Federal Reports

Our Objective(s)To assess FHWA's process for approving Advanced Transportation Congestion Management Technologies Deployment Reimbursements grant program (ATCMTD) disbursements by reviewing and verifying that program disbursements are supported and valid.
Why This AuditFHWA's ATCMTD grant program reimbursed its grant recipients approximately $89 million from fiscal years 2021 to 2023 to improve safety, efficiency, system performance, and infrastructure return on investment. To protect Federal grant funds from misuse, it is key that FHWA has strong financial management and sufficient oversight of the ATCMTD program.
What We FoundFHWA approved direct recipients' ATCMTD reimbursement requests without always validating the sufficiency of supporting documentation.

The effectiveness of FHWA's ATCMTD financial oversight relies on the Agency reviewing direct recipients' supporting documentation prior to approving reimbursement requests for payment.
For one ATCMTD direct recipient in our sample, there was not enough detail in the supporting documentation to support almost $1.9 million in reimbursements.
FHWA's quarterly reports, used to validate ATCMTD direct recipients' supporting documentation for reimbursement requests, did not identify that $1.9 million in costs were not adequately supported.
FHWA's Office of Acquisition and Grants Management made $1.9 million in payments for unsupported costs.

FHWA does not sufficiently monitor State DOTs' oversight and internal controls for validating ATCMTD reimbursement requests.

FHWA's Stewardship and Oversight agreements largely delegate financial oversight to State DOT ATCMTD grant recipients but the Agency must maintain sufficient internal control processes to validate State DOTs are adhering to fiscal expectations.
However, FHWA was not aware there was insufficient information for approving officials to verify costs State DOTs submitted for our six sampled reimbursements. Also, State DOTs in our sample were not maintaining supporting documentation on all ATCMTD reimbursement requests as required by their Stewardship and Oversight Agreements.

RecommendationsWe made 5 recommendations to strengthen FHWA oversight of ATCMTD reimbursement requests.

This report includes EAC OIG’s independent assessment of the top management challenges facing the EAC in fiscal year 2026.

The audit objectives were to determine whether program funds were managed in accordance with the ARC and Federal grant requirements.

Transmittal of the Final Report Assessing the Federal Trade Commission’s Compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act for Fiscal Year 2025 (Redacted for public release)

Amtrak (the company) contracted with the independent certified public accounting firm of Ernst & Young LLP to audit its consolidated financial statements as of September 30, 2025, and for the year then ended, and to provide a report on internal control over financial reporting and on compliance and other matters. Because the company receives federal assistance, it must obtain an audit performed in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.

As required by the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended, we monitored the audit activities of Ernst & Young to help ensure audit quality and compliance with auditing standards. Our monitoring focused on two Ernst & Young reports and disclosed no instances in which Ernst & Young did not comply, in all material respects, with generally accepted government auditing standards. We reached this conclusion by monitoring Ernst & Young’s audit activities, which included reviewing its reports, auditor independence and qualifications, audit plans, detailed testing results, summary work papers, and quality controls. We also attended key meetings.

Ernst & Young’s first report was its audit of the company’s consolidated financial statements for fiscal year (FY) 2025. In a report dated December 12, 2025, Ernst & Young concluded that the company’s consolidated financial statements were presented fairly, in all material respects, in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. Further, the report emphasized that the company has a history of operating losses and without receipt of federal government funding, the company will not be able to continue in its current form, and significant operating changes, restructurings, or bankruptcy might occur.

In its second report on the company’s internal control and compliance, Ernst & Young did not identify any deficiencies that it considered to be significant deficiencies or material weaknesses.

Ernst & Young identified other deficiencies in internal controls over financial reporting that did not rise to the level of a significant deficiency, which it provided in a separate management letter issued to the company on December 12, 2025.

Although our review disclosed no instances in which Ernst & Young did not comply, in all material respects, with generally accepted government auditing standards, we note that our monitoring activities were not intended to enable us to express an audit opinion in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Accordingly, we do not express an opinion on the company’s consolidated financial statements or conclusions about the effectiveness of internal controls and compliance with laws and regulations. As such, Ernst & Young is responsible for its reports and the conclusions expressed in those reports.

The U.S. Department of Education administers the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which authorizes formula grants to States under Part B to assist them in meeting the excess costs of providing special education and related services (services) to children ages 3 through 21 with disabilities. Most of the Federal funds provided to States must be passed on to local educational agencies (LEA). Federal funds are combined with State and local funds to provide a free appropriate public education to children with disabilities. Under IDEA, a free appropriate public education is provided through an individualized education program (IEP) based on the individual needs of the child. Omaha Public Schools (Omaha), the largest LEA in Nebraska, was awarded approximately $15.3 million in IDEA Part B funds for school year 2023–2024. We conducted an inspection to determine whether Omaha designed and implemented sufficient processes for overseeing the development of IEPs for children with disabilities and ensuring that those children receive the services described in their IEPs. The inspection covered Omaha’s processes in these areas from July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024. We found that Omaha generally designed and implemented sufficient processes for overseeing the development of IEPs and ensuring that children with disabilities receive the services as described in their IEPs. However, there were a small number of instances where IEPs and related documentation did not show that all applicable IEP requirements were met or that students received all of the services described in their IEPs.  When documentation is lacking or does not exist, stakeholders do not have sufficient assurances that the IEP teams considered all required elements when developing the IEPs, the IEPs contained all required information, or all services described in the IEPs were provided to children with disabilities. We made two recommendations to improve Omaha’s oversight of IEP development and documentation of IEP services provided.