Federal Reports

Nuclear Power Group Standard Programs and Processes 03.21, Fatigue Rule and Work Hour Limits, includes rules regarding required average minimum days off for covered individuals, as well as overtime rules for how many hours can be worked in specific time periods. Our review of sampled employee and contract employee work hours and badging records for October 1, 2017, through June 30, 2019, identified no violations of nuclear fatigue rule minimum days off or overtime rules. However, we identified an area of deficiency related to Watts Bar’s performance of fatigue assessments. Additionally, we identified opportunities for improvement related to nuclear fatigue rule work-hour tracking and documentation.

Amtrak Express is a shipping program by which individuals can pay to ship packages and pallets on Amtrak trains between more than 100 locations. Our prior work helped identify security vulnerabilities with the program, including a drug-trafficking organization that used it to ship hundreds of packages of illegal drugs on trains from 2010 to 2016. This report evaluates the effectiveness of the program’s security controls and operations.We found that security weaknesses in Amtrak Express continue to place employees, passengers, and the company’s brand at risk, and operational inefficiencies continue to contribute to train delays among other impacts.To address the findings in our report, we recommended the company implement security controls to mitigate risks. Additionally, we recommended the company improve its paper-based, manual process, including investing in electronic tools to reduce operational inefficiencies that contribute to train delays and have other impacts.

Our objective was to determine whether the Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 personnel and indirect costs the Michigan Disability Determination Services (MI-DDS) claimed for reimbursement from the Social Security Administration (SSA) were allowable.