Federal Reports

This report provides an overview of AI and Machine Learning technologies, selected use cases, and policies implemented within DOI.

Why We Did This Report

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Inspector General has identified a concern with the EPA’s requirement that extramural research reports be submitted to the EPA via email.

Summary of Findings

The OIG has concerns with the EPA’s requirement that awardees submit federally funded research reports via email. Email providers go to great lengths to obscure the originating IP address from an email’s header information. This makes it very difficult to determine the location from which the email was sent. The location is useful for identifying whether a research report was sent from within the United States.

OIG conducted this review to describe the factors that affect territories' administration of HAVA grants and assess the effectiveness of the EAC’s management of HAVA grants awarded to territories.

This report presents the results of our Independent Auditors’ Performance Audit Report on the Federal Election Commission’s (FEC) Security Patches and Vulnerabilities Management Programs for the Fiscal Year Ending September 30, 2024.

This report presents the results of our audit of the Food Safety and Inspection Service’s Cooperative Interstate Shipment Program.

We audited Neighborhood Loans, Inc., to evaluate its quality control (QC) program for originating and underwriting Single Family FHA-insured loans. Our audit covered the period October 2020 through September 2022.  We selected Neighborhood Loans for review based on its increasing loan volume and delinquency rate and because its rate of self-reporting loans to HUD when it identified fraud, material misrepresentations, and other material findings that it could not mitigate was below average for 5 of the last 6 years.

We found that Neighborhood Loans’ QC program for originating and underwriting FHA-insured loans was not sufficient.  Specifically, Neighborhood Loans (1) did not select the proper number of loans for review and maintain complete data to document its loan selection process; (2) did not complete all loan reviews in a timely manner; (3) did not always complete key review steps and sometimes missed material deficiencies; and (4) did not adequately assess, mitigate, and report loan review findings, which included self-reporting loans to HUD when required.  These issues occurred because Neighborhood Loans had insufficient controls over its QC program, was not always familiar with HUD requirements, and experienced staffing constraints.  As a result, HUD did not have assurance that Neighborhood Loans’ QC program fully achieved its intended purposes, which include, among other things, protecting the FHA insurance fund and lender from unacceptable risk, guarding against fraud, and ensuring timely and appropriate corrective action.

We recommend that HUD require Neighborhood Loans to (1) update its QC plan and related procedures to align with HUD requirements; (2) provide training to staff and management on HUD requirements for lender QC programs; (3) review the loans that it had not selected and take appropriate actions when applicable; (4) review its QC files for loans in which it may not have performed complete reverifications and reverify information where appropriate (5) evaluate its QC files for reviews in which it did not yet assess the risk of findings identified; and 6) evaluate its QC files for the loans in which it identified material findings to confirm whether it self-reported to HUD all findings of fraud or material misrepresentation, along with any other material findings that it did not acceptably mitigate.
 

We found that none of the three Department of Homeland Security components responsible for end of parole activities—U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — were designated to monitor parole expiration and DHS did not have a well-defined process to address parole expiration for aliens paroled into the United States through Operation Allies Refuge/Operation Allies Welcome, Uniting for Ukraine, and processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans. We also found that DHS did not initiate enforcement actions for parolees whose parole expired. As a result, DHS did not have assurance that former parolees were lawfully present in the United States after parole expiration.