Federal Reports

The Reports Consolidation Act of 2000 requires the U.S. Department of Education (Department), Office of Inspector General to identify and report annually on the most serious management challenges the Department faces. The Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010 requires the Department to include in its agency performance plan information on its planned actions, including performance goals,indicators, and milestones, to address these challenges. To identify management challenges, we routinely examine past audit, inspection, and investigative work, as well as issued reports where corrective actions have yet to be taken; assess ongoing audit, inspection, and investigative work to identify significant vulnerabilities; and analyze new programs and activities that could post significant challenges because of their breadth and complexity. Last year, we presented four management challenges: improper payments, information technology security, oversight and monitoring, and data quality and reporting. While the Department remains committed to addressing these areas and has taken or plans action to correct many of their underlying causes, each remains as a management challenge for fiscal year 2014. We also added a new challenge related to the Department’s information technology system development and implementation.

Ethics

The OIG performed four agreed-upon procedures which were requested solely to assist management in determining the validity of the TVA Winning Performance payout awards for the fiscal year (FY) ended September 30, 2013. In summary, we found:The FY 2013 Winning Performance goals were properly approved. One change form for FY 2013 was approved on March 3, 2013; two change forms were approved on June 7, 2013; one change form was approved September 16, 2013: and one was signed but not dated. The change forms affected five scorecards and resulted in no change to the payout.The comparison of actual year to date figures for September 2013 for all the measures on the strategic business unit and business unit scorecards noted one exception related to the Nuclear Power Group's Equipment Reliability measure and did not result in a change to the payout. The measures on the strategic business unit and business unit scorecards agreed with the respective supporting documentation provided.A comparison of the actual year to date figures for the incentivized TVA Corporate balanced scorecard measures to the definition sheets noted one exception related to the Total Corporate Spend measure and did not result in a change to the payout. The incentivized TVA Corporate balanced scorecard measures agreed with the underlying support. Subsequent changes to the Total Financing Obligations over Productive Assets actual year to date measure were received on November 4, and 7, 2013, and were compared to the supporting documentation. We determined there would be no impact to the payout percentage.The FY 2013 Winning Performance payout percentages were provided by the Metrics and Performance Analysis organization on October 21, 2013. Subsequent changes to the actual year to date figure for the Total Financing Obligations over Productive Assets measure were received November 4, and 7, 2013. These changes did not impact any payout percentages. Summary Only