Federal Reports

We contracted this audit with Cotton & Company LLP, which found that FEMA did not ensure Monroe County, Florida (the County) established and implemented policies, procedures, and practices to ensure it accounted for and expended Public Assistance program grant funds awarded to disaster areas in accordance with Federal regulations and FEMA guidance. Specifically, the County did not allocate anticipated and actual insurance proceeds totaling $5 million to reduce FEMA’s share of disaster costs; charged $265,928 for ineligible stand-by time and other ineligible expenses; and requested $84,681 in unsupported and ineligible costs for multiple tasks including clearing emergency access and costs related to flooding. Additionally, the County overstated $34,378 in force account labor costs that were unreasonable and therefore ineligible for grant funding; overpaid a debris removal contractor, resulting in $2,403 in ineligible costs; and charged $1,080 to PW 1512 for security costs that were unsupported and are therefore ineligible for grant funding. We made 18 recommendations that that, when implemented, should improve Monroe County, Florida’s management of FEMA Public Assistance funds. FEMA concurred with our 18 recommendations.

We investigated whether Wild Horse and Burro Program staff used Government charge cards to pay for expenses related to personally owned horses.

We did not substantiate the allegation that a Bureau of Indian Affairs official violated the ethics pledge or ethics regulations.

Our objective was to (1) to determine whether the Social Security Administration (SSA) made payments to beneficiaries and representative payees who were deceased according to Oklahoma Department of Health vital records and (2) identify non-beneficiaries in the State files whose death information did not appear in Agency records.

A former Carman/Welder in Beech Grove, Indiana, pleaded guilty in United States District Court, Southern District of Indiana, to theft of property on July 17, 2020. The former employee was sentenced to one-year probation, a $4,000 fine and ordered to pay $56,297 in restitution to Amtrak. Our investigation found the employee stole power tools and scrap metal from the company and sold it for his personal gain. The employee previously resigned from the company on April 28, 2017, immediately prior to his administrative hearing.

OIG audit reports issued in FY 2019 demonstrated high levels of compliance with OIG quality assurance procedures, receiving an average compliance score of 92 percent.