Federal Reports

More than a quarter of Americans live partially or completely without access to mainstream financial services and are often forced to rely on costly services like payday loans or check cashing to cover their everyday expenses. This white paper explores how the U.S. Postal Service could offer a suite of non-bank financial services to help the financially underserved gain more financial stability and stay connected to the emerging digital economy.

Overall, we found that the Department had generally implemented the GPRA Modernization Act as required, but it could improve its disclosures related to congressional input and data verification and validation. Specifically, the Department did not identify on Performance.gov how congressional views were incorporated into the establishment of its agency priority goals. Also, although the Department established processes for ensuring the accuracy and reliability of data used to measure progress towards its agency priority goals, it had not accurately or adequately disclosed relevant information in its Annual Performance Plan or Annual Performance Report as required. As a result, the public may have less confidence that Congress and the Department are in agreement on the immediate priorities of the agency and that the data presented in performance reports is credible, and the public may be unaware of any limitations of the data that would provide important context for understanding it. The Department generally concurred with our findings and provided information on progress made related to our recommendations.

The OIG audited costs billed to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) by AMEC Environment and Infrastructure, Inc., for a broad range of geotechnical services to support engineering design for structures, earthwork, and environmental projects under Contract No. 21705. Our audit included $5.33 million in costs billed between June 1, 2009, and October 23, 2012. Our objective was to determine if the costs billed to TVA were in compliance with the contract terms and conditions.In summary, we determined AMEC overbilled TVA an estimated $100,441. The overbilling included an estimated (1) $63,196 in labor costs, (2) $14,693 in transportation and subsistence costs, (3) $13,243 in unit rate costs, (4) $8,709 in miscellaneous costs, and (5) $600 in unclassified costs. Summary Only

This report is Sensitive But Unclassified. To obtain further information, please contact the OIG Office of Counsel at OIGCounsel@oig.treas.gov, (202) 927-0650, or by mail at Office of Treasury Inspector General, 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC 20220.

This report is Sensitive But Unclassified. To obtain further information, please contact the OIG Office of Counsel at OIGCounsel@oig.treas.gov, (202) 927-0650, or by mail at Office of Treasury Inspector General, 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC 20220.

To understand how the U.S. Postal Service might better adapt to increasing market demands for information in the Digital Age, we worked with IBM to take a high level view of a variety of information-gathering technologies, highlighting those most relevant to the postal industry. We identified more than 50 potential postal applications that could enhance sales, transportation, delivery, and customer service as well as support public safety and internal postal security. This paper highlights mobile post offices as well as citizen-government services. This could widely increase the public’s ease-of-access to both.

This report was removed from the Treasury OIG website on February 19, 2015, pending further review. We completed that review on June 24, 2015, and determined that the work performed was not sufficient to support the findings and conclusions in the report under generally accepted government auditing standards. Therefore, the aforementioned audit report is not to be relied upon, and will not be reissued.

We asked the consulting firm A.T. Kearney to explore a greenfield approach to the U.S. Postal Service’s costing system. The following report provides the results of A.T. Kearney’s research.

Our audit examined the extent to which RTT grantees adhered to timelines established in their applications and related scopes of work and achieved project performance measures and goals, and the effectiveness of the Department’s oversight of RTT grantees to ensure that funds were used as intended and anticipated recipient performance was achieved in support of overall programmatic goals. All five States reviewed had varying degrees of success in adhering to timelines and in achieving performance measures and goals. In some cases, certain activities and deliverables within projects were delayed, while in other cases, entire projects were delayed. These delays ranged from months to years, and their overall effect on States’ plans varied. We found the Department established and implemented an extensive and effective process for monitoring RTT program recipients, and we recommended that it continue to maintain its robust monitoring efforts and take appropriate action if States continually fail to meet project timelines or performance measures and goals. We also noted that the Department had not yet issued a Comprehensive RTT Annual Report—an overview of RTT efforts across all grantees, to include trends and statistics across all States, successes and accomplishments, common challenges, and lessons learned, as discussed in its RTT Program Review Guide.

Section 11(d)(9) of the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended, requires the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency to submit to Congress and the President an annual report on the activities of the Integrity Committee. For more informatoin about the Integrity Committee, please visit the link below.

Financial Statement Management Letter

The Inspector General Act of 1978 (Public Law 95-452), as amended, requires that the Inspector General report semiannually to the head of the Department and the Congress on the activities of the office during the 6-month periods ending March 31 and September 30. The semiannual reports are intended to keep the Secretary and the Congress fully and currently informed of significant findings and recommendations by the Office of Inspector General.

In completing our audit of the financial statements of the United States Capitol Police (USCP or the Department) as of and for the year ended September 30, 2012. We noted matters that present opportunities for strengthening internal control, compliance control, and operating efficiency. 

2013 marks the 100-year anniversary of Parcel Post, now known as Standard Post. Today, the way goods are bought and sold is changing again because of the Internet. The rapid growth of e-commerce is bringing expansion and disruption to the parcel delivery market. As this transformation continues, questions about the U.S. Postal Service’s role as both a competitor in this marketplace and part of the government may logically arise.

Based on outside expert research we commissioned, it is clear the U.S. Postal Service has at present relatively informal processes for managing IP and would benefit greatly from developing and promulgating a formal, organization-wide IP strategy. This white paper reviews the current processes, outlines the potential complications associated with them, and – most important – identifies the essential points and components the Postal Service should consider in building an effective and robust IP strategy.

The Department received an unmodified opinion on its FY 2013 closing package financial statements. No material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting were identified, nor were there instances of reportable noncompliance with selected provisions of laws or regulations. The closing package financial statements were presented fairly, in all material respects, in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.

EAC OIG, through the independent public accounting firm of Leon Snead & Company, P.C., audited EAC's financial statements for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2013, and September 30, 2012.

Due to the importance of reliable nuclear production at TVA, the OIG audited the risk of long term equipment reliability in the Nuclear Power Group (NPG). Our objectives were to assess whether risk mitigation plans and actions were established and properly designed to achieve the desired results and operating as intended, as well as identify opportunities to improve mitigation strategies for reducing long term equipment reliability risk in NPG. Our audit determined the mitigation plans identified were adequately designed to address this risk. However, the extent to which the mitigating actions were effectively reducing the risk could not be determined because of how the actions were prioritized. The audit also identified opportunities to enhance risk mitigation strategy and documentation, but we were unable to determine whether NPG had established an upper limit for the long term equipment reliability risk NPG was willing to accept. In response to our draft report, NPG management believed they had demonstrated appropriate action to address the findings and three recommendations in the report. NPG management agreed to review the long term equipment reliability risk map during upcoming quarterly reviews to determine if the associated enterprise risk could be further reduced or it should be removed from the risk map altogether. The OIG agreed with plans to reassess this risk. Summary Only