Federal Reports

Section 11(d)(9) of the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended, requires the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency to submit to Congress and the President an annual report on the activities of the Integrity Committee. For more informatoin about the Integrity Committee, please visit the link below.

This report details the results of our evaluation ofthe Bureau of Land Management's (BLM), National Park Service's (NPS), and Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement's (OSM) emergency preparedness at their high hazard dams. High hazard dams under the purview of BLM, NPS, and OSM either have no requirement for emergency action plans (EAP) or have EAPs that have been inadequately exercised or reviewed or that have not been formalized. In addition, we found an absence of a uniform approach to monitoring high hazard dams not owned by BLM or NPS but located on BLM and NPS lands. We include 11 recommendations in our report that, if implemented, will help to improve emergency action planning at the three bureaus.

Our review of Recovery Act expenditures at two LEAs—the El Dorado School District and the Little Rock School District—found that the LEAs generally obligated and spent stimulus funds in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, guidance, and program requirements. However, we did identify areas of concern at each LEA. At El Dorado, we questioned its use of more than $237,300 in funds for a purpose prohibited by the Recovery Act: it improperly spent Recovery Act funds to replace a gymnasium roof at a high school that was no longer used as a school. In response to this finding, the district superintendent and business manager stated that the district reversed the costs and transferred other expenditures to offset those funds. At Little Rock, we identified control weaknesses in its asset inventory system that resulted in the district not properly accounting for and safeguarding equipment purchased with Recovery Act funds (and potentially other Federal funds) in a timely manner. Four of the seven purchases that we reviewed totaled almost $196,000. We recommended that the Department determine whether El Dorado’s transfer of expenditures to offset the questioned costs was an allowable activity more than 6 months after the grant had ended and that it require the Arkansas Department of Education to ensure that Little Rock strengthens internal controls over assets purchased with Federal funds.