Federal Reports

As part of our annual audit plan, we audited costs billed to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) by Stantec Consulting Services, Inc. (Stantec) to provide coal combustion residual engineering services under Contract No. 13051. The contract provided for TVA to compensate Stantec for work on either a cost reimbursable, time and material (T&M), unit rate, or fixed price basis. Our audit objectives were to determine if (1) costs were billed in accordance with the terms and conditions of the contract and <br> (2) tasks were issued using the most cost efficient pricing methodology. Our audit scope included about $55.3 million in costs billed to TVA from January 5, 2018, through February 29, 2020, of which over 99.9 percent was billed using T&M compensation terms. In summary, we determined:Stantec overbilled TVA $93,916, including (1) $73,099 for mileage rates not specified in the contract and (2) $20,817 for ineligible travel costs.The use of T&M terms on projects caused TVA to pay at least $1.65 million more than it would have if cost reimbursable payment terms had been used for those projects. Additionally, if TVA utilized cost reimbursable pricing for the remaining contract spend, they could potentially avoid $1.01 million in future costs.(Summary Only)

During this semiannual reporting period, we issued five audit reports which included $3,340,428 in questioned costs and 48 recommendations to improve agency operations and award recipient’s stewardship of Federal funds. Through our audit follow-up process, we assisted the National Endowment for the Arts (Arts Endowment) staff and award recipients in clearing 32 recommendations based on corrective actions taken. In addition, we resolved a total of 19 hotline complaints -- 16 new complaints and three from prior reporting periods. I applaud the Arts Endowment and OIG staff for pressing forward and working together when needed to avoid unreasonable and unnecessary work delays during the Pandemic. This enabled staff to continue delivering the missions of the Agency and OIG in a high quality and timely manner in spite of COVID-19, which required staff to work virtually during this period. The value-added work that we accomplished this period is due to my staff’s commitment toexcellence, continued growth, and dedicated work effort; along with the support of the Arts Endowment Acting Chairman and her staff. I look forward to continuously working with my staff, the Chairman, and her staff in promoting economy, efficiency, and effectiveness while helping to ensure integrity, excellence, and value in the delivery of the Arts Endowment mission.

Pivotal Stage – the future: Semiannual Report to Congress for October 1, 2020 – March 31, 2021.

Our objective was to assess the Postal Inspection Service’s response to mail fraud and mail theft during the COVID-19 pandemic. After we began the audit, we received a congressional request from seven members of Congress asking us to identify what actions, if any, the Postal Inspection Service had taken to address the increase in mail theft during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The objective of our inspection was to describe Federal Student Aid’s (FSA) control activities over institutional processes for completing verification and reporting verification results in accordance with Federal requirements.We found that FSA implemented control activities over institutional processes for completing verification procedures and reporting verification results. Specifically, we identified five significant control activities over these processes: (1) annual compliance audits, (2) program reviews, (3) W code reports, (4) management information system (MIS) reports, and (5) verification guidance.We found that FSA performed ongoing monitoring of the verification guidance control activity; but FSA did not monitor the other control activities on a regular basis. However, in September 2018, FSA’s Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) group issued a document titled “Verification Internal Review Report” (ERM Report) that described its separate evaluation of the processes FSA had in place to ensure institutions performed verification. We found that FSA did not address all of the control issues identified in the ERM Report and did not always determine the appropriate corrective actions or complete or document the corrective actions taken.