Federal Reports

A Cleaner based in Sunnyside Yard, New York, was terminated on February 17, 2022, after his disciplinary hearing for theft of supplies. During the joint investigation with the Amtrak Police Department, we found that the employee—along with his supervisor—violated company policies by stealing company property. Both employees admitted to taking the company property without permission or authority to do so. The supervisor resigned on February 4, 2022, after being interviewed by our office. Both employees are ineligible for rehire.

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) reviewed a complaint that employees at the Central Plains Consolidated Patient Account Center (CPAC) in Leavenworth, Kansas, mismanaged veterans’ billing addresses at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System in Minnesota. The complainant claimed billing statements were mailed to outdated addresses, returned to the medical facility, and subsequently referred to debt collection without veterans’ knowledge.The OIG partially substantiated the allegation: VA billed veterans using outdated addresses from one file within its record system while newer information was available from another file in the same system. This may have resulted in bills intended for veterans being returned. Some of those accounts were previously referred for collection, but the OIG could not establish whether they were referred because veterans did not receive the bills.The Minneapolis healthcare system provided 284 examples of returned billing statements from the time noted in the allegations. The team reviewed 30 of the statements and determined 18 were mailed using an outdated address when a more current address was available. Beyond the examples provided, the facility did not maintain records of returned bills, and VA policy does not require it.The OIG found VHA lacked defined processes for managing returned billing statements and communicating incorrect addresses for correction. As a result, bills may continue to be sent to outdated addresses, and accounts may be referred for collection without notice to a responsible party. This can result in unanticipated financial demands on veterans and fees being added without proper notice.The OIG recommended the acting under secretary for health evaluate and correct address data for first party billing statements. VHA should also periodically review and reconcile address data. Finally, policies detailing roles, responsibilities, and procedures for remediating returned bills and steps for flagging and updating outdated addresses should be improved.

This Office of Inspector General (OIG) Comprehensive Healthcare Inspection Program report provides a focused evaluation of Veterans Health Administration facilities’ selected mental health program requirements. This evaluation focused on suicide prevention coordinator processes, provision of suicide prevention care, and suicide prevention training.This report describes mental health-related findings from healthcare inspections that were initiated at 36 Veterans Health Administration medical facilities from November 4, 2019, through September 21, 2020, and electronic health record review at five additional facilities. Each inspection involved interviews with facility leaders and staff, and reviews of clinical and administrative processes. The results in this report are a snapshot of Veterans Health Administration performance at the time of the fiscal year 2020 OIG reviews.The OIG found general compliance with many of the selected requirements. However, the OIG identified weaknesses in various key mental health-related processes and issued four recommendations related to:• completion of four follow-up visits within the required time frame,• appropriate follow-up of veterans with high-risk patient record flags who do not attend mental health appointments,• suicide prevention training, and• completion of five monthly outreach activities.

This memorandum transmits the Office of Inspectors General’s (OIG) snapshot of FEC open recommendations as of February 2022. As required by the Inspector General Act of 1978, (IG Act), the OIG is responsible for, among other things, conducting and supervising audits and investigations that recommend improvements to the FEC’s programs and operations. The enclosed snapshot is available to the public on Oversight.gov and can be exported at any time. The snapshot contains embedded weblinks to the accompanying OIG reports with detailed descriptions of each recommendation.

MEMORANDUM FOR DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE LEAD INSPECTOR GENERAL

The Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA) directs Inspectors General to conduct an annual evaluation of the agency information security program. FISMA, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) establish information technology (IT) security guidance and standards for Federal agencies. We conducted this evaluation to assess the overall effectiveness of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s information security program, assess their compliance with Federal guidance, and respond to OMB reporting questions for the fiscal year 2021 annual assessment. The OIG has determined that the contents of this report would not be appropriate for public disclosure and has therefore limited its distribution to selected officials.

Our objective was to evaluate the U.S. Postal Service’s management of city letter carrier routes. The Postal Service’s mission is to provide prompt, reliable, and efficient mail and package shipping services to all Americans. In fiscal year (FY) 2020, the Postal Service’s City Delivery Operations delivered over 77.7 billion mail pieces on more than 140,000 city routes. Mail is delivered on these routes by more than 171,000 city letter carriers and over 34,000 city carrier assistants.City Delivery Operations consist of two components – office and street operations. A city letter carrier route is comprised of both assigned office duties, such as casing mail, as well as street duties, like collecting and delivering mail to customers. Management should review each city carrier route’s baseline workload (e.g., assigned delivery points and volume) annually to ensure it is equivalent to a standard 8-hour workday. To maintain an 8-hour workday, delivery supervisors monitor efficiency and adjust for changes in workload. They use several methods including street observations, minor route adjustments, and mail count and route inspections. Supervisors record these results in the Delivery Operation Information System (DOIS), which allows them to manage routes and letter carrier assignments daily.Since FY 2015, the Postal Service experienced a significant change in the mail mix, resulting in a 16 percent decrease in First-Class Mail volume and a 62 percent increase in package volume. Even prior to the dramatic package growth due to the COVID-19 pandemic in FY 2020, package volume had increased steadily over the previous ten years, except in FY 2019 when volume flattened due to competition. As a result, city letter carriers delivered fewer letters and flats and more packages, which are often larger and take more time to deliver. With about 80 percent of a letter carrier’s day spent on the street, supervisors must monitor and record any changes in the volume profile or other workload factors to ensure that each route can be accomplished in an 8-hour workday.For this audit, the OIG reviewed nationwide city letter carrier route data and conducted a review of 12 judgmentally selected delivery units in 11 districts from the four areas.