Federal Reports

To promote compatibility with the Department of Defense’s electronic health record system, VA is replacing its aging record system. This requires VA medical facilities to upgrade their physical infrastructure, including electrical and cabling. The OIG determined from its audit that the Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) cost estimates for these upgrades were not reliable. VHA’s estimates did not fully meet VA standards for being comprehensive, well-documented, accurate, and credible. The audit team projected that VHA’s June and November 2019 cost estimates were potentially underestimated by as much as $1 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively. This was due in part to facility needs not being well-defined early on. The estimates also omitted escalation and cabling upgrade costs and were based on low estimates at the initial operating sites. Because cost estimates support funding requests, there is risk that funds intended for other medical facility improvements would need to be diverted to cover program shortfalls.

This report presents the results of our self-initiated audit of Mail Delivery and Customer Service Operations at the East Stroudsburg Post Office, in East Stroudsburg, PA. The East Stroudsburg Post Office is in the Delaware-Pennsylvania 2 District of the Atlantic Area. This audit was designed to provide U.S. Postal Service management with timely information on potential scanning, mail delivery, and customer service operations risks at the East Stroudsburg Post Office.

Administrative review of a former employee's purchase of a government issued cell phone.

For our final report on the evaluation of NOAA OMAO’s Ship Fleet Recapitalization Program, our overall objective was to determine the extent to which NOAA OMAO’s acquisition fleet lifecycle processes were followed throughout the development, operation, maintenance, and sustainment of the program to meet mission requirements, with a focus on OMAO’s requirements management processes.We contracted with The MITRE Corporation (MITRE)—an independent firm—to perform this evaluation of NOAA. Our office oversaw the progress of this evaluation to ensure that MITRE performed the evaluation in accordance with the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency’s Quality Standards for Inspection and Evaluation (January 2012) and contract terms. However, MITRE is solely responsible for the attached report and conclusions expressed in it.

Medicare contractors are required to separately account for Medicare segment pension plan assets based on the requirements of Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) 412 and 413.The HHS, OIG, Office of Audit Services, Region VII pension audit team reviews Medicare segment pension assets to ensure compliance with Federal regulations. Previous OIG audits found that Medicare contractors did not always correctly identify and update the segmented pension assets.Our objective was to determine whether Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina (BCBS South Carolina) complied with Federal requirements and its established cost accounting practice when updating its Excess Plan Partial Medicare segment pension assets from January 1, 2015, to January 1, 2017.

Semiannual Report summarizing the activities of the Office of Inspector General