Federal Reports

Our overall objective was to determine the effectiveness of the actions to account for all employees based on whether the Postal Service (1) located employees in the days after Katrina and (2) tracked employees’ locations as they changed addresses in the days and months following the hurricane. We also determined what, if any, responsibility employees had to inform the Postal Service of their locations as they moved about the country. We reviewed the facilities in the Southeast Area’s Mississippi District and the Louisiana District’s New Orleans Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC) located in the Southwest Area.

To obtain further information, please contact the OIG Office of Counsel at OIGCounsel@oig.treas.gov, (202) 927-0650, or by mail at Office of Treasury Inspector General, 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC 20220

The audit objectives were to determine whether program funds were managed in accordance with the ARC and Federal grant requirements

We audited the costs invoiced by a contractor for retroactive rate adjustments and determined the adjustments were overstated by about $12,000 due to miscellaneous billing errors. The contractor agreed with our findings. Summary Only

We reviewed TVA's contracting process and noted several areas where improvements could result in better contract management and greater contractor compliance with commercial terms and conditions. Although we noted many instances of good practices being performed by various individuals in Procurement and TVA's Strategic Business Units, these practices were not universal. Overall, we noted (1) deficiencies in 40 percent of the 64 contracts reviewed; (2) technical contract managers were approving payments without adequately reviewing pricing on 25 percent of the invoices reviewed; and (3) internal controls were not always followed. Additionally, we surveyed Procurement's contract managers and purchasing agents and a representative sample of TVA's technical contract managers to ask for their input regarding weaknesses and areas of improvement in the contracting process. The survey results were most negative in areas concerning (1) training, (2) workload, and (3) communications. TVA management instituted several initiatives to address most of the issues identified in the report. Summary Only