Federal Reports

TVA introduced the Valley Investment Initiative (VII) program as a means to incentivize customers to invest in the economic development of its geographic area. The OIG included a review of the VII program in its annual audit plan as the budget for this program has significantly increased since its inception in 2009. Our audit objective was to determine if TVA was exercising adequate oversight over the VII program. In summary, we found Economic Development personnel complied with TVA policies and procedures for oversight of program operations; however, TVA oversight of the VII program as a whole could be improved. For example, TVA had not established performance measures specific to the VII program nor performed an evaluation study to determine the effectiveness of the program. We also noted customer compliance audits could be improved by adding independent verification of customer reported information.We made four recommendations that pertain to improving TVA's oversight of the VII program. TVA management generally agreed with our recommendations and plans to take action to address them. Summary Only