Federal Reports

NGA OIG Spring Semiannual Report to Congress, 1 October 2024 - 31 March 2025

We performed an audit of costs billed to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) by Wright Brothers Contracting, Inc. (Wright Brothers) for site grading services and materials under Contract No. 16512.  The contract provided for TVA to compensate Wright Brothers for work on a fixed price basis for deliverables and materials and on a time and material (T&M) basis for performance of the work.  Our audit objectives were to determine (1) if costs were billed in accordance with the contract terms and (2) the reasonableness of TVA’s process for evaluating and awarding proposed fixed price tasks issued under the contract.  Our audit scope included approximately $28.7 million in costs paid by TVA between September 3, 2021, and May 31, 2024.  This included approximately $24.5 million for 17 fixed price tasks and $4.2 million for one T&M task.

In summary, we determined:

•    Wright Brothers billed TVA $1,401,563 in T&M billings for cost categories that were not included in the contract, Wright Brothers proposal, or TVA’s purchase order.  Additionally, the proposal and invoice documentation did not provide adequate detail for a field invoice approver to effectively review invoices. 
•    Wright Brothers billed TVA $49,355 in unsupported T&M costs, including (1) $43,860 in unsupported equipment costs and (2) $5,495 in unsupported labor costs.  (Note:  $11,320 of the $49,355 unsupported cost were also included in the $1,401,563 ineligible T&M billings.)
•    There were opportunities to strengthen TVA’s process for evaluating and awarding fixed price tasks.  Specifically, TVA did not always compete fixed price tasks as required by the contract.  In addition, when TVA received only one bid for a fixed price task, there were no policies or guidance for steps TVA should take to ensure the fairness of the fixed price amount. 

We are pleased to present our report for the period October 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025.  In this semiannual period, our audit, evaluation, and investigative activities identified more than $75.1 million in questioned costs; funds put to better use; restitutions, recoveries, fees, and fines; and opportunities for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to improve its programs and operations.

TVA’s mission of service was set forth in the TVA Act of 1933.  While the mandate to provide affordable electricity, manage the river systems, and promote economic development in the Tennessee Valley has remained constant for 92 years, TVA has had to transform itself in areas such as methods of electricity generation, funding approaches, skills, technology, and more.  Some transformations came about by opportunities like innovation, while others came about in reaction to constraints.  Today, TVA finds itself in another stage of transformation as it addresses significant requirements to grow clean generation capacity.  Our office will stand with TVA as we fulfill our mission to provide independent and objective oversight that promotes effective and efficient operations and prevents and detects fraud, waste, and abuse.

This report details the Office of Inspector General's Spring 2025 - Semiannual Report to Congress. The following topics are included:

• Overview of the SBA and the OIG
• SBA's Top Management and Performance Challenges
• Summary of OIG Oversight Work
• Small Business Access to Capital
• Disaster Assistance Program
• Contracting and Counseling Programs
• Agency Management
• Other Significant OIG Activities
• OIG Hotline
• Organizational Overview
• Appendices

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 North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System. 

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

The OIG issued seven recommendations for improvement in two domains:
  1.    Environment of care
   •    Maintain, inspect, and test medical equipment
   •    Secure medications
   •    Store oxygen tanks
   •    Clean food storage areas
   •    Remove expired supplies
   •    Mark equipment for repair and remove dirty items from storage areas
  2.    Patient Safety
   •    Sustained compliance with Joint Commission accreditation standards

At the request of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Supply Chain, we examined the cost proposal submitted by a contractor for designing, fabricating, and delivering hydraulic turbine runners and components as specified by TVA.  Our examination objective was to determine if the contractor's cost proposal was fairly stated. 

In our opinion, the contractor’s cost proposal was overstated.  Specifically, we determined the contractor’s proposed (1) markup rates were overstated compared to recent actual costs and (2) fixed price project costs included excessive contingency costs and profit.  We estimated TVA could avoid about $14.1 million over the potential $75 million contract by (1) negotiating appropriate reductions to the markup rates, (2) removing excessive contingency costs from fixed price projects, and (3) reducing the profit on fixed price projects.