Federal Reports

The OIG conducted this audit to determine whether medical facilities followed VHA’s process to plan, request, and approve nonexpendable medical equipment purchases. Nonexpendable equipment typically has a useful life of two years or more and costs at least $300. Ventilators, radiology equipment, and vital sign monitors are examples. VHA’s process requires facilities to use the Strategic Equipment Planning Guide and Enterprise Equipment Request portal, designed to support streamlined planning and expedite approval of equipment orders. From FY 2022 through May of FY 2024, VHA staff entered requests into the guide to buy about $2.1 billion in medical equipment.

The OIG found that VHA facilities did not effectively plan for, request, or approve nonexpendable medical equipment purchases as required. This aligned with supply chiefs’ own finding that facilities did not use the process during FY 2024. Specifically, medical facilities did not use the required process for all planning and approval, and some VHA facilities still had not fully implemented the process (mandated in FY 2017) as of FY 2024. The OIG identified two reasons for the noncompliance: VHA had developed guidance but lacked a requirement for staff to use the material, and staff were unclear on what equipment needed to be entered and approved.

A lack of proper planning and approval increases the risk of staff buying items that facility leaders are not aware of or that do not fit in the desired location. The latter scenario happened when the VA medical facility in Tampa, Florida, purchased $500,000 scrubEx machines in June 2021. Consequently, staff have stored and not used the equipment.

The OIG made five recommendations to increase use of VHA’s process and achieve its purpose.

Section 487(a)(17) of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA), requires postsecondary schools participating in Title IV programs to annually report data, including data relevant to students’ cost of attendance and financial aid and the schools’ graduation rates, to the U.S. Department of Education’s (Department) Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) to the satisfaction of the Secretary. The objective of our inspection was to determine whether Joliet Junior College (JJC) reported verifiable data to IPEDS for the 2021–2022 reporting period. We found that JJC did not always report verifiable data to IPEDS for the 2021–2022 reporting period. The total amount of grant and scholarship aid that JJC students received for the 2021–2022 reporting period and the number of full-time undergraduate students who were enrolled in the fall of 2021 and seeking their first postsecondary certificate or degree that the school reported to IPEDS were not verifiable. In addition, the number of students who were full-time undergraduate students who began attending the school during academic year 2019–2020, were seeking their first postsecondary certificate or degree, and completed their program of study by the end of academic year 2021–2022 (150 percent of the normal time) that JJC reported to IPEDS were not verifiable. While not all reported financial aid and program completion data were verifiable, the average tuition and fees, books and supplies, room and board, and other expenses charged to full-time undergraduate students who were seeking their first certificate or degree that the school reported to IPEDS for the 2021–2022 reporting period were verifiable. JJC did not always report verifiable data to IPEDS because it did not update and implement procedures for collecting, consolidating, assessing the reliability of, and reporting data to IPEDS. 

VHA staff use nonexpendable equipment—durable items that can be continuously used for two years or more—to deliver patient care and operate medical facilities. This equipment must be inventoried annually if it is valued at $5,000 or more, sensitive in nature, or capitalized property. These inventories minimize the risk of mismanaged or lost property and help ensure items are adequate for patient use. The OIG conducted this audit to determine whether VHA managed accountable nonexpendable equipment in accordance with policy.

Overall, the OIG found VHA’s management of nonexpendable inventory can be improved. The OIG estimated that VHA medical facilities could not account for at least 75,500 items (5 percent). These items had a collective value of at least $210.9 million, which the OIG considered as funds VA could have better used. During site visits, the audit team searched for equipment and did not find an estimated 537,000 items (33 percent) at their last inventoried location. Finally, the audit team found an estimated 62,500 items that facilities may not need.

These concerns were created, in some cases, by staff’s use of the “inventory by exception” process. This means that if an item was accounted for since the last annual inventory—because it needed maintenance, for example—it does not need to be included in the next scheduled annual inventory. However, this process weakens facilities’ assurance that the equipment is accounted for and in good condition because it extends the interval between physical inventories. The OIG also found that the reports of survey processes for missing or damaged items have not been conducted as required, and general oversight of inventories could be strengthened.

The acting under secretary for health concurred with the OIG’s six recommendations to improve the nonexpendable equipment inventory process and related oversight.

We performed an audit of the costs billed to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) by Johnson Service Group, Inc. (JSG) under Contract No. TVA‑04012020‑125806 for noncraft staff augmentation services.  Our audit objective was to determine if the costs billed to TVA by JSG were in accordance with the contract’s terms.  Our audit scope included about $32.5 million in costs billed to TVA from June 26, 2024, to March 11, 2025. 

In summary, we determined the costs billed by JSG generally complied with the contract except for a net overbilling of $3,288 in travel costs.  We also determined that TVA inadvertently credited an invoice instead of issuing a payment, resulting in an underpayment of $1,700.  In addition, TVA’s hiring managers provided approval for costs to be billed by JSG, which were not in accordance with the contract’s terms. Specifically, TVA could have saved $30,765 if TVA hiring managers had not allowed and/or approved reimbursement for (1) travel instead of temporary living allowances (TLA) for temporary assignments at one location exceeding 90 days, (2) excessive TLA rates, and (3) ineligible or excessive travel costs.

Why We Did This Report

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Inspector General received an allegation of whistleblower reprisal under 41 U.S.C. § 4712 from a former employee of an EPA grantee. The complainant alleged that she was terminated in December 2023 in retaliation for making several disclosures regarding potential grant fraud and gross mismanagement of an EPA grant or subgrant.

Summary of Findings

The investigation determined that the complainant made at least five separate protected disclosures to tribal employees, including the COO and CEO. We found that these protected disclosures were contributing factors in the complainant’s termination. We also determined that the tribe cannot demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that it would have terminated the complainant in the absence of her protected disclosures. As such, we substantiated the complainant’s retaliation allegations.