Federal Reports

On November 17, 2014, the OIG transmitted to the FTC the financial statement audit performed by an independent accounting firm -- which issued an unmodified (clean) opinion of the FTC's FY 2014 financial statements. When performing an audit of an agency's major financial systems and accounting processes, auditors often detect certain matters involving internal controls that do not rise to a level of seriousness to be reflected in the auditor's opinion report. These findings are communicated in a management letter, which does not affect the auditors' unmodified opinion on the financial statements. This management letter contained five recommendations that warranted management's consideration. Management concurred with the five recommendations -- and, at the time of this letter, had implemented or was in the process of implementing actions to address the issues identified.

EAC OIG, through the independent public accounting firm of McBride, Lock & Associates, LLC, audited $6.7 million in funds received by the Idaho Secretary of State under the Help America Vote Act. The objectives of the audit were to determine whether the Secretary of State (1) used payments authorized by Sections 101, 102, and 251 of the Grant in accordance with Grant and applicable requirements; (2) accurately and properly accounted for property purchased with Grant payments and for program income; and (3) met HAVA requirements for Section 251 funds for creation of an election fund, providing required matching contributions, and meeting the requirements for maintenance of a base level of state outlays, commonly referred to as Maintenance of Expenditures (MOE).

The domestic returns business is worth an estimated $3 billion annually and will likely hit $4 billion by 2016. What can the Postal Service do to take advantage of this growing returns and forwarding business? We tried to answer that question in a white paper that found opportunities for the Postal Service in digital parcel labels, warehousing, and alternative delivery programs.

Our audit found the Personnel Development to Improve Services and Results for Children with Disabilities Program (PDP) results reported by the Department’s Office of Special Education Programs to be encouraging; however, data limitations and quality issues limited stakeholders’ ability to assess PDP effectiveness. Specifically, only slightly more than half of the PDP scholars in our review who had graduated or otherwise exited their respective program had either completed or were working toward completing their service obligation; the rest had not yet begun work or were still within the program’s 5-year grace period. As a result, it was too early in the process to adequately assess program effectiveness. In addition, although related Government Performance and Results Act measures provided some insight into program effectiveness, we identified certain limitations and quality issues with information on PDP scholars that the Office of Special Education Programs and its former contractor used in compiling some performance data, including issues related to the total number of scholars served and the reported service obligation data. The Department also had limited involvement in monitoring the program’s payback requirement, including not monitoring its contractor’s oversight of the payback requirement as diligently and effectively as it could have. We also identified problems with the methodology used to calculate results that limited stakeholders’ ability to draw reliable conclusions on program effectiveness.

The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted reviews from FY 2008 through FY 2013 of flat mail issues and Flat Sequencing System concerns. This white paper summarizes results from those reviews and identifies four overarching areas that have affected the cost component of cost coverage.

The OIG has conducted a nationally representative quantitative survey on the relative value of some key services provided as part of the universal service obligation (USO). This study is the first of its kind in the United States and was done in conjunction with the market research firm Gallup and Professor Michael Bradley of George Washington University’s Department of Economics. The study focused on four attributes of the USO: mode of delivery, access to postal services, frequency of delivery, and price.

The audit objectives were to determine whether program funds were managed in accordance with the ARC and Federal grant requirements

The audit objectives were to determine whether program funds were managed in accordance with the ARC and Federal grant requirements

Personally identifiable information (PII) is defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget in Memorandum 07-16 and refers to information which can be used alone to distinguish or trace an individual's identity. This includes an individual's name, social security number, biometric records, or when combined with other personal/identifying information, is linked or linkable to a specific individual, such as date and place of birth or mother's maiden name. The OIG conducted this audit as an independent review of TVA's use of PII in accordance with privacy provisions of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2005.This is our fourth audit since the requirement was enacted. Since the OIG's previous audit, TVA hired a Senior Program Manager for Privacy to manage the agency's privacy program. We generally found the privacy program improved since our prior audit; however, we found that controls could be strengthened in the areas of: (1) written policies, (2) storage of hard copy and electronic PII, (3) monitoring of systems containing PII, and (4) system inventory. TVA management agreed with our findings and recommendations. Summary Only

The attached report recommends updating of the 1998 MOU and consideration of the issues noted by RDS and ARC representatives