Federal Reports

A civil settlement agreement was finalized between the United States Department of Justice and an Amtrak contractor on February 14, 2023. The contractor agreed to pay Amtrak $54,567 out of retainage held by Amtrak and an additional $9,822 to the United States for overbilling overhead rates above the maximum allowed for work performed on the New Jersey High Speed Rail Improvement Program from 2013 to 2017. Separate from the civil settlement agreement, the contractor also paid Amtrak $10,561 for overbilling overhead rates on the same project during the period from 2018 to 2020.

We found 13 properties with consecutive REAC scores below 60 that were missing the required flags in HUD’s Active Partners Performance System (APPS) for unacceptable physical condition. This condition occurred because HUD did not have a quality control program to ensure that the account executives manually entered the flags into APPS and there was no automated process for flagging a property once it received the second consecutive below-60 REAC score. As a result, HUD relied on incomplete previous participation information to make decisions about future participation. Not having sufficient information to assess its controlling participants could potentially impact the health and safety of residents at multifamily properties.

Final Close-Out, Second Follow-Up Review on FLRA's Appointment of Contracting Officer's Representatives

MEMORANDUM FOR DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE LEAD INSPECTOR GENERAL

This Office of Inspector General Comprehensive Healthcare Inspection Program report describes the results of a focused evaluation of the inpatient and outpatient care provided at the Memphis VA Medical Center in Tennessee. This evaluation focused on five key operational areas:• Leadership and organizational risks• Quality, safety, and value• Medical staff privileging• Environment of care• Mental health (emergency department and urgent care center prevention initiatives)Survey results highlighted opportunities for executive leaders to improve patient satisfaction.The OIG issued six recommendations for improvement in two areas:1. Medical staff privileging• Ongoing Professional Practice Evaluation processes2. Environment of care• Patient care area inspections• Biohazard signage• Area designations• Video recording