Federal Reports

For our audit of a sample of 124 standalone contracts and individual task orders composed of various contract types (e.g., time-and-material, labor-hour, and fixed price) that were closed during fiscal years (FYs) 2016 and 2017, our objective was to determine whether National Institute of Standards Technology (NIST), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and U.S. Census Bureau (the Bureau) contracting personnel administered contract closeout procedures in accordance with federal and Departmental regulations.Overall, we found that—for all 124 standalone contracts and individual task orders—contracting personnel did not comply with at least one or more of the key Federal Acquisition Regulation, Commerce Acquisition Manual, and Departmental contract closeout requirements. Based on our review, the total expended value of contracts that did not fully comply with the closeout requirements was approximately $391.3 million.

A contractor providing information technology security services for Amtrak violated company policies by wrongfully uploading sensitive and proprietary Amtrak data to his personal Google cloud storage and a personally owned USB flash drive without company knowledge or approval. Our agents were able to identify and remove the company’s data from his cloud storage and flash drive. In addition, the company has remediated certain vulnerabilities and continues to take steps to address security weaknesses identified as part of our investigation.

We investigated an allegation that a National Park Service (NPS) employee assisted inmates from a prison work detail to smuggle contraband into a Federal penitentiary.We determined that during the prison work detail at a national park, inmates—whose criminal histories included firearms- and drug-related convictions—were found with contraband after they had been left working unsupervised in the park’s campground for approximately 2 hours.We found insufficient evidence to prove or disprove that the employee assisted the inmates who smuggled contraband into the penitentiary. The employee has since left the NPS.We also investigated whether the employee followed NPS and departmental procedures for the use of prison work details, and if the NPS had established policies and procedures for the supervision of inmates working at the national park. We presented those findings and recommendations on the lack of departmental policies and procedures in a separate management advisory (Management Advisory No. OI-GA-18-0898-I, The National Park Service Needs Policies or Procedures Covering Prison Work Details in National Parks). As a result of the management advisory we issued, all prison work details at national parks have stopped pending further consideration.We provided this report to the Deputy Director, Exercising the Authority of Director for the NPS, for any action deemed appropriate.

On May 4, 2020, the OIG was informed that First-Class Mail, including but not limited to political mail and mail-in ballots, was misdelivered and left near cluster boxes at numerous apartment buildings in Paterson, NJ, on May 1, 2020. The investigation revealed through video surveillance, interviews and USPS database searches that on May 1, 2020, mail was improperly delivered to numerous apartment buildings. On May 19, 2020, a Notice of Removal (NOR) was issued. pursuant to the OIG investigation with the charge of Incomplete Disposition of Mail. No further investigative findings anticipated. This case is closed.

The theme of our Semiannual Report is “Invested in Success.” In the Semiannual Report, we address the pandemic effects; our completed work, including the Office of Inspector General (OIG) work with the Department of Defense (DOD) 898 Panel; the Top Management Challenges; our audit activities; educational visits to non-profit agencies (NPA); and reports issued. Our completed work relates to the future of the program and the focus on convergence of innovation and sustainability for the largest employment program in the country for blind and severely disabled workers. This Semiannual Report builds on our last one, “Steps to Start Up,” in which we described the compendium of tasks we completed to stand up the OIG. We report on the robust body of oversight work performed by the OIG, the most to date. We discuss the two performance audits of the program conducted by OIG: (1) an audit of the AbilityOne Program Fee; and (2) an audit of the Cooperative Agreements between Central Non-Profits and the Commission. We report on our goal of educational visits to the NPAs during the reporting period. In particular we highlight the visit to Lighthouse for the Blind, Inc. in Seattle, where we learned about its deaf-blind program. OIG worked with DOJ OIG, Postal OIG and Oversight.gov to build a new website for OIGs hosted at Oversight.gov. Our OIG helped to pioneer this site as a representative of small OIGs, while DOJ served as the representative of larger OIGs. The new webpage capabilities will be available on line for the community this fall. In achieving the results reported this period, OIG is leveraging its momentum that includes important factors such as success with OIG outreach; the OIG webpage and populating its content; revolutionizing our presence across the government; our partnership with the oversight.gov initiative - an innovative, government-wide project across the IG community; the innovations and use of our knowledge-based center; and streamlining the OIG hotline center and portal for receiving complaints.