by health care benefit programs. As a result of the scheme, Amtrak’s insurance providers were fraudulently charged approximately $22,000. Criminal judicial proceedings for other defendants in this case are pending.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), audited the Nampa Housing Authority’s public housing program in response to a local OIG, Office of Investigation, referral. Our objective was to determine whether the Authority followed U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) public housing requirements pertaining to (1) calculating contract rents, (2) maintaining its waiting lists, (3) providing its staff the credentials needed to access HUD systems, and (4) storing and securing tenant files.We found that the Nampa Housing Authority charged 11 tenants the incorrect rent for at least 1 month, improperly maintained its waiting lists by housing tenants out of order, could not show that all HUD system users had proper credentials and that only employees with credentials accessed the system, and generally stored and secured tenant files properly.We recommend that the director of the Seattle Office of Public and Indian Housing require the Nampa Housing Authority to (1) reimburse the six tenants who overpaid rent totaling $1,550 using non-Federal funds, (2) develop and implement internal control procedures that support its policy and ensure a proper tenant selection process when selecting tenants for housing, and (3) ensure that the Authority follows all applicable HUD requirements related to accessing, use, and safeguarding credentials of HUD systems.

While conducting a site visit for the Employee Safety – Postal Service COVID-19 Response audit, we identified building maintenance and safety issues at Philadelphia’s Spring Garden Station that were not directly related to the scope of the audit. Specifically, we identified 30 deficiencies ranging from minor to more serious violations. We believe these issues warrant management’s immediate attention and corrective action.

The audit objectives were to determine whether program funds were managed in accordance with the ARC and Federal grant requirements

The audit objectives were to determine whether program funds were managed in accordance with the ARC and Federal grant requirements

The objective for this report was to assess the extent to which the company has taken steps to determine employees’ current perspectives on safety. We issued this report to provide our findings on a potential issue the company could address in the near term.We found that the company has not established a baseline measure of its own safety culture which is necessary to track its progress in improving its safety culture as a result of its investment in the SMS. According to a joint U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and Federal Railroad Administration study, as well as industry research, a primary method of establishing such a baseline is surveying employees’ values, attitudes, and perceptions about safety and the organization’s actions to improve it. We recommended the company develop and deploy an employee survey based on the DOT’s ten elements of a strong safety culture. The survey should be conducted in conjunction with planned training, or as soon as practical without delaying training. We also recommended the company use the survey’s results to measure its progress in improving safety culture over time and take action to address additional issues the survey identifies.