Federal Reports

Our objective was to determine whether NTIA has an adequate review process to ensure that states’ and territories’ plans meet the BEAD program’s planning phase requirements. We found that NTIA did not have an adequate review process to ensure that states’ and territories’ plans met the BEAD program’s planning phase requirements. Specifically, we found that NTIA did not have complete and accurate documentation to support its decisions for the BEAD program planning phase deliverables and experienced delays during its review of the required planning phase deliverables for the BEAD program grant awards.

We made five recommendations to NTIA to provide adequate oversight of its review of the deliverables and establish milestones or performance metrics for completing its reviews of planning phase deliverables. NTIA concurred with our recommendations and is working to implement them.

This report provides status information on DOI’s American Relief Act supplemental funding for disaster relief as of the end of 2025.

The VA OIG reviewed whether the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) had sufficient procedures to verify the continued eligibility of beneficiaries (including both veterans and survivors) aged 100 years or older who were receiving recurring benefits as of May 31, 2025. Overall, the OIG found that VBA generally processed reviews accurately for most domestic beneficiaries (those with an address in the United States); while deficiencies such as incomplete or inaccurate documentation were identified, these issues were not systemic. However, VBA staff did not consistently process reviews for foreign beneficiaries (those with a foreign address).

Of the 195 foreign beneficiaries requiring routine review, 119 cases (about 61 percent) contained processing inaccuracies, and seven resulted in about $612,000 in overpayments. Many of the issues stemmed from systemic weaknesses, including the omission of beneficiaries residing in the Philippines from the review process and uncertainty among staff about how to verify whether foreign beneficiaries were still alive. Staff also lacked clarity regarding which regional office had jurisdiction over compensation cases involving beneficiaries with a Philippines address. Although responsibility for these cases was centralized to the San Diego office in 2020, the OIG observed that some cases were transferred between the San Diego and Manila offices for months before action was taken.

The OIG made six recommendations to strengthen oversight of benefit payments for beneficiaries aged 100 years or older. VBA concurred with all recommendations and requested that one be closed. Based on evidence VBA provided, the OIG considers that recommendation closed. Regarding the remaining recommendations, VBA has begun updating its procedures to improve the accuracy and consistency of these reviews.

Why We Did This Report

We conducted this audit to determine whether the Environmental Finance Centers, which are funded by annual and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act appropriations and perform work in EPA Region 4 states, are accomplishing the outputs and outcomes established in their cooperative agreements.

Summary of Findings

We found that six out of the eight Environmental Finance Centers, or EFCs, that provided technical assistance, or TA, in EPA Region 4 exceeded their target output for the number of communities receiving TA over the first year of performance under their cooperative agreements.