Federal Reports

The Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 (PSRA) was signed into law on April 6, 2022. While some form of postal reform had been proposed in every Congress since the 112th (2011-2013), none has made it to the President’s desk until this year.

An Amtrak Service/Train Attendant based in Miami, Florida, resigned from his position on December 20, 2022, prior to his administrative hearing. Our investigation found that the former employee violated company policies by engaging in outside employment, including self-employment, while on medical, personal, and collective bargaining agreement leaves of absence.

A special OIG report which shares the view of the OIG’s jurisdiction and role in conducting oversight in the area of post-employment ethics.

In March 2022, we conducted unannounced inspections of four U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities in the El Centro and San Diego areas of California, specifically two U.S. Border Patrol stations and two Office of Field Operations (OFO) ports of entry. Our inspections and subsequent analysis showed instances of prolonged detention for migrants and overcrowding in some holding facilities. In one Border Patrol station, the prolonged custody times contributed to overcrowding in half of its holding rooms. Of the 447 detainees in custody during our site visits, CBP held 187 (or 42 percent) longer than prescribed by the National Standards on Transport, Escort, Detention, and Search (TEDS), which generally limit detention in these facilities to 72 hours. This prolonged detention and overcrowding put a strain on CBP’s resources, resulting in inconsistent compliance with TEDS standards in the El Centro and San Diego areas. The facilities we inspected generally met standards related to providing drinking water, snacks, meals, and supplies, but Border Patrol’s compliance with standards for access to showers, handling of personal property, and access to interpretation services was inconsistent. Finally, Border Patrol’s and OFO’s electronic systems of record had data integrity issues related to tracking of medical services, showers, welfare checks, and meals.

Amtrak (the company) contracted with the independent certified public accounting firm of Ernst & Young LLP to audit its consolidated financial statements as of September 30, 2022, and for the year then ended, and to provide a report on internal control over financial reporting and on compliance and other matters. Because the company receives federal assistance, it must obtain an audit performed in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.As required by the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended, we monitored the audit activities of Ernst & Young to help ensure audit quality and compliance with auditing standards. Our monitoring focused on two Ernst & Young reports and disclosed no instances in which Ernst & Young did not comply, in all material respects, with generally accepted government auditing standards. We reached this conclusion by monitoring Ernst & Young’s audit activities, which included reviewing its reports, auditor independence and qualifications, audit plans, detailed testing results, summary work papers, and quality controls. We also attended key meetings.