Federal Reports

We found that the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) audit follow-up process was not always effective. Specifically, we found that although OSERS adequately maintained documentation of audit follow-up activities for the audits included in our review, it did not close audits timely. From October 1, 2008, through September 30, 2013, OSERS closed 14 external OIG audits; 11 (79 percent) were closed more than 2 years after resolution, and 2 (14 percent) were closed more than 5 years after resolution. The total of the monetary recommendations associated with the 14 audits was more than $356 million.

Objective: To determine whether the Social Security Administration had taken actions since December 31, 2013 to collect outstanding Supplemental Security Income overpayments.

The OIG performed this audit to determine TVA Information Technology Enterprise Customer Operations' (ECO): (1) current effectiveness, (2) actions completed in the implementation of management action plans and Information Technology (IT) 1K initiatives in relation to achieving outcomes, and (3) design of the management action plans in response to Audit No. 2010-13366 and IT1K program for gaps related to any outcomes not met. ECO has worked to improve the end-user experience by adopting industry standard best practices, building a new customer operations center, offering expanded self-service options to end users, and providing strong and constructive leadership to its staff, creating a positive work environment. While ECO has succeeded in many efforts, it has yet to establish proper application service levels. Field Operations Services provides technical support across the valley, including network, desktop, phone, and server support. While the group is managing the current workload, there are concerns the quality of work and customer wait times may suffer if the workload increases. According to IT management, one IT1K outcome relating to manual inventory and tagging of IT assets was not completed, and the management action plan related to Service Level Agreements made in response to Audit No. 2010-13366 was not implemented. TVA management agreed with our recommendations.