Federal Reports

This analytics evaluation of the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) was conducted by Elder Research on behalf of the EEOC Office of Inspector General (EEOC OIG).1) Assess the strengths and weaknesses of the EEOC’s data analytics culture, strategy, tactics, and capabilities (people, processes, technologies, financial resources, etc.).2) Assess EEOC’s strategies for ensuring the validity and accuracy of critical databases.3) Identify improvements, opportunities, and best practices regarding EEOC’s data analysis and predictive analytics activities.EEOC should be encouraged by the opportunity that lies ahead: effective implementation of the recommendations contained within this report hold the potential to unlock substantial value and significantly improve the EEOC’s ability to accomplish its core mission. This report aims to provide a practical roadmap for the agency to progressively move towards a well-functioning analytics program that empowers individuals to more efficiently and effectively accomplish tasks and make decisions.

Two previous studies by the OIG pointed to physical advertising’s strength in leaving a lasting impression and its ability to make an emotional connection with consumers. This time, we extended our research to examine how physical advertising compares with digital advertising for branding purposes. Partnering with the Center for Neural Decision Making at Temple University, we found that physical ads outperformed digital ads in several brand marketing measures, such as brand name recall and brand association. Altogether, our findings demonstrate the power of physical ads for many brand advertising objectives and can help the Postal Service guide advertisers in designing mailpieces that support their brand.

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This management alert presents Access Issues Identified in the Mail Processing Environment. These issues came to our attention during our ongoing Review of Information Technology Network Performance audit. The issues require immediate attention and remediation.

In FY 2017, we issued 37 reports concerning Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants, programs, and operations. The reports included 16 grant audits, 13 proactive audits, and 8 program audits. Our balanced review approach continues to produce a significant number of recommendations that could put funds to better use before problems occur. We made 79 recommendations to FEMA that identified potential monetary benefits of nearly $2.2 billion. Two recommendations from our report, “FEMA Should Disallow $2.04 Billion Approved for New Orleans Infrastructure Repairs,” OIG-17-97-D, July 24, 2017, accounted for a significant amount of the potential monetary benefits identified. FEMA disagreed with the recommendations, and the OIG appealed to the DHS Audit Follow-up and Resolution Official for resolution. On July 12, 2018, the DHS Resolution Official concluded that FEMA acted appropriately and within its authority when awarding the funds. Collectively, our FY 2017 work shows that FEMA continues to face systemic problems and operational challenges, and fails to manage disaster relief grants and funds adequately. Furthermore, FEMA remains ineffective at holding grant recipients accountable for properly managing disaster relief funds and providing adequate monitoring or technical assistance to subgrantees. We continue to identify problems such as improper contracting activities, and ineligible and unsupported expenditures. This report contains no recommendations, but provides an opportunity for FEMA to assess the need for change based on the recurring nature of our findings.