Federal Reports

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted an audit to assess Regional Procurement Office Central’s (RPO Central) compliance with the Buy American Act of 1933 and associated guidance, which requires the federal government to purchase domestic products when possible.The OIG audited RPO Central because it had over $4.3 billion in obligations in FY 2021, making it the largest in terms of contract expenditures of the three procurement centers in the Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) Procurement and Logistics Office. The audit team reviewed a statistical sample of 80 contracts, made from October 2017 through March 2021, and related files RPO Central officials use to ensure compliance with the act, and it examined internal reviews of compliance from 2017.Due to insufficient oversight and training, contracting officers did not always meet the act’s requirements, resulting in expenditures of about $280.6 million for foreign-made items and $351 million for domestic-made items with contract files that contained compliance deficiencies. Of the 40 contracts for foreign-made items, 37 did not comply with the act, compared to 15 of 40 that did not comply for domestic-made items. RPO Central reviewers did not identify deficiencies in almost 75 percent of the reviewed foreign-made contracts. Contracting officers indicated training did not fully address the complexities of the act. The audit team also determined that RPO Central’s executive director did not fully implement recommendations from a 2017 review by the VA’s Risk Management and Compliance Service.The OIG made two recommendations to the VA Office of Acquisition and Logistics’ executive director to ensure contracting office leaders assess compliance weaknesses, implement corrective actions, and require refresher training for contracting officers who made the deficient contracts. The OIG also made one recommendation to the VHA procurement executive director to evaluate contract file review procedures.

The U.S. Postal Service is required to provide universal service to every person in the United States. Most of Alaska’s communities are not connected due to its vast geography and lack of surface highway and road infrastructure. To meet its mission in Alaska, the Postal Service uses airplanes, helicopters, hovercraft, and other modes of non-traditional transportation to deliver mail to 82 percent of the communities that are not accessible by road.Alaska mail services includes two primary classifications of mail — priority and non-priority service. Priority mail consists of First-Class, Priority, and Express Mail; and non-priority mail consists of in-house non-priority and bypass mail. Bypass mail is prepared and tendered by authorized shippers directly to air carriers for transportation and delivery to rural Alaska, thus bypassing the Postal Service

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) did not implement controls to prevent state workforce agencies (SWA) from paying more than $2.6 million in Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) for potentially fraudulent claims made by Department of Homeland Security employees, or claimants who fraudulently used the identities of DHS employees to obtain LWA benefits.

The Biden administration purchased rapid COVID-19 test kits to give to Americans free of charge for home use and partnered with the U.S. Postal Service to package and deliver the kits. Within a short period, the Postal Service established a test kit program, which facilitated ordering, fulfillment, and delivery of kits to 125 million residential addresses. The Postal Service designed and developed a website for customers to order test kits for delivery to their homes.Our objective was to assess the accounting treatment and selected technology support associated with the distribution of the COVID-19 test kits to the public. To accomplish our objective, we reviewed accounting treatment and reporting of costs and the development of the online test kit website.

We determined that the Three Affiliated Tribes did not follow applicable requirements in an agreement with the BIA.

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