Federal Reports

OIG reviewed the Office of Contracting and Procurement’s procurement authority to prevent and respond to reported child labor violations in fiscal year 2023.

The U.S. Postal Service’s mission is to provide timely, reliable, secure, and affordable mail and package delivery to more than 160 million residential and business addresses across the country. The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General reviews delivery operations at facilities across the country and provides management with timely feedback in furtherance of this mission.

The U.S. Postal Service’s mission is to provide timely, reliable, secure, and affordable mail and package delivery to more than 160 million residential and business addresses across the country. The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (OIG) reviews delivery operations at facilities across the country and provides management with timely feedback in furtherance of this mission.

The U.S. Postal Service’s mission is to provide timely, reliable, secure, and affordable mail and package delivery to more than 160 million residential and business addresses across the country. The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General reviews delivery operations at facilities across the country and provides management with timely feedback in furtherance of this mission.

The U.S. Postal Service needs effective and productive operations to fulfill its mission of providing prompt, reliable, and affordable mail service to the American public. It has a vast transportation network that moves mail and equipment among about 330 processing facilities and 31,100 post offices, stations, and branches. The Postal Service is transforming its processing and logistics networks to become scalable, reliable, visible, efficient, automated, and digitally integrated. This includes modernizing operating plans and aligning the workforce; leveraging emerging technologies to provide worldclass visibility and tracking of mail packages in near real-time; and optimizing the surface and air transportation network. The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (OIG) reviews the efficiency of mail processing operations at facilities across the country and provides management with timely feedback to further the Postal Service’s mission.

An Amtrak lead service attendant based in Miami, Florida, entered into a forbearance and workout agreement on May 22, 2024, with the Small Business Administration (SBA) and agreed to a payment schedule to satisfy his settlement and restitution amounts. The employee agreed to pay a total of $124,631 including fines, fees, and interest. The employee applied for and received an SBA‐backed Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) for economic losses resulting from the pandemic related to self‐employment or businesses he allegedly owned. Our investigation found that the employee submitted an application to the SBA that included false statements and information to qualify for the EIDL loan. As a result, the employee received an EIDL loan in the amount of $120,000 to which he was not entitled.

We are pleased to present our report for the period October 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024. Serving in our oversight role, the Office of the Inspector General continues to identify risks to operations, ways to save or recover money, make recommendations to improve operations, and prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse. In this semiannual period, our audit, evaluation, and investigative activities identified more than $13 million in questioned costs; recoveries, fees, and fines; waste/other monetary loss; and opportunities for Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to improve its programs and operations.TVA has a deep and rich history of building power generating assets to electrify the Tennessee Valley. At its inception, river systems were harnessed and electricity was provided by TVA built dams. As industry and populations grew, TVA kept pace with the increasing power demands with massive construction programs, including the building of 11 coal-fired power plants during the 1950s and 1960s and six nuclear power units in the 1970s and 1980s. TVA’s ability to provide low-cost electricity while facing changing circumstances and expectations with and increasingly diverse portfolio has served the people of the Valley well for the past 90 years.

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) is issuing this Inspection Report to assess the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) process for approving 7(a) loans for borrowers with unresolved pandemic loan compliance issues.From October 1, 2019 through May 8, 2023, SBA approved and disbursed 172,598 7(a) loans, totaling $83.4 billion. The 7(a) lenders who have delegated approval authority approved 92 percent of these loans and SBA approved the remaining 8 percent. SBA implemented a process to screen 7(a) loan applications for eligibility, which included screening for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) hold codes prior to loan approval. However, SBA did not implement the process until August 2023, after we initiated this review. Prior to August 2023, neither SBA nor lenders reviewed approved 7(a) loans to ensure borrowers did not have unresolved compliance issues that could negatively impact their eligibility for the 7(a) loan. As a result, there were 5,044 approved and disbursed 7(a) loans, totaling $4.5 billion, where the borrower had a PPP loan or COVID-19 EIDL with an unresolved eligibility or potential fraud issue.SBA stated it resolved hold codes for 3,015 of 5,044 loans and we did not assess the agency’s methodology or whether it appropriately removed hold codes. We will assess the appropriateness of SBA’s removal of hold codes for the 3,015 loans prior to closing our recommendation.We recommended SBA review and appropriately resolve hold codes related to the 5,044 7(a) loans to determine impact on 7(a) eligibility and seek remedy or repayment of all 7(a) loans deemed ineligible.