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Brought to you by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency
Federal Reports
Report Date
Agency Reviewed / Investigated
Report Title
Type
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Securities and Exchange Commission
Anderson County Man Sentenced to 13 Years for 13M Ponzi Scheme and Cyberstalking
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issues patents based on its examination of applications for compliance with Patent Act statutes and relevant case law.
USPTO’s Office of Patent and Quality Assurance (OPQA) performs independent quality reviews of examiner office actions to ensure decisions to either allow or reject a patent claim comply with all legal requirements. OPQA’s reviews are used to generate and report USPTO’s statutory compliance measures for quality. Our objective was to determine the effectiveness of quality reviews of continuing patent applications completed in FYs 2021–2023.
We found that USPTO needs to strengthen its quality review program to be more effective at improving patent quality. Specifically, (1) USPTO did not consistently use the results of OPQA reviews to improve the quality of continuing application examination, (2) OPQA did not ensure quality assessments were performed on compliant quality review findings, and (3) USPTO did not report certain patent examination quality errors in its annual performance reports.
These issues resulted from incomplete and insufficient policies and procedures. We made six recommendations to help USPTO strengthen its quality review program and promote high-quality patent examination and improved patent quality.
DHMG’s Oversight of the Enterprises’ Compliance with Duty to Serve Requirements Was Not Fully Effective Due to Incomplete Evaluation Documentation and Outdated Guidance
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Inspector General initiated this project to describe the lessons we have identified from select EPA OIG and U.S. Government Accountability Office, or GAO, oversight reports to help inform the EPA’s future efforts to prepare for and respond to natural disasters.
Summary of Findings
We reviewed 26 EPA OIG and GAO reports that include findings related to the EPA’s prior disaster response actions. From those, we identified seven programmatic themes: (1)interagency and external stakeholder cooperation, (2) risk communication to the public,(3)data collection and characterization of risks, (4) policy development, (5) resource limitation, (6)contract management, and (7) resilience of contaminated sites and infrastructure. These themes had lessons that may allow the EPA to be better prepared for and respond to a natural disaster in the future. These reports made 79 recommendations to the EPA. Although we did not evaluate the timeliness or quality of the EPA’s corrective actions to these recommendations, it is imperative that the EPA implement recommendations that could provide a more efficient and effective response to future natural disasters.
This report presents the results of our audit of U.S. Postal Service’s financial controls and safeguarding assets at selected retail units.
The Postal Service operates approximately 31,000 retail units that provide services to customers nationwide. Retail unit employees are required to adhere to policies and procedures regarding financial reporting and the safeguarding of assets. All retail units must report their financial activity to Accounting Services daily, and retail unit management is responsible for the security of accountable items. Controls over these processes are essential for ensuring financial information is reliable and assets are protected. During a prior audit, we identified potential security matters and financial control issues at selected retail locations. As a result, we visited 10 additional retail units to determine compliance with policies and procedures and whether issues were remediated.
What We Did
Our objective was to determine compliance with policies and procedures regarding financial controls and safeguarding assets at selected Postal Service retail units. Specifically, we interviewed Postal Service management and retail associates, observed the safeguarding of assets, reviewed Postal Service (PS) Form 1412 supporting documentation, and inventoried arrow keys present at the retail units.
