Federal Reports

We issued a report which drew on our experience in performing more than 50 Recovery Act-related audits, conducting more than 200 criminal investigations, and reviewing nearly 145 allegations of reprisals of people seeking whistleblower protection under the Recovery Act. This “lessons learned” report provides our perspective on challenges the Department, its funding recipients and subrecipients, and the OIG faced and what lessons should be considered in the event that other legislation providing a large yet temporary funding increase (like the Recovery Act) is enacted in the future.

To give consumers of all ages advertising messages that are relevant, interesting, and dynamic, mailers can incorporate a number of innovations into their mail pieces. These innovations can help bolster the strength of message by, for example, providing additional content easily accessed digitally, incorporating handy electronics into the mailpiece, or using unique materials and designs to capture and hold attention. This white paper provides an overview of ten mail innovations that range from commonly used and well-known tools to some that are still emerging, and even one that is still in development.

The purpose of our audit was to review borrower complaints against private collection agencies (PCAs) to evaluate how effectively FSA monitored the complaints and ensured that corrective action was taken, ensured that PCAs were abiding by Federal debt collection laws and the related terms of their contracts, and considered borrower complaints in its evaluation and compensation of PCAs. We found that FSA did not effectively do so. Because FSA senior managers considered the number of complaints to be immaterial, they placed insufficient emphasis on the importance of identifying, tracking, and resolving borrower complaints. We also found that FSA did not effectively ensure that the PCAs were abiding by the Federal debt collection laws and the related terms of their agreements with FSA.

We found that for both FY 2012 and FY 2013, the Department complied with Executive Order 13520, adequately addressed improper payment risks, and described an adequate level of oversight to reduce and recapture improper Pell Grant payments. However, we found that the Department still had not addressed monitoring and oversight of the most significant root cause of potential improper payments in the Pell Grant program—inaccurate self-reported income for Pell Grant applicants who (1) do not use the Internal Revenue Service Data Retrieval Tool when completing their FAFSA and (2) are not selected for verification of self-reported income.