Federal Reports

Before the Small Business Administration (SBA) can accept a gift, the Office of General Counsel must determine that no conflict of interest exists. In addition, SBA must put any cash gifts into a separate account, and OIG is responsible for semiannual audits to ensure the agency is appropriately using and accounting for such gifts. This compliance report presents the results of our semiannual evaluation (SBA’s) handling of cash contributions and gifts. The objective of the evaluation was to determine the adequacy of SBA controls over the solicitation, acceptance, holding, and use of cash contributions and gifts. SBA’s ability to receive and use gifts and donations is governed by the nation’s annual Consolidated Appropriations Acts, which in fiscal years 2019 and 2020 granted SBA the authority to accept gifts of up to $4 million. We determined SBA adequately complied with the Act and SBA policies for the deposits and holdings of $12,499.34 in the Business Assistance Trust Fund. The agency used $21,943.78 in existing cash funds in accordance with the Acts, regulations, and SBA policies. SBA did not report any cash contributions during the period we evaluated. We noted a control deficiency related to the extremely overdue closeout of an SBA cosponsored activity. SBA management agreed with one of our three recommendations established a centralized database in SBA’s internal SharePoint system to store all required documents for cosponsored activities. We closed this recommendation. SBA management did not agree with the remaining recommendations. However, because the activity in question occurred more than 10 years ago and in light of the fact that SBA took actions in response to our evaluation, we agreed to close the recommendations.

OIG reviewed FS use of settlement funds for damages to National Forest System lands.

Lauren Jones, a former Hertz employee in Chicago, Illinois, pleaded guilty in Circuit Court of Cook County on March 24, 2021, to felony theft charges and was sentenced to two years’ probation on the same date. Our investigation found that Jones stole validated parking passes for the Chicago Union Station parking garage, valued at over $500, from Hertz. In addition, three other individuals were previously charged and convicted of theft charges in this investigation.

 As part of its assessment of NASA’s overall information security program for FY 2020, the NASA Office of Inspector General a Contractor-Operated Communications System at Glenn Research Center.

Harper, Rains, Knight & Company, P.A.was engaged by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC"), Office of Inspector General ("OIG"), to conduct a performance audit of the EEOC charge card program, which includes both purchase and travel cards. EEOC uses purchase cards to reduce the administrative cost of processing small dollar purchases and travel cards to reduce the cost of official travel and for the convenience of the traveler.The EEOC charge card program had previously been audited in FY 2018, which covered activity in FY 2017 and 2018. The previous audit resulted in two (2) recommendations to improve the management of the charge card program and one (1) finding. We found that while EEOC has made improvements to the account closing process procedures, the procedures have not been properly updated in EEOC directives nor have they been followed in practice.We found that EEOC has properly designed their internal controls over its charge card program to detect and prevent fraud, waste, abuse and misuse.