Federal Reports

We determined if FS had the proper authority and followed Federal laws and regulations when awarding a $2 million grant to the State of Alaska.

An Amtrak Police Department employee resigned on December 15, 2020, in lieu of a disciplinary hearing for violating various company policies. Our investigation found that the employee engaged in outside employment during his shifts and while on sick leave. In doing so, the employee also violated his union agreement. The employee shopped online and left for long periods of time to purchase supplies for his outside employment during his APD shifts and engaged in his outside employment while the company was paying him to attend mandatory training. During the training, he took significant steps to hide these actions from being discovered.

The OIG investigated allegations that Extraction Oil and Gas (EXT) drilled multiple horizontal wellbores through a railroad right-of-way (ROW) in Weld County, CO, containing Federal minerals without first obtaining a Federal lease or drilling permit.We found that three companies (EXT, Mineral Resources, Inc., and PDC Energy, Inc.) illegally drilled oil wells through a railroad ROW and produced unleased Federal minerals. Based on our investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado entered into civil settlement agreements with all three companies to resolve the violations and recover public revenues. The settlements totaled more than $1,787,000.

We considered Recommendation 5 resolved and implemented and Recommendations 1 – 4 and 6 – 8 resolved but not implemented. We referred those seven recommendations to the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget to track their implementation.

On March 27, 2020, the President signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). To date the CARES Act has provided the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) with $909.7 million, which includes direct apportionments of $756 million to support the needs of DOI programs, bureaus, Indian Country, and the Insular Areas, and a $153.7 million transfer from the U.S. Department of Education to the BIE.This report presents the DOI’s progress as of October 31, 2020, in spending CARES Act appropriations. Specifically, the DOI’s expenditures to date total $566,168,083, and its obligations total $661,068,678.We are also monitoring the DOI’s progress on reporting milestones established by the CARES Act and the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.We anticipate issuing updated status reports monthly.

We audited the costs claimed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Division of Marine Fisheries, under grants awarded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) through the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program. We conducted this audit to determine whether the Division used grant funds and fishing license revenue for allowable fishing activities and complied with applicable laws and regulations, FWS guidelines, and grant agreements. The audit period included claims totaling $3 million on nine grants that were open during the Commonwealth’s fiscal years that ended June 30, 2018, and June 30, 2019.We found that the Division ensured that grant funds and license revenue were used for allowable activities and complied with applicable laws and regulations, FWS guidelines, and grant agreements. We did not identify any reportable conditions. We also followed up on seven recommendations from our 2010 and 2016 audits and found that the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Policy, Management and Budget considered all recommendations resolved and implemented. We did not require a response to this audit report.