Federal Reports

As part of our annual audit plan, we performed an audit of costs billed to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) by Emerson Process Management Power and Water Solutions, Inc., (Emerson) under Contract No. 14688 for distributed control systems products and services. Our audit objective was to determine if costs billed to TVA under Contract No. 14688 were in accordance with the contract's terms. Our audit scope included about $8.2 million in costs billed to TVA by Emerson during fiscal years 2022 and 2023.In summary, we reviewed $6,039,332 in invoices billed under the largest 14 purchase orders (POs), all of which were for fixed price projects, and determined the fixed price POs were billed in accordance with the milestone payment schedules that had been authorized. However, we determined Emerson did not comply with the contract requirements to build up its fixed price POs using the contract pricing, resulting in an overstatement of $702,108 to the fixed price POs. Further, about $1.3 million of the pricing was not from Emerson’s pricing books. In addition, we determined (1) TVA project managers did not have enough information to effectively review the fixed price proposals to verify compliance with the contract prior to the issuance of the POs, which could have prevented Emerson’s noncompliance, and (2) the fixed price projects were not competed, although the contract stated it was TVA’s intent to compete any fixed price work awarded under the contract.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) OIG retained Williams, Adley, & Co.-DC LLP (Williams Adley, we), an independent public accounting firm, to perform the independent evaluation of the CPSC’s implementation of FISMA for FY 2024 and to determine the effectiveness of its information security program. This report documents the results of the OIG’s FISMA evaluation. Specifically, we assessed the CPSC’s compliance with the annual Inspector General (IG) FISMA reporting metrics set forth by the DHS and OMB. Agency efforts are scored against a five level maturity model ranging from level one, “ad hoc,” to level five, “optimized,” with level four, “managed and measurable,” generally considered effective.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) did not fullyimplement the State-Administered Direct Housing Grant Programrequired by Section 1211(a) of the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of2018 (DRRA). Specifically, as of March 2024, FEMA had not issuedfinal regulations to fully implement the program. This occurredbecause FEMA . Additionally,FEMA did not implement an effective pilot program. The DRRA hadauthorized FEMA to carry out a pilot program for up to 2 years untilfinal regulations were issued. However, during the pilot period,FEMA only issued one narrowly focused grant award that did notauthorize the recipient state to administer direct housingassistance on FEMA’s behalf. This occurred because FEMA did notissue timely guidance for the pilot program, leaving only 10 weeksto implement the pilot program before it expired. As a result, FEMAmissed opportunities for state, territorial, and tribal (STT)governments to play a greater role in identifying and implementingdisaster housing solutions to best meet their communities’ needs.

Objective: To determine whether the Social Security Administration followed policies and used available tools to prevent, detect, and recover Supplemental Security Income overpayments.

The U.S. Postal Service is responsible for processing, transporting, and delivering the nation’s Election and Political Mail. The Postal Service is committed to fulfilling its role in the electoral process when policy makers choose to use the mail as a part of their election system. The Postal Service has specific policies and procedures on the proper acceptance, processing, delivery, and documentation of Election and Political Mail.

We audited HUD’s management of its FHA appraiser roster to determine whether the roster was accurate and reliable. We selected this review because a prior audit identified weaknesses related to roster oversight and because this topic aligns with HUD’s strategic goals related to promoting home ownership and strengthening its internal capacity, as well as increased interest in the appraisal process. HUD’s FHA appraiser roster was generally reliable. HUD’s system controls prevented ineligible appraisers from being assigned appraisals on FHA-insured properties. Though it did not affect the assignment of appraisals, HUD could improve its data management by timely removing ineligible appraisers with expired licenses or disciplinary actions within specified timeframes, and better maintain historical information and supporting documentation. Additionally, HUD’s processes, policies, procedures, and regulations for maintaining the appraiser roster did not consistently align, were not clear, or were undocumented. HUD had begun to make several system enhancements to address the concerns identified, and it should continue to improve its guidance and data management to help ensure the integrity of the roster. We recommend that HUD (1) update policies and procedures for appraiser roster management so that they align with each other and with regulations and HUD practice; (2) maintain historical appraiser roster data; and (3) improve quality assurance processes by adding steps to verify that the appraiser roster is accurate and reliable over time.