Federal Reports

For our audit of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) program, our objective was to assess the cost, schedule, and technical performance of the Program’s spacecraft acquisition and development efforts. Specifically, we sought to (1) determine the extent to which cost and schedule changed from the original Program baselines, and (2) identify changes and challenges to the Program’s technical baseline. We found that, from March 2015 to November 2019, the cost of the JPSS-2 spacecraft firm-fixed-price contract increased by $28.6 million—or 12 percent—to $273.4 million, and the schedule for completing the spacecraft had been delayed 14 months. We identified several technical performance issues that contributed to the cost increase and schedule delays. Notably, completing development of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) in the payload interface electronics continues to be a major challenge towards finalization of the JPSS-2 spacecraft.

For our audit of the U.S. Census Bureau’s (the Bureau's) Census Questionnaire Assistance (CQA) operation -- in support of our oversight role over the planning and implementation of the 2020 Census -- our audit objectives were to determine how previous internal assessments informed the operation, how the CQA contract was planned, and how its costs were managed. Specifically, we sought to (1) determine whether the Bureau (a) implemented effective internal controls for controlling the cost of the CQA contract and (b) sufficiently supported the workloads and cost drivers used to estimate the CQA contract cost; and (2) determine whether the Bureau will be able to inform the 2020 Census CQA operation by utilizing lessons learned during the 2010 Census, the 2017 Census Test, and the 2018 End-to-End Census Test.Our testing did not identify significant deficiencies in the Bureau’s internal controls over how CQA contractor invoices are processed. Our testing of a sample of monthly contractor invoices from July 2016 to July 2018, specifically for labor charges and overhead costs, found that the costs charged were in line with the contract’s negotiated rates. Additionally, the Bureau was generally able to support the workloads and cost drivers for the CQA contract costs based on an independent government cost estimate dated February 18, 2016, which was prior to the contract award. We found that key assumptions such as contact center employee labor, facility space costs, workspace allocations, staffing ratios, and the number of calls received per customer service representative, were supported. However, we found issues with the internal controls used to manage the CQA contract, specifically performance, and the resolution of lessons learned from previous tests.

The Grants Oversight and New Efficiency (GONE) Act, P.L. 114-117, enacted on January 28, 2016, established mandatory reporting requirements for Federal Departments and Inspectors General Offices related to grant awards and cooperative agreements expired for 2 or more years that have not been closed out. GONE Act section 2(c) requires Inspectors General of Departments with greater than $500 million in annual grant funding to conduct a risk assessment of their Departments' grant closeout processes.

Historically, only certain groups of individuals who had incomes and assets below certain thresholds were eligible for Medicaid (traditional coverage groups). After the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), some beneficiaries remained eligible under these traditional coverage groups. We refer to these beneficiaries as "non-newly eligible beneficiaries." This audit is part of an ongoing series of Office of Inspector General (OIG) audits of States' Medicaid eligibility determinations. We conducted these audits to address the concern that States might have difficulty accurately determining eligibility for Medicaid beneficiaries.

Previous Office of Inspector General audits identified Federal Medicaid reimbursement for managed care payments that were not claimed in compliance with Federal requirements. Specifically, some beneficiaries enrolled in Medicaid managed care had more than one Medicaid identification (ID) number. As a result, Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs) received unallowable monthly Medicaid payments for these beneficiaries.