Federal Reports

This grant was awarded to JSCC to provide funding for the Jefferson State Automotive Industry Partnership Initiative.

The OIG investigated allegations that a former Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) official may have shown favoritism when awarding Government contracts to a particular company. The complainant stated that the former official, who left BSEE to work for the company, may have participated in awarding a blanket purchase agreement (BPA) to the company before leaving BSEE and that he later influenced subsequent awards made under the BPA.After interviewing current and former BSEE employees who were either involved in awarding the initial BPA or the subsequent awards to the company, we did not find evidence that the former official had any influence or involvement in these actions during or after his employment at BSEE. During our investigation, we did find that the former official had communicated with his former coworkers at BSEE after he left, but we did not find that these communications violated Federal ethics rules.

The OIG investigated allegations that a retired Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) employee represented his current employer in matters in which he participated personally and substantially while he was employed at the USBR, violating post-employment conflict-of-interest laws.We confirmed that the retired employee represented his current employer in four matters which were substantially the same as those he engaged in while employed with the USBR. We found that he represented his current employer on a biological assessment on which he had been the primary decision maker while with the USBR, and that he was involved in the transfer of levee titles, which he discussed with his current employer while he was employed by the USBR. The retired employee also communicated back to the USBR about litigation surrounding water accounting methods—an issue he was involved with while with the USBR. Finally, he participated in litigation matters and meetings regarding a USBR dam, first as a USBR employee and then again after he retired.The retired employee declined to be interviewed, but an attorney for his new employer provided us with a written rebuttal to the four allegations.We referred this case to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico, which declined to prosecute.

The OIG investigated allegations that Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) Director Tony Dearman improperly influenced the findings of a fiscal monitoring review at a BIE-funded boarding school that took place in February 2018 because of his personal associations with the school.We found that Dearman’s presence at the school during the fiscal monitoring review was unusual, but that the monitoring team did not change its findings because of Dearman. We found that Dearman, who works at the BIE headquarters in Washington, DC, had previously served as the school’s principal and his family had associations with the school and still lived near the school. Dearman traveled in February 2018 to visit his family and attended the monitoring team’s exit interview with school officials.Of the 13 BIE employees involved with the review, 9 believed that Dearman’s presence negatively impacted the review, stating that his presence was either improper, inappropriate, a conflict of interest, or an appearance of a conflict of interest. Four team members said Dearman’s presence did not affect them or the team and did not recall him questioning or disagreeing with the team’s findings. All 13 team members told us the team did not changes its findings because of Dearman.Dearman said he attended the exit interview because he wanted to observe the progress of financial monitoring practices he had implemented at the BIE. He denied arguing with the team or questioning its findings and said he spoke up at the exit interview only to ensure the team gave the school accurate information. While we found that no other BIE director had attended these types of review at this or any other BIE school, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs John Tahsuda said he saw no issue with Dearman’s participation.We provided a copy of our report to the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs.

The National Security Agency Office of the Inspector General (NSA OIG) publicly released today its first unclassified version of its Semi-Annual Report to Congress (SAR). The unclassified version of the SAR covers the period from October 1, 2017, through March 31, 2018, and reflects what NSA OIG could release publicly about its work for that reporting period. It discusses 16 audits, inspections, and special studies completed during that period, as well as a number of other ongoing reviews.

We determined that the Federal Air Marshall Services’ (FAMS) could not demonstrate the extent its ground-based activities’ contributed to the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) mission. FAMS lacked performance measures for most ground-based activities and could not provide a budget breakout by division or operational area. Without effective performance measures or detailed accounting of funding, FAMS cannot ensure it is maximizing its resources to address its highest risks and is unable to measure the value of its investment in these ground-based activities. We made two recommendations that will enhance FAMS’ overall effectiveness. TSA concurred with both recommendations.

We determined that the Federal Air Marshall Services’ (FAMS) could not demonstrate the extent its ground-based activities’ contributed to the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) mission. FAMS lacked performance measures for most ground-based activities and could not provide a budget breakout by division or operational area. Without effective performance measures or detailed accounting of funding, FAMS cannot ensure it is maximizing its resources to address its highest risks and is unable to measure the value of its investment in these ground-based activities. We made two recommendations that will enhance FAMS’ overall effectiveness. TSA concurred with both recommendations.