Federal Reports

The Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) 5-year Enterprise Technology Plan seeks to transform the way TVA does business through technology and digital innovation.  Digital Finance is one of seven efforts within this multi-year initiative, aimed at modernizing and streamlining TVA’s financial systems and processes.  Modernization of the general ledger (GL) is the first step within Digital Finance. The objectives of the GL Modernization project include implementing an enterprise financial management system with minimal customization, redefining and modernizing TVA’s chart of accounts, and modernizing and optimizing boundary systems (applications, systems, or platforms outside of the GL that interface with the GL).  Since its approval, the project has experienced cost increases and schedule delays.  Approved funding increased from $67.1 million to $104.7 million in November 2023. Although originally estimated to be completed by June 2025, the in-service date was moved up to January 2025.  In December 2024, the GL project was approved for $169 million in funding with an in-service date of November 2025.  Due to the impact of the project across TVA business units, we scheduled an evaluation of the GL Modernization project.  The objective of this evaluation was to determine the causes for cost increases and schedule impacts on the GL Modernization project.  We identified three primary causes of cost increases and schedule impacts on the GL Modernization project, including (1) inadequate identification of project requirements, (2) an incomplete project schedule, and (3) instances of ineffective contractor management. Specifically, detailed requirements were not identified early in the project.  Instead, detailed requirements are being identified as the project progresses. Also, input from key stakeholders was not adequate as the project began.  As a result, the GL project team did not understand the complexities and interdependencies of boundary systems and internal reporting needs were not included in the initial project scope.  In addition, the GL project schedule was incomplete and did not include all the project’s activities and associated resource needs, such as those related to boundary systems and internal reporting.  Finally, TVA did not provide effective management of some contractors involved in the project, resulting in missed opportunities to address system integrator performance issues.  In addition, TVA contracted for services that may not have provided value to the project. For example, TVA paid a contractor to negotiate savings with the system integrator but project cost increases make it difficult to determine if the savings were legitimate. 

Evaluation of the Federal Labor Relations Authority's Preparedness Against Cybersecurity Attacks, Fiscal Year 2025

The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) leads and coordinates the Nation’s drug policy to improve the health and lives of the American people, including the development and implementation of the National Drug Control Strategy (the Strategy).  ONDCP evaluates the effectiveness of national drug control policy efforts, the Strategy’s goals and objectives, and each National Drug Control Program Agency’s program-level measures.  On February 27, 2024, after determining the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) program-level performance measures were missing numeric data to determine the extent HUD’s programs contributed to the Strategy, ONDCP requested that HUD Office of Inspector General (OIG) review HUD’s fiscal year (FY) 2023 performance measures.  We initiated an audit to obtain the FY 2023 performance measures for HUD’s Continuum of Care Program (CoC) and Recovery Housing Program (RHP), to determine whether they accurately reflect program performance, and identify challenges the programs have experienced in developing and reporting performance measures.

HUD does not provide ONDCP with annual numeric targets for its CoC and RHP performance measures, but rather designates these performance metrics as tracking indicators used to contribute to ONDCP’s overall performance reporting on reducing overdoses in the United States.  HUD is hesitant to set annual numeric targets for CoCs because the primary focus of the program is to provide housing to individuals and families experiencing homelessness and not specific to people with substance use issues.  HUD is also hesitant to set annual numerical targets for RHP grantees because the program is a pilot program and potential issues with setting annual targets for multi-year RHP grants.  In addition, HUD cannot provide ONDCP actual results for CoC grantees by ONDCP’s designated annual November 1st deadline because CoC grantee data is not available to HUD until months after the deadline.  HUD uses a January 2018 ONDCP-approved reporting methodology to report CoC performance measures.  However, this reporting methodology does not allow ONDCP to fully capture the extent of the CoC and RHP programs’ contribution to the Strategy’s overall goal and objective of reducing overdose deaths in the United States.

In addition, HUD does not have formal policies and procedures for ONDCP reporting requirements which may increase the risk of reporting inconsistencies and impacts knowledge retention.

HUD can improve its performance reporting measures by collaborating with ONDCP on reporting methodologies that ensure performance measures can be reported by ONDCP’s November 1st deadline.  HUD should also establish formal reporting policies and procedures and written agreements with ONDCP that reflect the collaborative effort on alternative reporting methodologies.  By taking these actions, HUD will improve HUD and ONDCP’s ability to fully capture the programs’ contributions towards reducing overdose deaths in the United States.