Federal Reports

We highlight the risks with how BOR administers IRA drought mitigation funds.

This Office of Inspector General (OIG) Healthcare Facility Inspection program report describes the results of a focused evaluation of the care provided at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System in West Haven. 

This evaluation focused on five key content domains:
     •    Culture
     •    Environment of care
     •    Patient safety
     •    Primary care
     •    Veteran-centered safety net

The OIG issued four recommendations for improvement in three domains:
  1.    Culture
     •    Unanswered phone calls from veterans
  2.    Environment of care
     •    Performance improvement plans and outcome measures for environment of care trends
     •    Preventive maintenance for beds and stretchers
  3.    Primary care
     •    Veterans Integrated Service Network call center

The Management Advisory reviews expenditures related to executive transportation on car services from November 2024 to January 2025. The advisory identifies the need for updated travel policies to ensure cost-effective and justified use of government funds, aligning with the Federal Travel Regulation's "Prudent Traveler Rule." The advisory includes one recommendation to enhance documentation and justification requirements to mitigate financial risks.

Our objective was to assess National Weather Service (NWS) tornado forecasting and warning performance and identify potential opportunities for enhanced effectiveness. We contracted with the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), an independent firm, to perform this evaluation. Our office oversaw the evaluation’s progress to ensure that IDA performed it in accordance with the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency’s Quality Standards for Inspection and Evaluation (December 2020) and contract 
terms.

Since fiscal year 2011, the NWS has achieved its Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) performance goal for false alarm ratio in 9 of the last 12 years. However, the NWS has consistently fallen short of meeting performance goals for probability of detection and warning lead times for this same time period. In addition to the NWS’s limited effectiveness in forecasting and warning performance, NOAA lacks official outcome metrics to assess progress toward the Tornado Warning Improvement and Extension Program's goal of reducing the loss of life and economic losses from tornadoes, leaving this goal unmet without further improvements.