Federal Reports

We found that the Department should have enhanced its communications regarding cost information related to the Federal student loan programs’ income-driven repayment (IDR) plans and loan forgiveness programs to make it more informative and easier to understand. Specifically, the Department could have provided more detailed information on specific IDR plans, such as Pay as You Earn and Revised Pay as You Earn, and its loan forgiveness programs to fully inform decision makers and the public (including advocacy groups) about current and future program management and financial implications of these plans and programs. Decision makers and others may not be aware of the growth in the participation in these IDR plans and loan forgiveness programs and the resulting additional costs. They also may not be aware of the risk that, for future loan cohorts, the Federal government and taxpayers may lend more money overall than is repaid from borrowers.

OIG investigated discrepancies identified after the National Park Service (NPS) conducted an electronic audit of the fee collection software at the Petrified Forest National Park (PEFO), located in eastern Arizona, which compared cash collected at the park with cash deposits made into the bank.Our investigation determined that from approximately 2010 through March 2016, Sharon Baldwin, Supervisory Visitor Use Assistant, exploited vulnerabilities in the NPS remittance process at PEFO and stole approximately $313,000 in fees collected at the park. Baldwin pled guilty in Federal court in AZ to violating Title 18 U.S.C. § 641, theft of Government money, and was sentenced to one year and one day in prison and ordered to pay $313,000 in restitution to PEFO.We also found that the PEFO staff who assisted Baldwin with the cash counts were never formally trained on the NPS remittance process and relied on the training given to them by Baldwin, which contributed to Baldwin’s scheme remaining undetected for several years.

Audit Report

This report is part of an ongoing audit to determine whether DHS has training strategies and capabilities in place to train the 15,000 new agents and officers the Department plans to hire. ICE plans to hire and train more than 10,000 agents and officers over the next 5 years. HSI and ERO leaders could not provide justification and their views on training conflict with the centralized training model approach. Without a thorough analysis, efforts to decentralize aspects of ICE training may prove counterproductive to benefits ICE previously identified with the centralized training model analysis. Specifically, ICE may lose any improvements in capturing expenditures and forecasting costs, projecting training requirements, and evaluating the model’s effectiveness across ICE