Federal Reports

The United States Coast Guard (Coast Guard) does not have a comprehensive system to initiate, investigate, and report suspension and revocation (S&R) actions of merchant mariner (mariner) credentials, and therefore cannot ensure the suitability of all mariners.  We found:  • The Coast Guard did not always investigate allegations of mariner misconduct because it has not developed a comprehensive case management system for the S&R process, nor has it developed internal procedures specifying which systems and processes Investigating Officers should use when investigating allegations. • The Coast Guard processes to obtain and record essential S&R information in its Merchant Mariner Licensing and Documentation (MMLD) database are not always effective, which leads to transmitting inaccurate information to the maritime community and the public. • The MMLD database is limited in its capabilities to store S&R decisions in a way that supports program oversight. • The Coast Guard does not have formal policies requiring Investigating Officers to document the reason(s) for not pursuing a preliminary case, resulting in reduced transparency. 

In fiscal year (FY) 2024, the U.S. Postal Service handled more than 11.6 million undeliverable Parcel Select packages that were scanned as return-to-sender. The Postal Service must process these packages at the post offices that serve the original delivery address and the return address. To receive these returns, the addressee must pay postage, which totaled about $138 million in FY 2024. A U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigation found these packages to be vulnerable to theft. 

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