Federal Reports

This investigation was initiated after concerns were reported to the Office of the Inspector General that the duties of a managed-task contract employee working at TVA placed him in a position to direct TVA contracts to his company. While it was determined that, as a contractor, criminal conflict of interest statutes did not apply to this contract employee, the OIG made several recommendations to address this situation. The OIG recommended TVA do the following: (1) review the duties and responsibilities of the contract employee and ensure compliance with the Organizational Conflict of Interest terms of the contract; (2) require contractors acting in contract manager roles and/or involved with contracting decisions be required to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest, similar to OGE Form 450, “Confidential Financial Disclosure Report;” and (3) ensure contract employees do not review or have access to information that could provide the contractor with an unfair competitive advantage.

Our objective was to report internal control weaknesses, noncompliance issues, and unallowable costs identified in the single audit to the Social Security Administration (SSA) for resolution action.

The OIG investigated allegations that a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) administrative assistant made numerous personal purchases using a Government purchase card from 2016 to 2018.Our investigation found that during that 2-year period the employee made 27 personal purchases totaling $7,454.88 using the employee’s Government-issued purchase card. We also determined that the employee lied during our investigation when the employee claimed some charges were for office supplies. We later established those purchases were for personal food and alcohol.The employee pleaded guilty to felony theft under a deferred judgment and was sentenced to 2 years supervised release. The employee also agreed to pay $7,454.88 in restitution and resigned from the FWS.

The OIG investigated allegations that an oil and gas production company failed to properly account for oil produced from Federal leases in the Bakersfield, CA area, resulting in a loss of mineral royalties owed to the Federal Government. The company was required to account for and report its oil production to the U.S. Department of the Interior.We determined that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) discovered that the company’s recordkeeping contributed to a production reporting error of 400 barrels of oil, but an audit of the company’s operations did not disclose a loss of royalties. We found the company’s reported oil production volumes coincided with its recorded oil sales.

OIG data analytics identified all Orlo Vista Branch’s retail floor stock inventory counts in fiscal years (FY) 2019 and 2020, Quarter (Q) 1, to be outside of tolerance levels. In addition, the last two counts of retail floor stock resulted in overages and shortages in excess of $4,000 (absolute value). Accountability examinations include retail floor stamp stock (stamps sold on the retail floor), unit reserve stamp stock (stamps used to replenish those sold on the retail floor), cash credits (cash retained in drawers after daily deposit), and money orders. Inventory can be transferred between segments; therefore, all segments of inventory must be counted to ensure accuracy. ur fieldwork was completed before the President of the United States issued the national emergency declaration concerning the novel coronavirus disease outbreak (COVID-19) on March 13, 2020. The results of this audit do not reflect operational changes and/or service impacts that may have occurred at this facility as a result of the pandemic. Our objective was to determine whether internal controls over accountable paper and postal funds at the Orlo Vista Branch were managed effectively and whether voided PVI label refunds were properly supported and processed.

KPMG, LLC found the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) did not provide adequate guidance to the Virgin Islands Emergency Management Agency (VITEMA) and the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Agency (VIHFA) and that VITEMA and VIHFA did not adequately manage FEMA Public Assistance (PA) funds. Also, VITEMA and VIHFA did not always ensure the accuracy of project funding information or promptly notify FEMA about significant project cost overruns. This occurred because FEMA did not provide the necessary guidance to and oversight of VITEMA and VIHFA to properly manage PA funds. Because of these deficiencies, PA programs are at increased risk of mismanagement and expenditure of funds for unallowable activities. We made seven recommendations to improve VITEMA’s and VIHFA’s management of FEMA PA funds, ensuring they are expended according to Federal regulations and FEMA guidance. FEMA concurred with the recommendations.