Federal Reports

During the week of February 9, 2026, we performed a self-initiated audit at the Norfolk Local Processing Center (LPC), three delivery units serviced by the plant, and a fourth delivery unit in the Virginia District. The delivery units included the Norfolk Sorting and Delivery Center (S&DC) and Lynchburg, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach Main Post Offices (MPO).

We issued individual reports for the four delivery units and the LPC. We will also issue another report summarizing the results of our audits at all four delivery units with specific recommendations for management to address.

The audit team identified deficiencies in seven areas we reviewed affecting mail delivery and property conditions at the delivery unit

We audited the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) National Servicing Center’s (NSC) tracking and collection of FHA partial claims.  We initiated the audit to assess HUD’s implementation of the corrective actions from HUD OIG audit report 2016-KC-0001, HUD Did Not Collect an Estimated 1,361 Partial Claims Upon Termination of Their Related Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-Insured Mortgages; however, we determined based on a referral from HUD OIG’s Financial Audits Division that there was an issue with the collection of partial claims, and the corrective actions from the prior audit did not fix the condition.  Our objective was to determine whether the NSC serviced all due and payable partial claims in accordance with HUD rules, regulations, policies, and procedures.

We found HUD’s NSC did not service all due and payable partial claims in accordance with HUD rules, regulations, policies, and procedures.  Specifically, we identified that 74 of 81 statistically sampled FHA loan files involved servicing or collection discrepancies including missing loan documents, demand letters not being sent, and untimely delivery and upload of loan documents.  These conditions occurred because of an increased volume of partial claims and inadequate oversight of the Loan Servicing Contractor (LSC), including a lack of well-defined partial claims tracking and collection performance requirements in the LSC contract.  Further, the NSC relied on manual processes to handle the execution, servicing, and termination of partial claims.  As a result, there is an increased risk that FHA will not collect the debts, ultimately impacting the FHA insurance fund.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) initiated a proactive review in January 2025 to identify fraud, waste, or abuse of pandemic relief benefits that may have impacted agency employees.

We found that U.S. Coast Guard (Coast Guard) Civil Rights Service Providers (CRSP) act as neutral parties to inform, mediate, and facilitate the civilian Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and military Equal Opportunity (EO) programs.  We did not find evidence that CRSPs advise complainants or commands, nor do they guide them toward specific outcomes.   

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, worker fatigue increases the risk for illness and injuries and has been a contributing factor in several industrial disasters.  The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Nuclear Fatigue Rule (NFR) procedure establishes requirements for managing fatigue and controlling work hours in accordance with Title 10 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 26, Subpart I, Managing Fatigue.  The regulation has (1) a maximum average work hour requirement for covered individuals which limits worker hours to an average of 54 hours per week while the unit is online and (2) a minimum days off requirement while the unit is in an outage.

Due to the importance of employees being able to safely and competently perform their duties, we performed an evaluation of the NFR at Sequoyah Nuclear Plant.  Our objective was to determine if the Tennessee Valley Authority was in compliance with the NFR at Sequoyah Nuclear Plant.  Our review of sampled employee and contract employee work hours and badging records for
April 1, 2025, through September 30, 2025, identified no violations of NFR work-hour limits.  However, we identified opportunities for improvement related to (1) NFR work-hour tracking, and (2) fatigue assessment documentation.