Federal Reports

Why We Did This ReportThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Inspector General initiated this audit based on a request from the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The objective of the audit is to assess the EPA’s preparation to implement the public notification requirements under section 2106 of the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act. Summary of FindingsAt the time of our audit, the EPA was not ready to comply with the public notification requirements under section 2106 of the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act. Although the Office of Water reported that it was in the process of developing a strategy, it had not developed a plan or milestones or provided guidance to help EPA regions, states, and water systems to be ready to comply with the notification requirements by the compliance date of October 16, 2024. The Office of Water also does not receive data in a timely manner to monitor lead ALE, oversee water systems’ compliance with the notification requirements, and provide the notices if water systems and states have not done so. Based on tap water samples reported in the EPA’s tracking system from January 2021 through March 2023, we identified 498 water systems with lead ALE, serving about 2.3 million people. With millions of people potentially affected by lead ALE, water systems, states, and the EPA must be ready to comply by October 2024.

What We Looked AtWe performed a quality control review (QCR) on the single audit that the Office of the Washington State Auditor/State Auditor's Office (SAO) performed for the City of Bellevue’s fiscal year that ended December 31, 2022. During this period, the City expended approximately $35.6 million from U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) programs. SAO determined that DOT’s major programs were the Office of the Secretary of Transportation’s Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan program and the Federal Highway Administration’s Highway Planning and Construction Cluster.Our QCR objectives were to determine whether (1) SAO’s audit work complied with the Single Audit Act of 1984, as amended, the Office of Management and Budget’s Uniform Guidance, and the extent to which we could rely on the auditor’s work on DOT’s major programs and (2) the City’s reporting package complied with the reporting requirements of the Uniform Guidance.What We FoundSAO complied with the requirements of the Single Audit Act, the Uniform Guidance, and DOT’s major programs. We found nothing to indicate that SAO’s opinion on DOT’s major programs were inappropriate or unreliable. Additionally, we did not identify deficiencies in the City’s reporting package that required correction and resubmission. Accordingly, we assigned SAO an overall rating of pass.

Quality Review of FLRA OIG Audit Operations for the Period April 1, 2023 through March 31, 2024

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has two fixed wing aircraft (FWA) that are to be used for mission-related transportation and business travel. According to TVA Standard Programs and Processes (SPP) 32.041, Use of TVA Fixed Wing Aircraft, its FWA are to be used in support of TVA's mission and congressionally mandated programs, in alignment with TVA Board Practice the Federal Travel Regulation, and other pertinent regulatory governance. In 2018, we performed an audit of TVA’s FWA and found TVA was not complying with various federal regulations and TVA policies and procedures regarding the use of its FWA. Due to the high number of issues found during our previous audit, we performed this follow-up audit to determine if TVA is complying with applicable laws and regulations and TVA policies and procedures regarding the use of its FWA. Our audit scope included all flight legs by TVA’s FWA between January 1, 2021, and January 31, 2023.We determined TVA was not in compliance with federal regulations related to (1) performing cost comparisons, (2) obtaining management authorizations to fly, and (3) reporting appropriate flight data to the General Services Administration. Additionally, TVA was not in compliance with its policies and procedures regarding (1) approving exceptions to flight restrictions, (2) documenting flight authorizations and business justifications, (3) providing timely flight approvals, and (4) performing semi annual audits. In addition, we noted a lack of clarity in TVA policies and procedures regarding required use travel.