Federal Reports

This required external peer review was conducted in accordance with the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) Inspection and Evaluation Committee guidance as contained in the CIGIE Guide for Conducting External Peer Reviews of Inspection and Evaluation Organizations of Federal Offices of Inspector General (December 2021). The peer review was conducted from April 5, 2023, through July 14, 2023.The Reviewing OIG assessed the extent to which the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) complied with the CIGIE Quality Standards for Inspection and Evaluation, December 2020 (Blue Book). This assessment included a review of SIGTARP’s internal policies and procedures, Evaluations Policies and Procedures Manual, January 1, 2022, implementing the Blue Book standards. It also included a review of selected inspection and evaluation reports issued between April 1, 2020, and March 31, 2023, to determine whether the reports complied with the Blue Book standards and the SIGTARP’s internal policies and procedures.

We conducted this work as part of our ongoing inspection of the funding provided to the Forest Service's Restoration Projects on Federal and Non-Federal Land from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

Chemawa Indian School did not accurately account for or use financial resources in accordance with laws and regulations during FYs 2019 through 2021.

We selected the State of California’s 2018 disaster owner-occupied rehabilitation and reconstruction program to audit after an internal risk assessment of disaster grantees showed the grant was newer and had not yet disbursed the majority of its funding. The State received more than $1 billion for the 2018 disasters. Our audit objective was to determine what the State is considering and to what extent resilience-based mitigation efforts help homeowners to withstand potential future disasters, along with how the State is prioritizing its efforts in the program to assist qualified low-to-moderate-income beneficiaries. The State’s owner-occupied rehabilitation and reconstruction program generally planned for resilience-based mitigation efforts and prioritized its efforts to assist qualified low-to-moderate-income beneficiaries. The State faced some challenges, such as verifying structure type and size and assessing ownership and primary residency, in implementing this program due to it being one of the first housing rehabilitation and reconstruction programs addressing a wildfire disaster. The State’s efforts to adjust its program and requirements as it encountered challenges indicate its willingness to address exceptions when known. We recommended that the State should ensure that it has proper documentation for compliance with building standards and ownership and primary residence determinations.