Federal Reports

We audited information system controls over the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) computing environment. This review was conducted as part of our audit of HUD’s financial statements for fiscal year 2017 under the Chief Financial Officer’s Act of 1990. Our objective was to assess general controls over HUD’s computing environment for compliance with HUD information technology policies and Federal information system security and financial management requirements. The OIG has determined that the contents of this audit report would not be appropriate for public disclosure and has therefore limited its distribution to those officials listed on the report distribution list.

Prior OIG reviews found that hospitals did not always comply with Medicare requirements for reporting credits received from manufacturers for replaced medical devices.

The purpose of the Consolidated Technical Assistance grant is to address all four ARC goals to provide technical assistance for project development

OIG investigated allegations that Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) native language teachers accepted payments from a tribe, which illegally supplemented their Federal salaries.We substantiated the allegations. We identified BIE native language teachers who received two or three supplemental payments each, ranging from $1,490.48 to $5,544.43 per payment during the 2014 and 2015 school years. Several teachers admitted that prior to the first payment they were aware that accepting the money violated ethics rules and Federal law. Several also admitted they had been admonished by their supervisors and informed the payments violated Federal law. We also determined that at least one teacher solicited for payments at district and Tribal council meetings.The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Dakota declined prosecution. One of the teachers left the school shortly after we interviewed her, one teacher is now deceased, and the remaining teachers are still employed at the school.

OIG investigated allegations that an oil and gas company improperly claimed royalty suspension under the Deepwater Royalty Relief Act of 1995, and failed to pay mineral royalties associated with an offshore Federal lease.We determined the company was eligible for royalty relief but was required to pay royalties once it reached the royalty free production limit established for the Federal lease. We found the company failed to pay Federal royalties for a five-month period in 2015 after it exceeded its royalty suspension volume, but the company, without knowledge of our investigation or direction from the Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR), self-corrected its royalty reporting and on February 6, 2017, paid approximately $194,974 in late royalties and over $8,000 in interest.

The OIG investigated allegations that a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) contractor submitted a fraudulent claim for an equitable adjustment to a crane repair contract. The contractor allegedly altered cost submission documents submitted by the sub-contractor. We determined that the claim for equitable adjustment did not contain fraudulent information as alleged, and we confirmed that the sub-contractors cost submission documents submitted by the contractor were authentic.

The OIG investigated allegations that a National Park Service (NPS) senior manager purchased personal gifts with government funds, reprised against an employee, committed travel fraud, misused Government-owned vehicles, wasted training funds, improperly permitted park guests to lodge in a ranger station, and used her personal credit card to pay for lodging of park guests. We also investigated an alleged conflict of interest by a subordinate of the NPS senior manager.We substantiated several of the allegations, including that the senior manager used park funds to purchase two high valued items, valued at nearly $600, which could not be located or accounted for. We also confirmed the senior manager lowered the performance rating of an employee after concerns were reported related to the senior manager’s official travel. We further determined that the senior manager permitted visitors and park employees to lodge at a ranger station that was not approved as park housing. We also substantiated that the senior manager drove a Government vehicle to their private residence prior to official travel without the required written approval, and that the senior manager paid for a visitor’s lodging with personal funds and then claimed reimbursement from the Government. We did not find evidence that the senior manager committed travel fraud or wasted training funds as alleged.We also confirmed that a subordinate of the NPS senior manager improperly used park funds to purchase antiques from a family member, a violation of conflict of interest regulations.We referred this matter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York, which declined prosecution.