Federal Reports

The OIG investigated an allegation that a former Bureau of Land Management (BLM) employee accessed child pornography with a U.S. Government computer.We found no evidence that the employee accessed child pornography. We evaluated the employee’s network traffic, which showed their computer accessed sites hosting suspected child pornography; however, we were not able to determine if the employee accessed the areas of the websites that hosted the suspected child pornography. The employee took certain actions with respect to the hard drive, so we were unable to recover any images or other evidence from the computer. The employee admitted to viewing adult pornography on their Government computer while on duty but denied viewing child pornography.The employee resigned during our investigation after receiving a notice of proposed removal. The U.S. Attorney declined prosecution of this matter.

For a covered outpatient drug to be eligible for Federal reimbursement under the Medicaid program’s drug rebate requirements, manufacturers must pay rebates to the States for the drugs. However, a prior OIG review found that States did not always invoice and collect all rebates due for drugs administered by physicians.Our objective was to determine whether Maine complied with Federal Medicaid requirements for invoicing manufacturers for rebates for physician-administered drugs.

According to the Federal Communications Commission, more than 18 million Americans currently lack basic broadband service. With a physical presence in nearly every community in the country, the U.S. Postal Service is uniquely situated to play a role in helping bring 5G and broadband service to those areas of the country currently unserved or underserved. The OIG found there are several potential partnership opportunities that would allow the Postal Service to help bring high-quality broadband to areas where it is currently lacking. These would include colocation of critical infrastructure at Postal Service facilities, positioning them as digital hubs and leveraging USPS resources to collect valuable data about broadband coverage in remote areas. Such an undertaking would serve to further cement the Postal Service’s already critically important role in American life.