Federal Reports

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) examined whether Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 21, the regional system of hospitals serving northern and central California, Nevada, Hawaii, the Philippines, and US territories in the Pacific Basin, effectively managed its nonrecurring maintenance (NRM) needs by executing each of its medical facilities’ long-range action plans. In FY 2012, VA established the target of reducing its maintenance backlog by 95 percent over 10 years.However, within VISN 21, deferred maintenance cost estimates have increased from $599.3 million (FY 2012) to $1.4 billion (March 2021), and VISN 21 medical facilities executed only 34 of the 190 approved NRM program projects (18 percent) for FYs 2015–2018. Several factors contributed to the identified issues: medical facilities were allowed to execute nonurgent, out-of-cycle projects; engineering staffing was insufficient to execute long-range action plans; medical facilities’ long-range action plans were not achievable based on the requested NRM program budget; and the NRM program lacked deferred maintenance performance metrics.As a result, VISN 21 has not substantially reduced its maintenance backlog, which poses the risk of health service interruptions for veterans, environmental problems, accidents, and increased operating costs. In addition to the backlog stresses on the NRM program budget, VA has relied on it to upgrade physical infrastructure needed for its new $10 billion electronic health record system.The OIG made seven recommendations to help VA more effectively manage NRM needs and clear its backlog. The recommendations included establishing and enforcing the urgent-need criteria; implementing and annually reviewing an engineering staffing model that aligns with medical facilities’ NRM needs; exploring the use of non-engineering staff, contractors, or shared engineering resources; ensuring long-range action plans are feasible based on NRM budget levels; and establishing NRM performance metrics.

We confirmed closure of 14 of the 15 recommendations but recommended that the PFM reopen 1 recommendation to track implementation.

Como parte de su misión para proteger la salud humana, la EPA comunica al público los riesgos que presentan los sitios contaminados. Sin tener información exacta, clara y oportuna, los residentes que viven en sitios contaminados o cerca de ellos no pueden tomar precauciones, si es necesario, para proteger su salud y seguridad.

The Audit of the Agency’s Parking and Transportation Initiatives found that the NSA Washington (NSAW) had not identified parking as a priority at its Fort Meade, Md., location and failed to implement solutions to minimize an ongoing parking shortage. The report recounted how, for decades, NSAW employees have expressed concerns about parking. Nevertheless, the OIG found that the agency’s parking and transportation initiatives lacked sufficient goals, plans, and strategies, and that those initiatives had basic internal control deficiencies such as the lack of a consistent process for developing, approving, and implementing initiatives. This resulted in projects being demolished, inoperable, or only partially implemented, limiting or eliminating their value to the agency and negatively affecting employee morale.

The OIG’s Audit of Cost-Reimbursement Contracts revealed several deficiencies that had the potential to impact the agency’s ability to determine whether cost-reimbursement contract costs are allowable, allocable, and reasonable through the performance of due diligence regarding invoice review. The OIG found ineffective and inefficient processes by the Contracting Officer Representatives and non-compliance with contract clauses and insufficient billing documentation. The OIG questioned approximately $227 million in labor charges and more than $226,000 in travel charges.