Federal Reports

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This report presents the results of our unannounced inspection August 16, 2018, of passenger ferry safety aboard ferry service to Bulls Island in the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, Awendaw, SC. The objective of our inspection was to determine whether Coastal Expeditions, Inc., a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) concessionaire, operated its ferry service to Bulls Island in compliance with Federal safety requirements.Specifically, each of its two vessels had a U.S. Coast Guard Certificate of Inspection on board, carried enough life vests for all passengers, had fire extinguishers available that had been inspected regularly, and carried first aid kits. In addition, crew members possessed current operating licenses and CPR certifications, and passed random drug tests. While we inspected both ferries, the concessionaire’s largest ferry was the only one in use during the period of our inspection and we found that it did not carry more passengers than allowed.

This report presents the results of our unannounced inspection on August 14, 2018, of passenger ferry safety at Fort Sumter National Monument, Charleston, SC. The objective of our inspection was to determine whether Fort Sumter Tours, Inc., a National Park Service (NPS) concessionaire, operated its ferry service to Fort Sumter in compliance with Federal safety requirements.Fort Sumter Tours met all the safety requirements that we tested on three of its four vessels (the fourth was out of service). Each had a U.S. Coast Guard Certificate of Inspection on board, and none of the ferries carried more passengers than allowed. Furthermore, the ferries carried enough life vests for all passengers, had fire extinguishers available that had been inspected regularly, and carried first aid kits on board. In addition, sufficient crew members possessed current operating licenses and CPR certifications and passed random drug tests.

The objective of this report was to assess the maturity of the U.S. Postal Service Ethics Program in three areas: (1) agency goals and metrics, (2) accountability and consistency, and (3) cause and prevention. We discuss these areas using a maturity model framework to demonstrate the value of approaching an organization’s ethical efforts in a comprehensive, integrated manner that actively contributes to the organization’s mission.

Although Northwestern claimed allowable expenditures on subawards it awarded and received, it did not always perform required subaward risk assessments. For 24 of the 30 grants to subrecipients, Northwestern did not perform a risk assessment on 1 or more of the subrecipients. The 30 grants had subawards to 61 subrecipients, 48 of which should have had a risk assessment, but did not. The remaining 13 subrecipients either had a risk assessment or were not required to have a risk assessment. As a result, Federal funds of approximately $9.7 million were awarded to subrecipients without performing the required risk assessment.

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