Federal Reports

AmeriCorps OIG investigated allegations that individuals posing as AmeriCorps employees on social media sites offered grant funds in exchange for a fee, such as gift cards or cell phones, as part of a scheme known as "advance fee fraud." The evidence collected through the investigation supports the finding that the fraud suspects executed the schemes by utilizing fake social media profiles, Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) phone numbers, fake email addresses, and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). At the conclusion of the investigation, AmeriCorps OIG made six recommendations to AmeriCorps, which concurred with five of the six.

AmeriCorps Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigated allegations that Corp Regional de Guayama de Servicios a la Comunidad (CRGSC), located in Cayey, PR, drew down grant funds through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Payment Management System (HHS-PMS) for its Foster Grandparent Program (FGP) without corresponding supporting documentation as required by 2 CFR 200.430.

In April 2015, the United States Environmental Protection Agency published the Disposal of Coal Combustion Residuals [CCR] from Electric Utilities (commonly referred to as the CCR Rule), which set forth national regulations for the safe disposal of coal ash from coal-fired power plants.  On May 8, 2024, the United States Environmental Protection Agency finalized changes to the CCR Rule to include additional classes of regulated CCR storage facilities.  The CCR Rule requires that applicable CCR units be inspected both weekly for any appearances of actual or potential structural weakness and annually to ensure that the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of the CCR unit is consistent with recognized engineering standards.  In addition, the CCR Rule requires monthly monitoring of all CCR unit instrumentation for surface impoundments.  

We determined TVA performed required inspections and maintenance of CCR storage facilities.  Additionally, inspections identified no significant deficiencies, and all deficiencies and high priority instrumentation maintenance issues identified were resolved timely or had plans in place for resolution. However, we also determined (1) TVA did not maintain a comprehensive list of instrumentation requiring monitoring, (2) some issues were not identified in inspections and some instrumentation issues were not resolved, (3) remediation of minor issues identified during annual inspections was not documented, (4) annual inspection reports did not document review of weekly inspections, and (5) some inspectors did not have required training.

Former SEC Contract Specialist falsely claimed Virginia residency while living in and working from 
Florida, collecting higher locality pay for years