Federal Reports

The U.S. Census Bureau awarded the 2020 Census Integrated Communications Contract (ICC) in August 2016 as part of a campaign to raise awareness and encourage response during the 2020 census. Our audit objective was to determine whether the bureau effectively managed selected ICC task orders to ensure desired outcomes were achieved. We focused on four task orders, totaling $436.5 million, related to strategy, planning, and execution of the ICC’s paid advertising component. Overall, we found the bureau did not properly administer the contract or monitor the contractor’s performance in compliance with federal and departmental regulations and policies. I. Contracting officials did not ensure that the task orders included the required performance standards for the contractor or the methods for assessing the contractor’s performance against the standards. II. They also did not follow contract procedures for the plan used to evaluate the quality of the contractor’s performance. III. Finally, they did not maintain supporting documentation for paid media invoices totaling $363 million. As a result, the bureau could not ensure that the contractor complied with contractual requirements and could have accepted substandard performance, potentially wasting millions of taxpayer dollars. In particular, the $363 million in payments for media services represent unsupported costs. We issued six recommendations to the Census Bureau Director to improve the administration and execution of contracts and task orders, including specifying performance standards, preparing the required quality plans, and maintaining required documentation.

We conducted this review to determine whether the U.S. Department of Commerce complied with the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 (PIIA), which is intended to improve efforts to identify and reduce government-wide improper payments. Broadly defined, improper payments are those the federal government has made in an incorrect amount or to the wrong recipient. Improper payments can negatively impact the public’s trust in the federal government and distract from the benefits of federal programs.During fiscal year (FY) 2023, the Department reported approximately $22.5 million in overpayments identified for recapture and approximately $18.9 million in overpayments recovered.Our objective was to determine the Department’s compliance with PIIA for FY 2023. We also assessed the Department’s efforts related to preventing and reducing improper payments and unknown payments. We concluded that the Department complied with the PIIA criteria for FY 2023 based on our review. We did not identify any actions needed to further improve prevention and reduction measures within the Department.

Objective: To determine whether SSA could identify deceased beneficiaries aged 80 to 89 using its Medicare claims data.

We performed an audit of costs billed to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) by GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas LLC (GEH) for nuclear steam supply system refueling and inspection outage services at TVA's Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant under Contract No. 10354. Our audit objective was to determine if costs were billed in compliance with the contract's terms. Our audit scope included about $31 million in costs billed from January 1, 2022, through May 31, 2023.In summary, we determined GEH billed TVA:- $3,536,279 in excessive noncraft subcontract labor costs because the costs were billed at GEH's time and material (T&M) rates, rather than at actual subcontractor costs, as provided for in the contract. Due to the potential significance of the excessive noncraft subcontract labor costs billed to TVA, we expanded our scope and estimated TVA has paid an additional $10.9 million in excessive noncraft subcontract labor costs billed outside our audit scope as of January 31, 2024. We also estimated TVA could pay approximately $10.3 million in excess labor costs over the course of the remaining contract spend if GEH continues to bill noncraft subcontract labor costs at GEH's T&M rates instead of actuals.- $1,080,779 in costs that did not have a corresponding rate in the contract, including (1) $1,045,574 in equipment costs and (2) $35,205 in other costs, such as supplies, cart rentals, craft incentive bonuses, and physicals.- A net $256,155 in overbilled rates, including (1) $237,474 for overbilled per diem rates, (2) $7,306 for overbilled noncraft GEH labor rates, (3) $7,089 for overbilled craft subcontract labor rates, (4) $6,179 for overbilled equipment rates, and (5) a net underbilling of $1,893 for site security access fee rates.- $59,216 in unsupported costs, including (1) $49,212 in unsupported noncraft subcontract labor costs, (2) $7,852 in unsupported noncraft GEH labor costs, and (3) $2,152 in unsupported per diem.In addition, we determined GEH did not bill airfare and mileage costs, totaling $361,718, in accordance with the contract. Specifically, GEH billed a flat fee for airfare and mileage instead of actual costs, as provided for in the contract. However, due to lack of documentation supporting the actual costs and rates, we could not quantify the cost impact, if any.GEH did not dispute the findings totaling $28,685 related to (1) overbilled rates for noncraft GEH labor, craft subcontract labor, equipment, and site security access fees, and(2) unsupported costs for noncraft GEH labor and per diem. However, GEH disagreed with our findings related to (1) excessive noncraft subcontract labor costs, (2) costs that did not have a corresponding rate in the contract, (3) overbilled per diem rates, (4) unsupported noncraft subcontractor labor costs, and (5) airfare and mileage costs not being billed in accordance with the contract.(Summary Only)

The National Work Queue (NWQ) division generally uses the NWQ tool and ranking rules to prioritize and distribute claims across VBA’s regional offices for processing. The OIG conducted this review after discovering some claims at the NWQ division had been awaiting decisions for one year or longer. The team identified 10,541 claims aged 365 days or older that, on August 1, 2022, were at the NWQ division awaiting decision and were not distributed to a regional office. Most of these claims had been at the NWQ division for at least six months, and over 99 percent required routing to specialized teams that process special mission herbicide-related claims. Office of Field Operations (OFO) leaders limited staffing for these teams to control quality for these complex claims and balance workloads, and they generally expected the delays. However, the OIG team reviewed VBA’s oldest pending claims and identified instances in which the NWQ division’s ranking rules unintentionally contributed to delays. Additionally, by comparing the ranking scores that the NWQ tool assigned with the NWQ division’s ranking rules, the OIG team found instances in which the NWQ tool incorrectly ranked some claims, which may have affected whether those claims were distributed to regional offices. Stronger monitoring could have allowed the NWQ division to identify these issues earlier and make adjustments to ensure claims were appropriately prioritized. The team also found that OFO’s FY 2022 internal controls assessment did not evaluate claims prioritization and distribution and did not mention the NWQ division or tool. To reduce delays in claims processing, the OIG recommended strengthening the NWQ division’s monitoring of claims awaiting decision to ensure its rules are operating as intended and ensuring OFO includes the NWQ division’s functioning in its annual internal controls assessment. The recommendations have been closed based on documentation provided.

What We Looked AtWe queried and downloaded 16 single audit reports prepared by non-Federal auditors and submitted to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse between October 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023, to identify significant findings related to programs directly funded by the Department of Transportation (DOT).What We FoundWe found that reports contained a range of findings that impacted DOT programs. The auditors reported seven incidents of significant noncompliance with Federal guidelines related to four grantees that require prompt action from DOT’s Operating Administrations. Of these seven significant findings, five were repeat findings related to two grantees. The auditors also identified questioned costs totaling $10,240,600 for three grantees. Of this amount, $29,997 was related to the Gary Public Transportation Corporation, Gary, IN; $8,570,742 was related to the Navajo Nation, Window Rock, AZ; and $1,639,861 was related to the Pit River Tribe, Burney, CA. Additionally, we identified a nonmonetary repeat finding that caused a qualified opinion for the Navajo Nation.RecommendationsWe recommend that DOT coordinate with the impacted Operating Administrations to develop a corrective action plan to resolve and close the findings identified in this report. Additionally, we recommend that DOT determine the allowability of the questioned transactions and recover $29,997, if applicable. Furthermore, we recommend that OST works with FHWA to determine the allowability of the questioned tribal transactions and recover $10,210,603, if applicable.