Federal Reports

The Katy Carrier Annex is in the Houston District of the Southern Area. The unit has 48 city routes, 32 rural routes, and seven contract routes delivered by 62 city carriers, 49 rural carriers, and seven contract carriers. We chose the Katy Carrier Annex based on the number of stop-the-clock (STC) scans occurring at the delivery unit. Our objective was to evaluate select mail delivery and customer service operations at the Katy Carrier Annex.

Our objective for this report was to complete our review of the company’s use of Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds and its controls to accurately track and report on them.We found that the company is effectively using, accounting for, and reporting on the $1.018 billion it received through the CARES Act, and that it has addressed the initial risks we identified in our interim report published in August 2020. If Congress approves additional assistance, we identified two opportunities for the company to adjust its controls for approving paid leave for coronavirus-related absences and applying the CARES Act formula for calculating state bills for services provided under section 209 of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008. These adjustments would make the controls more consistently effective.

We determined if FS had the proper authority and followed Federal laws and regulations when awarding a $2 million grant to the State of Alaska.

An Amtrak Police Department employee resigned on December 15, 2020, in lieu of a disciplinary hearing for violating various company policies. Our investigation found that the employee engaged in outside employment during his shifts and while on sick leave. In doing so, the employee also violated his union agreement. The employee shopped online and left for long periods of time to purchase supplies for his outside employment during his APD shifts and engaged in his outside employment while the company was paying him to attend mandatory training. During the training, he took significant steps to hide these actions from being discovered.

The OIG investigated allegations that Extraction Oil and Gas (EXT) drilled multiple horizontal wellbores through a railroad right-of-way (ROW) in Weld County, CO, containing Federal minerals without first obtaining a Federal lease or drilling permit.We found that three companies (EXT, Mineral Resources, Inc., and PDC Energy, Inc.) illegally drilled oil wells through a railroad ROW and produced unleased Federal minerals. Based on our investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado entered into civil settlement agreements with all three companies to resolve the violations and recover public revenues. The settlements totaled more than $1,787,000.

We considered Recommendation 5 resolved and implemented and Recommendations 1 – 4 and 6 – 8 resolved but not implemented. We referred those seven recommendations to the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget to track their implementation.