Federal Reports

The U.S. Postal Service is the second largest employer in the United States with over 640,000 employees and $2.15 billion in bi-weekly salaries. To provide employees with convenient access to their payroll, benefits, and personnel data, the Postal Service uses the LiteBlue portal. This web-based portal contains several human resources (HR) applications, including PostalEASE, which allows employees to establish direct deposits, create or modify payroll allotments, and update retirement and health benefits information. In October 2022, some employees entered their login credentials into several fake LiteBlue websites, allowing bad actors to obtain their login credentials and fraudulently reroute employees’ payroll direct deposits and create payroll allotments to bank accounts they controlled.

This report presents the results of our audit of mail delivery, customer service, and property conditions in the Minnesota-North Dakota District.

Why We Did This ReportThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Inspector General conducted this evaluation to determine the financial capacity of the New Mexico Environment Department to manage its Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund Program. Summary of FindingsThe New Mexico Environment Department, or NMED, is sufficiently meeting the financial and organizational dimensions of capacity to manage and use its infrastructure funds for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, or CWSRF, Program. However, the NMED faces stakeholder- and human-capital-related challenges that limit its capacity to effectively manage and use its CWSRF Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, or IIJA, funding. These challenges are compounded by the fact that the NMED is not fully staffed and has difficulty filling its vacancies. Should program participation increase, NMED staff may have difficulty managing the corresponding increase in the CWSRF workload.

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity’s, implementation of Executive Order 13988, which President Biden issued to prevent and combat discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation. We performed this audit to assess HUD’s progress in developing an action plan to implement the executive order. Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD had established and implemented a plan to prevent and combat discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. HUD developed a proposed plan of action related to Executive Order 13988. According to HUD Office of General Council officials, HUD submitted its proposed plan to the White House Domestic Policy Council within 100 days of Executive Order 13988, thereby satisfying the requirements of the executive order. To implement its plan, HUD regional offices and Fair Housing Assistance Program agencies identified and notified almost all complainants who alleged gender identity or sexual orientation discrimination in accordance with its guidance. It also committed to the Equal Access Rule. As a result of developing and implementing the plan, HUD had reasonable assurance that its regional offices and FHAP agencies were properly identifying and addressing allegations of gender identity or sexual orientation discrimination in HUD programs and HUD-assisted housing and shelters.The report contains no recommendations.