Federal Reports

We selected the Olathe East Branch for review based on the number of customer inquiries the unit received. Specifically, there were 1,421 inquiries recorded in the Customer 360 (C360) system from November 2020 through January 2021. Most of the inquiries (1,276, or 89.8 percent) were related to package tracking and delivery. Our objective was to evaluate select mail delivery and customer service operations and determine whether internal controls were effective at the Olathe East Branch.

DOL-OIG Investigations Newsletter Vol. XXXIII for the period of February 1 - March 31, 2021

Our objective was to determine the accuracy of Postal Service Highway Contract Route (HCR) scheduled hours and payments from fiscal years (FYs) 2016 through 2020. We performed a risk assessment of the HCR scheduled trips and determined that of the 82,578 scheduled trips in TCSS from FYs 2016 through 2020, 271 were at high- or medium-risk of their contracted schedules being overstated. We used the average speed of 50 miles per hour from the November 2010 Freight Facts and Figures study issued by the Department of Transportation to calculate trip hours, compared it to the actual trip hours in TCSS, and categorized the differences into high-risk (20 hours or more), medium-risk (five to 20 hours), and low-risk (fewer than five hours). The 271 trips included 130 spotter and shuttle services that we excluded from our review because they do not travel on highways, resulting in 141 at-risk trips for review.

We conducted a review to determine the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 compliance with the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010 (IPERA) (Public Law 111-204) which amended the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 (Pub. L. 107-300) (IPIA) and required agencies to identify and review all programs and activities they administer that may be susceptible to significant improper payments based on guidance provided by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).1 In addition, section 3 of IPERA required Inspectors General to review each agency’s improper payment reporting and issue an annual report.

An Amtrak Specialist based in Philadelphia was issued a letter of warning on May 4, 2021, for violating company policies by admittedly posting inappropriate and offensive images on her Facebook account that publicly identified her as an Amtrak employee, in violation of company policy.

EPA Did Not Conduct Agencywide Risk Assessment of CARES Act Appropriations, Increasing Risk of Fraud, Waste, Abuse, and Mismanagement.