Federal Reports

The In-Office Cost System (IOCS) is the U.S. Postal Service’s primary probability sampling system used for estimating the cost of processing mail and parcels. The data collected from IOCS enables the Postal Service to allocate the labor costs from the handling of mail, parcels, and related activities performed by clerks, mail handlers, city carriers, and supervisors to all mail classes and rate categories. The Postal Service uses the data collected from IOCS to allocate about $21 billion per year in costs to mail products. The Postal Service uses the allocated costs to each mail category collected from IOCS to determine prices. Therefore, collecting consistent, accurate data is essential.

As part of our annual audit plan, we performed an audit of costs billed to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) by Terracon Consultants, Inc. (Terracon) for geotechnical and hydrogeological site investigations and groundwater quality monitoring services under Contract No. 15087.  Our audit objective was to determine if costs were billed in compliance with the contract’s terms.  Our audit scope included $9.93 million in costs paid from January 3, 2022, through October 21, 2024.

In summary, we determined Terracon overbilled TVA an estimated $387,879, including (1) an estimated $304,431 in overbilled labor costs (of which TVA has recovered $3,164), (2) $81,898 in ineligible subcontractor markups, and (3) $1,550 in overbilled travel costs.  In addition, we identified instances where meals and incidental costs associated with travel were not billed in accordance with the contract, resulting in a net immaterial overbilling.  We also found TVA did not include a pricing schedule containing the time and material billing rates until March 28, 2024, although the contract was effective July 13, 2020.

Why We Did This Report

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Inspector General conducted this audit to determine whether the EPA complied with the Payment Integrity Information Act for fiscal year 2024 reporting and to review the EPA’s implementation of its corrective action plans for prior audit recommendations.

Summary of Findings

The EPA did not comply with applicable Office of Management and Budget requirements for the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 for its fiscal year 2024 reporting. Specifically, for its grants payment stream, the EPA published a 0.77 percent improper payment estimate with no unknown payments. The Agency’s estimate was not based on an accurate sampling and estimation methodology plan, referred to as a statistical sampling plan. Therefore, we could not determine whether the published estimate is valid and representative of the grant program characteristics. In addition, the EPA needs to improve its documentation to ensure compliance with policies and procedures. The Office of the Chief Financial Officer does not require staff to document who performed the risk assessment review and what information staff considers in the qualitative risk assessment reviews.

We found that the Agency completed corrective actions for the three recommendations from our FY 2023 audit report and for one recommendation from our FY 2021 audit report.