Federal Reports

We audited information systems controls over the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) computing environment as part of the internal control assessments for the fiscal year 2019 financial statements audit under the Chief Financial Officer’s Act of 1990. Our objective was to assess general controls over HUD’s computing environment for compliance with HUD information technology policies and Federal information system security and financial management requirements. We focused our assessment on the general controls over HUD’s IBM mainframe general support system.The OIG has determined that the contents of this audit report would not be appropriate for public disclosure and has therefore limited its distribution to those officials listed on the report distribution list.

The Office of the Inspector General conducted a review of the Commercial Energy Solutions Origination and Renewables (O&R) organization to identify factors that could impact O&R’s organizational effectiveness. During the course of our evaluation, we identified behaviors that had a positive impact on O&R. These included interactions with team members and leadership. While O&R met targets for a majority of their metrics and furthered initiatives within the organization, we also identified risks to business operations and achievement of future O&R initiatives. These included educational needs, such as the need for training and the lack of documented processes and procedures, technology needs, and insufficient staffing for the future within and outside O&R. In addition, business partners discussed areas for improvement, including collaboration and O&R strategy.

In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak a global pandemic. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) began taking steps to keep employees and their families’ safe, while also ensuring the agency could fulfill its mission of service. Due to the ongoing pandemic and its impact on TVA’s workforce related to mandatory telework and staffing, we initiated an evaluation to assess TVA’s response to COVID-19. The objective of our evaluation was to assess TVA’s response to COVID-19. Our scope included actions taken by TVA related to staffing, employee safety, telework, and lessons learned. We determined most actions taken by TVA in response to COVID-19 related to staffing, employee safety, and telework were reasonable. Specifically, (1) TVA’s policies align with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and federal guidelines, (2) TVA took actions to document and communicate lessons learned, (3) feedback from employees and management was positive regarding changes made in response to COVID-19 on employees and their work. However, we identified potentially misleading marketing language used to promote unproven technology to combat COVID-19. In addition, we identified some opportunities for improvement related to extended telework, mask usage at TVA facilities, and information management practices. Additionally, we identified some required elements were not present in the continuity of operations plan for TVA’s River Forecast Center.