Federal Reports

Our Objective(s)To perform a quality control review (QCR) of KPMG LLP's management letter related to the audit of DOT's consolidated financial statements as of and for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2024, and September 30, 2023. We reviewed KPMG's management letter, dated November 27, 2024, and related documentation.
About This ReportWe contracted with the independent public accounting firm KPMG, LLP, to audit DOT's consolidated financial statements. KPMG also issued a management letter discussing internal control matters that KPMG was not required to include in its audit report.
What We FoundThe independent auditor, KPMG, found six internal control matters in DOT's management of operations.

Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) weaknesses within the user profile system change management process.
FHWA's weakness in accounting policies for Federal Lands Highway construction.
Enterprise Services Center's (ESC) weakness in control over Central Accounting Reporting System Classification, Transactions, and Accountability module reconciliation.
ESC's weakness in control over quarterly review of the journal voucher control log.
OST's weakness in control over management legal schedule and management legal letter.
FHWA's weaknesses in controls over the inputs to the Federal aid grant accrual.

Our QCR disclosed no instances in which KPMG did not comply, in all material respects, with U.S. generally accepted Government auditing standards.
RecommendationsWe agree with KPMG's 11 recommendations to strengthen DOT's information system and business process controls.

Our Objective(s)To perform a quality control review (QCR) of Allmond & Company, LLC's (Allmond) management letter related to the audit of NTSB's financial statements as of and for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2024, and September 30, 2023. We reviewed Allmond's management letter, dated November 6, 2024, and related documentation.
About This ReportWe contracted with the independent public accounting firm Allmond to audit NTSB's financial statements. Allmond also issued a management letter discussing internal control matters that Allmond was not required to include in its audit report.
What We FoundThe independent auditor, Allmond, found three internal control matters in NTSB's management of operations.

NTSB does not have agency-specific written policies and procedures for processing personnel actions.
NTSB does not review the Official Personnel Folders of transferred employees and employees returning to Federal service to verify the employees' payroll and benefits information is accurate and supported by appropriate documentation
NTSB does not have a procedure to validate upward and downward adjustment activity in the general ledger and to make the necessary corrections to ensure that both the upward and downward adjustment balances are accurate.

Our QCR disclosed no instances in which Allmond did not comply, in all material respects, with U.S. generally accepted Government auditing standards.
RecommendationsWe agree with Allmond's seven recommendations to help strengthen NTSB's internal controls.

The U.S. Department of Education (Department) is responsible for minimizing the risk that Federal funds will be lost when an Institution of Higher Education (IHE) stops participating in the programs authorized by Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended. When an IHE stops participating in Title IV programs, either voluntarily or involuntarily (due to closure or other circumstances), the closeout procedures it is required to perform and the liability assessment processes Federal Student Aid (FSA) performs, identify any program funds the IHE is required to return to the Department. If the required closeout procedures are not completed, an alternative assessment is conducted by FSA to determine whether the IHE must return program funds to the Department. We performed our inspection to determine the results of the Department’s processes for assessing and recouping liabilities from IHEs that closed from October 1, 2020, through September 30, 2023. We found that the Department has processes in place for assessing and recouping liabilities from IHEs that close. Based on these processes FSA’s School Participation Divisions (SPD) determined that as of March 2024, 47 of the 161 IHEs that closed between October 1, 2020, and September 30, 2023, should repay the Department a total of $34,593,135 in Title IV program funds. These processes also led to FSA’s SPDs assessing liabilities totaling $30,507,138 during the period we reviewed for 13 of the 19 closed IHEs we selected for review. The Department’s Office of Finance and Operations recouped a total of $812,998 of those liabilities from 8 of the 13 IHEs. However, despite these efforts, we found that five of the seven sampled SPDs that oversee IHEs and that we included in our review did not always follow the established processes to timely determine whether liabilities should be assessed against IHEs that closed. These processes are necessary to timely determine closed schools’ liabilities and to make those determinations in a manner consistent with established guidance. We did not identify any issues with the Department’s actions to recoup liabilities from the IHEs we sampled in our review.

This letter responds to the Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2012 (Charge Card Act) reporting requirement for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for fiscal year 2025.

We performed an audit of MidFirst’s compliance with Federal Housing Administration (FHA) requirements for foreclosures that started in 2022.  Pursuant to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), as extended by the Secretary, from March 18, 2020, through July 31, 2021, there was a pause on new and ongoing foreclosures for FHA single‐family mortgages for homes that remained occupied. We selected MidFirst Bank because it was among the first servicers to resume initiating foreclosures after the moratorium ended with a foreclosure rate above 1 percent.  Our audit objective was to determine whether MidFirst Bank complied with FHA’s requirements for loss mitigation before initiating and continuing foreclosure.

 MidFirst Bank did not follow FHA’s requirements for more than 14 percent of its foreclosures in 2022.  Based on a statistically valid sample drawn from a universe of 7,363 FHA-insured loans totaling $890 million, MidFirst did not complete the required loss mitigation activities before initiating or continuing foreclosure for an estimated 1,038 loans.  

Williams, Adley & Company – DC, LLP (Williams Adley), under contract with the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, issued an Independent Accountant’s Review Report on the United States Coast Guard (Coast Guard) Detailed Accounting Report for Drug Control Funds. Coast Guard’s management prepared the Table of FY 2024 Drug Control Obligations and related assertions to comply with the requirements of the ONDCP Circular, National Drug Control Program Agency Compliance Reviews, dated September 9, 2021.