Federal Reports

The Office of the Inspector General audited TVA’s backup verification of mission essential data to determine if TVA’s backups were being performed in accordance with business requirements and industry best practice. In summary, we determined that TVA’s backups of mission essential data included industry best practice in their business requirements. However, we found three business requirements were not being met. Specifically, we found (1) TVA was not using the enterprise authentication solution as required by their common control catalog, (2) test restores were not performed for essential backup and infrastructure components, and (3) backup data in transit was not encrypted. TVA management agreed with our findings and recommendations.

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

We investigated allegations that a National Park Service (NPS) prime contractor failed to pay its subcontractors on two NPS construction contracts.We found that the NPS prime contractor violated the Federal Acquisition Regulation’s prompt payment requirements when it failed to pay two subcontractors for work within 7 days of receiving a payment from the NPS. The prime contractor wrongfully withheld the full payment to a subcontractor for over 18 months for work completed in November 2017 at Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site. In the second case, the company withheld partial payment to another subcontractor for work completed at Voyageur National Park in September 2017.

We investigated allegations that a gas company underpriced carbon dioxide (CO2) produced from Federal leases and deducted unallowable costs from its CO2 production that resulted in a potential loss of Federal royalties.We did not substantiate the allegations. We found the company’s pricing used to calculate royalty payments associated with the sale of CO2 was comparable to competitors. We also found the company’s transportation allowances deducted during Federal royalty calculations complied with the Government’s permitted threshold.

We investigated allegations that Continental Resources, Inc. flared gas from Federal mineral leases in North Dakota without an approved permit from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and failed to report the flaring to the Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR). We confirmed that Continental flared natural gas produced from Federal leases without a BLM-approved permit but did report the flared gas volumes to ONRR. As a result of the flared natural gas, the company owed unpaid royalties to ONRR in excess of $900,000 that ONRR is attempting to recover.