Federal Reports

Our objective was to assess National Weather Service (NWS) tornado forecasting and warning performance and identify potential opportunities for enhanced effectiveness. We contracted with the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), an independent firm, to perform this evaluation. Our office oversaw the evaluation’s progress to ensure that IDA performed it in accordance with the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency’s Quality Standards for Inspection and Evaluation (December 2020) and contract 
terms.

Since fiscal year 2011, the NWS has achieved its Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) performance goal for false alarm ratio in 9 of the last 12 years. However, the NWS has consistently fallen short of meeting performance goals for probability of detection and warning lead times for this same time period. In addition to the NWS’s limited effectiveness in forecasting and warning performance, NOAA lacks official outcome metrics to assess progress toward the Tornado Warning Improvement and Extension Program's goal of reducing the loss of life and economic losses from tornadoes, leaving this goal unmet without further improvements.
 

As part of its 10-year strategic Delivering for America plan, the U.S. Postal Service is redesigning its processing network and plans to invest $40 billion to create a modernized network based around regional processing and distribution centers (RPDC). The Atlanta RPDC is a one million square foot facility that opened in February 2024, consolidating operations from multiple facilities in the Atlanta region. The Postal Service approved an over $254 million investment to build out and set up the Atlanta RPDC and expects net savings of $2.6 billion over 30 years from consolidating regional operations. Efficient and effective RPDCs are critical to the success of the Postal Service’s Delivering for America plan and its goal of being financially self-sustaining.

The Management Advisory reviews expenditures related to executive transportation on car services from November 2024 to January 2025. The advisory identifies the need for updated travel policies to ensure cost-effective and justified use of government funds, aligning with the Federal Travel Regulation's "Prudent Traveler Rule." The advisory includes one recommendation to enhance documentation and justification requirements to mitigate financial risks.

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.