Federal Reports

This Office of Inspector General Comprehensive Healthcare Inspection Program report describes the results of a focused evaluation of the inpatient and outpatient care provided at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System, which includes the Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans’ Hospital in San Antonio, the Kerrville VA Medical Center, and multiple outpatient clinics in Texas. This evaluation focused on five key operational areas:• Leadership and organizational risks• Quality, safety, and value• Medical staff privileging• Environment of care• Mental health (emergency department and urgent care center suicide prevention initiatives)The OIG issued three recommendations for improvement in three areas:1. Leadership and organizational risks• Adverse event evaluation and institutional disclosures2. Medical staff privileging• Reprivileging decisions3. Mental health• Follow-up for patients at risk of suicide

A Las Vegas man pleaded guilty to charges of Wire Fraud and Aggravated Identity Theft in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, on May 17, 2023. The man admitted to participating in a "phishing" scheme in which he fraudulently obtained credit card and personal identifying information (PII) from his victims, including names and banking information. He used the victims' credit card information and PII to purchase online travel tickets on common carriers, including Trailways and Amtrak, and then resold the tickets to other individuals and kept the proceeds. He was indicted on July 11, 2019, and his sentencing hearing is pending.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Inspector General conducted this audit to determine whether the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board complied with the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 in fiscal year 2022.

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD), oversight of Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) grantees’ use of program income. We initiated this audit in accordance with our goal of ensuring and promoting accountability and effectiveness in disaster response and recovery. Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD ensured that program income generated from disaster funds awarded to CDBG-DR grant recipients was used to positively impact and support disaster recovery in affected areas and to benefit program beneficiaries. HUD generally ensured that its CDBG-DR grantees used program income generated from disaster funds to positively impact and support disaster recovery in affected areas and to benefit program beneficiaries. HUD’s grantees maintained adequate documentation for most program income vouchers tested, supporting that program income was generally used in accordance with Federal regulations and positively impacted the program. However, some grantees did not always (1) spend a substantial amount of their program income funds before using their CDBG-DR funds and (2) submit Federal financial reports (FFR) quarterly as required. Opportunities existed for HUD to improve its oversight of program income funds to reduce risks related to the reporting, reconciling, and spending of program income. As a result, (1) HUD could not effectively track the status of grantee financial data related to program income, and (2) HUD did not have reasonable assurance that it provided accurate grant data reports to Congress.

Congress enacted the Payment Integrity Information Act (PIIA) in 2019 to help agencies identify and reduce improper payments. For this mandated audit, we evaluated NASA’s compliance with PIIA requirements in fiscal year 2022.

This is a performance audit that the OIG conducted to determine whether the FTC’s Bureau of Competition expert witness contracts are administered in accordance with federal requirements.