Federal Reports

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has four coal plants that include 24 units with a combined net capacity of 5,815 megawatts.  These coal plants have operated well beyond their original book life and are among the oldest still in operation in the nation. Due to the performance and cost risks of operating an aging coal fleet, we performed an evaluation of coal plant asset condition to determine if TVA had assessed the condition of assets and had plans in place to address degradation.  

We determined that TVA did not assess the condition of some assets annually, as required.  We also determined that some assets were not properly classified as “Tier 1” critical assets in TVA’s asset management system and/or tracked in the Generation Asset Health dashboard.  In addition, while TVA has plans to address some asset degradation, there are several assets in poor condition without a plan for remediation. 

We found that FAS’ review process adequately ensured RAPP participants’ proposed activities aligned with the program’s purpose but did not adequately ensure that participants’ performance measures could sufficiently assess progress toward RAPP’s goal of increasing export sales.

Our audit objective was to assess the adequacy of actions BIS has taken to enforce export controls for China. We specifically assessed whether BIS conducted post-shipment verifications for China and Hong Kong within the required timeframes and took the required steps to hold potential violators accountable for noncompliance with export control regulations.

We found that BIS is not effectively monitoring post-shipment verifications for exported items of concern to China and Hong Kong. For the open verifications we reviewed, BIS management did not ensure that the verifications had been conducted, consistently review and approve completed verifications within the timeframes outlined in BIS guidance,
or effectively use the verifications to hold potential violators accountable.

We made two recommendations to BIS to improve its quality control and monitoring of post-shipment verifications.

The United States Secret Service (Secret Service) did not effectively secure and manage mobile devices, including during protective operations.  As a result, adversaries could have intercepted and exploited Secret Service information, placing at risk our Nation’s leaders, other protectees, and employees — especially when unsecured devices were used overseas.  

Why We Did This Report

We initiated this evaluation in response to a complaint submitted to the OIG Hotline. Our objective was to determine whether the chemical-sensing capability of the EPA’s Airborne Spectral Photometric Environmental Collection Technology, or ASPECT, aircraft is functioning as designed.

Summary of Findings

When ASPECT’s chemical sensing is functioning as designed, it can process and provide data to first responders in approximately five minutes. Currently, however, ASPECT’s chemical sensing requires manual analyses, which generally produce monitoring results in about one week. This delay hampers the functionality of ASPECT. Given the unpredictable nature of natural and manmade disasters and emergency incidents, we are alerting the EPA about the situation and recommending corrective action.

The Office of Inspector General is issuing this audit report to evaluate the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) foreclosure process from when a loan is placed in liquidation.

We found that SBA 1) abandoned the pursuit of foreclosure on real estate collateral for 72 properties in which the recoverable value exceeded the foreclosure threshold, 2) unnecessarily increased some borrowers’ principal loan balances by an average of $525 because outstanding requests for property reports and appraisals were not canceled even though a borrower had requested a workout and made a good faith payment, and 3) did not have controls in place to prevent the sale of real estate collateral to SBA employees, vendors, or their close relatives and associates.

We made five recommendations for SBA to maximize recovery of real estate collateral and strengthen internal controls in its real estate foreclosure process.

SBA disagreed with Recommendations 1, 2, and 5, agreed with Recommendation 4, and partially agreed with Recommendation 3.