Federal Reports

We conducted a review of TVA and contractor employment procedures to determine if TVA policies and procedures ensure the hiring of non-citizens complies with legal requirements. In summary, it appears that TVA has appropriate policies and procedures in place to ensure that (1)its hiring process is in compliance with applicable legal requirements and (2)contractors are responsible for ensuring that principals/employees under contract to TVA meet Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) requirements. However, we selected 34employees to verify TVA compliance with the INS requirements and found required information could not be provided for 9 employees due to the loss of electronic files. The Personnel Records Imaging System (PRIS) backup and server failures were addressed in OIG Audit No.2007-039T-01. However, we recommended management determine what actions are necessary since required information was lost due to system failures. Management agreed with our findings and has initiated or plans to initiate corrective action.

We performed an inspection to assess the reasonableness of travel reimbursements where employees were (1)in travel status for an extended period of time and/or (2)received significant reimbursements. The scope of the inspection included all reimbursements made to employees during FYs 1999-2006. We found many TVA employees who received significant travel reimbursements and traveled to the same location for extended periods in multiple years. We identified the top 100 travelers for each year reviewed based on the number of days spent in travel status in a single location during FYs 1999-2006 and requested justifications from management for the extensive travel. In summary, we found for the 8 years of travel reimbursements reviewed, there were 434 TVA employees identified as a top 100 traveler in a single year for the years reviewed. During this period, the 434 individuals received reimbursements totaling over $9.6million. While the organizations provided explanations, no documentation was provided to support that consideration was given to changing any official duty stations. The lack of specific justification for extended travel for several individuals over several years to one location raises questions about whether there may be untapped cost saving opportunities. Management generally agreed with our findings and recommendations and is taking or plans to take corrective action.