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Brought to you by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) operates four coal plants, which are required to comply with the Clean Air Act (CAA). In 2023, changes to the CAA required the reduction of nitrogen oxide (NOx) from power plants. To comply with the changes, TVA made the decision to install Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) systems at TVA’s Shawnee Fossil Plant (SHF) for Units 2, 3, 7, and 8 and entered into a $59.5 million contract for the design and delivery of SCR systems (SCR systems are emission control technology designed to remove NOx from flue gases emitted by combustion sources). The contract included performance guarantees for meeting metrics such as NOx emissions, and system pressure drop. Due to the importance of complying with environmental regulations and the cost of the project, we initiated an evaluation to determine whether performance guarantees were met for the SHF SCR project.
We determined metrics associated with performance guarantees for the SHF SCR project were met. However, TVA project support personnel performed the SCR tuning, which was a defined contractor responsibility. This resulted in unnecessary risk and additional cost to TVA.
Quinton Johnson, a former Amtrak employee from Irvington, New Jersey, pleaded guilty on October 28, 2025, in U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, to conspiracy to commit health care fraud. As a result, the court ordered Johnson to forfeit all property, real or personal, in the amount of $4,900. Our investigation found that Johnson and codefendants allowed health care providers to use their insurance information to bill Amtrak’s health care plan for false and fraudulent claims and for services that were not provided or medically unnecessary. In exchange, Johnson and codefendants accepted cash kickbacks worth thousands of dollars from the health care providers.
Judicial proceedings for the codefendants in this investigation are ongoing.
The Office of the Inspector General performed an audit of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Program due to the increased use of unmanned aircraft in TVA operations. Our audit objectives were to determine if TVA's (1) UAS Program was in compliance with applicable federal requirements and (2) use of unmanned aircraft was in compliance with applicable TVA policies. Our audit scope included TVA's use of unmanned aircraft from January 1, 2024, through December 31, 2024.
In general, we determined TVA's (1) UAS Program complied with applicable federal requirements and (2) use of unmanned aircraft complied with applicable TVA policies. However, we determined 2 of 64 pilots did not have the remote pilot certificate required to operate UAS. We made one recommendation to management to address verification of remote pilot certificates.
