Federal Reports

We reviewed the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) to determine what progress has been made in improving its incident investigations program since the Deepwater Horizon incident in 2010. Overall, we learned that BSEE improved its incident investigations program, but communication challenges were impacting the program.BSEE made progress in improving its incident investigations program. Specifically, BSEE established a National Investigations Program, dedicated staff to incident investigations, developed policies to address incident investigations, and created a basic training program on conducting incident investigations. In addition, BSEE updated and finalized its investigations policy, tiering policy, and handbook.While BSEE made improvements in these areas, we found communication issues that were negatively impacting the incident investigations program.

The OIG investigated allegations that Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribal Police Officer Willard White stole $40,000 from the Tribe. White allegedly obtained the funds under the pretense of creating a youth diversion program but spent the money on personal purchases and did not create the program.We found the Tribe gave White $40,000 to create a youth diversion program. White, however, spent the entire amount on personal purchases, none of which supported the establishment of the proposed program. In addition, White did not report the $40,000 as income to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).White pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the District of Montana to one count of18 U.S.C. § 1343, Wire Fraud, and one count of 26 U.S.C. § 7201, Income Tax Evasion. On October 9, 2019, White was sentenced to 6 months in prison and 2 years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $40,000 in restitution to the Fort Peck Tribe, $18,050 in restitution to the IRS, and a $200 special assessment.

Effective January 1, 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) established a policy for Medicare to pay under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) for chronic care management (CCM) services rendered to beneficiaries whose medical conditions meet certain criteria. Before that effective date, physicians did not have the ability to bill separately for typical non-face-to-face care management services provided to these beneficiaries. CCM payments are at a higher risk for overpayments compared with payments for more established Medicare services. CCM services are a relatively new category of Medicare-covered services and have multiple restrictions on when and how they can be billed.

HHS codified the Uniform Guidance at 45 CFR part 75, which governs awards and award increments made on or after December 26, 2014. The new rule requires prime Federal award recipients to perform pre-award subrecipient risk assessments and monitor the programmatic activities of subrecipients throughout the life of each subaward.

These challenges illustrate the most significant areas the Office of Inspector General (OIG) believes need improvement for the Peace Corps to effectively manage its resources and minimize the potential for fraud, waste, and abuse occurring in its operations. Addressing the issues related to these challenge areas will enable the agency to increase operational efficiencies and improve mission effectiveness.

The objectives of this performance audit were to assess the completeness, timeliness, quality, and accuracy of Fiscal Year 2019, First Quarter financial and award data submitted for publication on USAspending.gov in accordance with the DATA Act and to assess the Peace Corps’ compliance with use of the Government-wide financial data standards established by the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of the Treasury. While the Peace Corps’ FY 2019, Q1 DATA Act submission was of high quality, the agency lacks a comprehensive data quality plan outlining the risks and what mitigating controls it has in place to demonstrate that data submitted is of high quality.