Federal Reports

We audited the Department’s progress in managing and implementing the Business Applications Solution (BAS) program. BAS is an enterprise financial system that will modernize the Department’s aging and disparate systems. We found that although the program prepared for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) operational transition to BAS, (1) the Department has not established the program’s baselines and does not adequately oversee the program’s cost and schedule performance; (2) the program does not have adequate cost and schedule management controls; and (3) the Department should capture the lessons it learned from implementing BAS at NOAA and apply them to upcoming implementations at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Census Bureau.

This report is a follow up to SBA OIG Report Number 21-06, Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loan Recipients on the Department of Treasury’s (Treasury) Do Not Pay (DNP) List, which reported SBA did not use Department of Treasury (Treasury) DNP data to screen borrowers for eligibility prior to approving loans originated before August 8, 2020 (PPP round one). In this report, we assess SBA actions to address potentially ineligible loans identified in report 21-06 and its implementation of controls to review DNP data for PPP loans originated after August 8, 2020 (PPP round two).SBA implemented a review plan to address 25,634 potentially ineligible PPP loans originated prior to August 8, 2020, and review DNP data sources pre-award for loans originated after August 8, 2020; however, inadequate policies and procedures exposed the program to avoidable risks. OIG found SBA’s review plan only included reviewing loans with submitted forgiveness applications where all funds had been disbursed and used. As a result, during PPP round one, lenders approved and disbursed 1,799 loans totaling over $89 million with known DNP matches that were not subject to manual review.OIG also found SBA’s manual loan reviews did not always sufficiently ensure borrowers’ eligibility. We statistically sampled 176 of 25,634 loans with DNP matches and concluded that SBA appropriately resolved 84 and inappropriately cleared the remaining 92 by either using pre-decisional memos that did not address the DNP hold codes, or the loan files did not contain sufficient documentation to support SBA’s review decisions. By projection, we estimate that lenders disbursed, and SBA forgave, 12,234 of 25,634 loans (or 48 percent) totaling over $1.4 billion without verifying the borrowers’ eligibility, which further exposed the program to financial losses and improper payments. In addition, SBA did not use all Treasury’s DNP restricted data sources for reviewing applicants during the first 2 months of pre-award reviews of DNP data for second round PPP loans. SBA identified 2,777 potentially ineligible applicants, totaling approximately $22.4 million. By comparison, our reassessment of applications using all Treasury’s minimally required DNP data sources identified 59,893 additional potentially ineligible loans, totaling about $1.9 billion. OIG recommends SBA implement or enhance policies and procedures to ensure compliance with program requirements and federal standards for identifying/preventing improper payments and seek remedy or repayment of ineligible loans.

EAC OIG audited funds received by the State of North Carolina under the Help America Vote Act, totaling $33 million. This included Election Security and Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act grants.

This Office of Inspector General (OIG) Comprehensive Healthcare Inspection Program report describes the results of a focused evaluation of the care provided at the Alaska VA Healthcare System, which includes the Colonel Mary Louise Rasmuson Campus in Anchorage and other outpatient clinics in Alaska. This evaluation focused on five key operational areas:• Leadership and organizational risks• Quality, safety, and value• Medical staff privileging• Environment of care• Mental health (suicide prevention initiatives)The OIG issued three recommendations for improvement in two areas:1. Environment of care• Temperature and humidity monitoring2. Mental health• Suicide-related event reporting• Comprehensive Suicide Risk Evaluation completion

This Office of Inspector General (OIG) Comprehensive Healthcare Inspection Program report describes the results of a focused evaluation of the care provided at the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital in Tampa and associated outpatient clinics in Florida. This evaluation focused on five key operational areas:• Leadership and organizational risks• Quality, safety, and value• Medical staff privileging• Environment of care• Mental health (suicide prevention initiatives)The OIG issued four recommendations for improvement in the following topic areas:• Environment of care1. Patient care areas clean and orderly2. Separate storage of clean and dirty equipment and supplies3. Placement of examination tables• Mental health1. Monthly reporting of suicide-related events