Federal Reports

Background

The U.S. Postal Service paid out more than $866 million in resolution of almost 3.5 million grievance payments from fiscal years (FY) 2022-2024. Grievances are typically complaints lodged by individual employees or unions about the implementation or interpretation of collective bargaining and local agreements concerning wages, hours, and conditions of employment.

What We Did 

Our objective was to evaluate the Postal Service’s management of grievances. We analyzed data from various Postal Service systems to identify trends, risk areas, and anomalies. We reviewed 25 facilities and labor relations offices in eight districts and conducted interviews with management and employees at those locations to gain an understanding of their grievance payments.

What We Found

Although total grievance payments nationwide trended slightly downward from FYs 2022-2024, some districts and facilities incurred high payment amounts or experienced significant increases in payments. Grievance issues related to overtime and improper work assignments accounted for some of the most significant and recurring grievance payments nationwide. In addition, field management entered into binding local agreements with unions that contained escalating remedies, did not always align with current operational needs, and did not have defined end or revision dates. Lastly, management did not always maintain a standardized, centralized repository that contained local agreements and did not consistently complete all required elements of decision letters in the Grievance and Arbitration Tracking System for payments.

Recommendations and Management’s Comments 

We made eight recommendations for the Postal Service to improve its management of grievances, reduce recurring grievances, clarify policy, and improve tracking. Postal Service management agreed with seven and disagreed with one. We consider management’s comments responsive to recommendations 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8, and will pursue recommendation 6 through the audit resolution process. Management’s comments and our evaluation are at the end of each finding and recommendation.

SUMMARY    The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 allocated $8.8 billion to the Department of Energy for issuing grants to states, U.S. territories, and Indian Tribes for distribution to the public in the form of home energy rebates. The Department’s Office of State and Community Energy Programs is responsible for the oversight and guidance of $218.8 million in grants awarded to Georgia. The Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA) administers Georgia’s Home Energy Rebates programs.

We initiated this inspection to assess GEFA’s internal controls to administer the Home Energy Rebates programs under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

We determined that not all GEFA’s controls were adequate to administer the Home Energy Rebates programs under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Specifically, GEFA did not have a written policy for monitoring and assessing contractor and implementer performance for its oversight of two Home Energy Rebates programs. It is crucial that GEFA have a monitoring policy that includes clear objectives, methodologies, and responsibilities for assessing contractor performance. To its credit, and in response to our inquiry, GEFA developed a monitoring policy to address our finding.

A formal monitoring policy will help GEFA identify, assess, and respond to program risks and remediate deficiencies to ensure proper stewardship of taxpayer dollars.

To address the issue identified in this report, we made one recommendation that, if fully executed, should help ensure that GEFA’s internal controls are adequate to implement the Home Energy Rebates programs.

Our Semiannual Report to Congress covering the period April 1 to September 30, 2025, highlights the OIG’s audit and investigative accomplishments during the past 6 months.

The Office of Inspector General is issuing this report to assess the U.S. Small Business Administration’s initial response to severe storms in Missouri and Kentucky, including staffing, customer service response, outreach, volume of loan applications, and timeliness of loan approvals.

We found that staffing levels were adequate, customers were satisfied with the customer service provided on-site, outreach was conducted promptly and in accordance with internal policy, and disaster loan applications were processed timely.

This report does not contain any recommendations, and the agency did not provide any comments.

USDA OIG'S objective was to evaluate aspects of the Plan of Action and Milestones process used to reduce
identified vulnerabilities.

Our Objective(s)To perform a quality control review (QCR) of Allmond & Company, LLC's audit of the Surface Transportation Board's (STB) financial statements as of and for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025. We reviewed Allmond's report, dated January 7, 2026, and related documentation.
About This ReportWe contracted with the independent public accounting firm Allmond & Company, LLC, to audit STB's financial statements, provide an opinion on those financial statements, report on internal control over financial reporting, and report on compliance with laws and other matters.
What We FoundThe independent auditor, Allmond, found one material weakness and four significant deficiencies in STB's internal controls over financial reporting.

Internal controls over preparing, reviewing, and approving journal entries recorded in the general ledger need improvement.
Control activities performed to prepare and review the interim financial statements and footnotes were not adequately designed and implemented.
Employee benefit election forms were not maintained per Office of Personnel Management requirements.
Internal controls over the monitoring and review of open obligations need improvement.
Internal controls for estimating and recording accrued liabilities in the general ledger need improvement.

Our QCR disclosed no instances in which Allmond did not comply, in all material respects, with U.S. generally accepted Government auditing standards.
RecommendationsWe agree with Allmond's 18 recommendations to help strengthen STB's internal controls.