Federal Reports

The PACT Act prompted a rush of new toxic exposure claims and required VA to both immediately train staff on reviewing the claims and provide training at least annually. VBA’s Compensation Service and Pension and Fiduciary Service created mandatory training courses and released them to employees through VA’s online training platform starting on September 20, 2022. The OIG conducted this review to assess VBA’s development and implementation of PACT Act training to prepare staff to process claims beginning January 1, 2023.

The review team determined the online courses contained accurate information and addressed their stated objectives. The team also found the delivery method was appropriate and confirmed both that end-of-course surveys were completed by claims processors and that each course included end-of-course test assessments. However, the team discovered VBA did not have summary reports created in FY 2023 analyzing the results of surveys and assessments and detailing training effectiveness. Although VBA later completed some of the summary reports, it never completed others—in part because no deadlines had been set for submitting them. Reasons for not completing summary reports varied from focusing on other priorities and management being under the false impression the work had already been completed.

By failing to complete timely summary reports of the effectiveness of its PACT Act training, VBA could not act on the recommendations they might have contained to improve training, which could have improved the accuracy of PACT Act claims processing. The OIG recommended completing the missing reports, requiring summary reports to evaluate all levels of training and providing feedback to training staff, and requiring reports to be completed by established deadlines.

This Office of Inspector General (OIG) Healthcare Facility Inspection program report describes the results of a focused evaluation of the care provided at Fargo VA Health Care System in North Dakota. 

This evaluation focused on five key content domains:
   •    Culture
   •    Environment of care
   •    Patient safety
   •    Primary care
   •    Veteran-centered safety net

The OIG issued no recommendations.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Nuclear organization has a vision to be the top nuclear fleet by the end of fiscal year 2025 and an initiative to sustain top quartile performance.  Selection of suppliers responsible for maintenance or system upgrades within TVA’s nuclear fleet can affect TVA’s ability to maintain top quartile performance and achieve TVA Nuclear’s vision.  Two departments essential for making supplier selections are each plant’s respective Site Projects group and TVA’s Supply Chain (SC) organization.  Through soliciting vendors and evaluating vendor bids, these departments are responsible for obtaining the best value to TVA.  Because of the importance of supplier selections, we initiated an evaluation of solicitation and bid evaluation activities for Sequoyah Nuclear Plant (SQN).  The objective of our evaluation was to determine if solicitation and bid evaluation processes were performed in accordance with TVA’s policies and procedures for electrical, maintenance, and modifications services contracts at SQN. 

The Office of the Inspector General determined solicitation and bid evaluation processes were not performed in accordance with TVA’s policies and procedures for electrical, maintenance, and modifications project implementation at SQN as follows:

• Solicitations were not performed in compliance with TVA procedures.  Specifically, (1) requirements related to direct awarding of projects were not followed, (2) SC was not always involved in the solicitation process, and (3) adequate information (such as technical specifications, commercial pricing terms, and answers to bidders’ questions) was not always provided to vendors.
• Bid evaluation procedures were not always followed.  Specifically, (1) SC was not always involved in the commercial evaluations and (2) independent estimates were not always obtained to assess the reasonableness of vendor proposals. 
• Ineffective bid evaluation practices resulted in an inadequate bid evaluation and evaluation scoring that was based on incorrect or inadequate criteria.

The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO), Office of the Inspector General (OIG), investigated an allegation of time and attendance fraud involving a GPO employee, including claims that the employee was ineligible for telework.

In early 2021, AmeriCorps received $1 billion in supplemental funding under the American Rescue Plan (ARP) primarily to award grants in support of its programs. These funds were to remain available until September 30, 2024. On June 3, 2023, however, Congress rescinded all unobligated AmeriCorps ARP program funds. As part of our oversight of ARP funds, the AmeriCorps Office of Inspector General (AmeriCorps OIG) identified more than 100 Notices of Grant Award involving ARP funds issued after June 3, 2023. Although AmeriCorps’ position is that these grants could still be awarded because they were obligated prior to the recission when the CEO certified the award package containing the grants, the certification dates were not recorded in AmeriCorps’ systems or clearly articulated in its policies and procedures, resulting in AmeriCorps’ inability to accurately determine the status of funds. Our review also determined that Federal appropriation law, relevant precedent, and AmeriCorps’ own accounting treatment of when grant funds are obligated raise concerns that more than $144 million in ARP funds are at risk of having been obligated after they were rescinded by Congress. This alert highlights the need for AmeriCorps to seek a formal opinion from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) regarding whether AmeriCorps obligated rescinded ARP funds and to improve its policies, documentation, and recording of all key steps in its grant award process.