Federal Reports

The OIG investigated an allegation that a National Park Service (NPS) contractor in the U.S. Virgin Islands attempted to provide a cash bribe to an NPS employee. We also investigated allegations that a park supervisor influenced Government personnel to hire a family member as a contractor, that another supervisor prepared fraudulent Government documents to support an improper payment to a contractor, and that two supervisors received free personal work or discounts from a contractor in return for work or promises of work.We found that in June 2018, an NPS contractor gave an NPS employee $500 cash as an illegal gratuity for hiring him to do contract work at the park. The employee immediately reported the incident and turned the money over to the park’s acting superintendent, who provided it to our office.In addition, we found that a park supervisor gave the appearance of a conflict of interest when she told park staff about her family member’s qualifications, but we found no evidence the supervisor was directly involved in hiring the family member as a contractor.We further found that another supervisor failed to follow park guidance by preparing a micropurchase approval form after the contractor had been paid instead of completing the approval form before the work was completed. We did not, however, find that the payment was improper because the contractor performed the work. We found no evidence that two supervisors received free or discounted personal work from a contractor in exchange for work or promises of work.We presented our illegal gratuity finding to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of the U.S. Virgin Islands, which declined prosecution.

The Office of Inspector General is pleased to issue its Semiannual Report to Congress for the six month period ending September 2018. The theme for this Semiannual Report is “Sustainability and Innovation”. In achieving the results reported this period, OIG is leveraging its momentum that includes important factors such as success with standing up the OIG webpage and populating its content; revolutionizing our presence across the government; our partnership with oversight.gov; making the OIG hotline center operational and having a portal for receiving complaints and hearing about allegations concerning waste, fraud, and abuse; and actively participating to the DoD 898 Panel, where the AbilityOne IG is a statutory member.

Audit report on the U.S. AbilityOne Commission's 2018 financial statements, prepared by Davis & Associates CPAs, PLLC.

Our audit objectives were to determine whether the University of Houston completed verification of applicant data in accordance with Federal requirements and accurately reported verification results to Federal Student Aid (FSA). Our audit covered award year 2016–2017 (July 1, 2016, through June 30, 2017). We found that the University of Houston completed verification of applicant data in accordance with Federal requirements for 55 of the 60 students in our sample for award year 2016–2017. However, we found the University of Houston did not properly perform verification of applicant data in accordance with Federal requirements for 5 of the 60 students. Because the University of Houston did not properly perform verification for five sampled students, it improperly disbursed $14,004 in Pell funds for four students.The University of Houston accurately reported verification results to FSA for 59 of 60 students included in our random sample and for whom the school performed verification.

In a series of reports from 2008 to 2016, OIG found that adverse events and temporary harm events are common, endanger patient health, and are costly to the Medicare program. In a 2010 study, OIG found that 27 percent of hospitalized Medicare beneficiaries experienced such events, costing Medicare approximately $4.4 billion a year. OIG then expanded on this work by examining post-acute-care settings, finding that 33 percent of Medicare beneficiaries in skilled nursing facilities and 29 percent of Medicare beneficiaries in rehabilitation hospitals experienced harm. This report builds upon this prior work, focusing on Medicare stays in LTCHs.