Federal Reports

Our objective was to determine the accuracy of Postal Service Highway Contract Route (HCR) scheduled hours and payments from fiscal years (FYs) 2016 through 2020. We performed a risk assessment of the HCR scheduled trips and determined that of the 82,578 scheduled trips in TCSS from FYs 2016 through 2020, 271 were at high- or medium-risk of their contracted schedules being overstated. We used the average speed of 50 miles per hour from the November 2010 Freight Facts and Figures study issued by the Department of Transportation to calculate trip hours, compared it to the actual trip hours in TCSS, and categorized the differences into high-risk (20 hours or more), medium-risk (five to 20 hours), and low-risk (fewer than five hours). The 271 trips included 130 spotter and shuttle services that we excluded from our review because they do not travel on highways, resulting in 141 at-risk trips for review.

We conducted a review to determine the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 compliance with the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010 (IPERA) (Public Law 111-204) which amended the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 (Pub. L. 107-300) (IPIA) and required agencies to identify and review all programs and activities they administer that may be susceptible to significant improper payments based on guidance provided by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).1 In addition, section 3 of IPERA required Inspectors General to review each agency’s improper payment reporting and issue an annual report.

An Amtrak Specialist based in Philadelphia was issued a letter of warning on May 4, 2021, for violating company policies by admittedly posting inappropriate and offensive images on her Facebook account that publicly identified her as an Amtrak employee, in violation of company policy.

EPA Did Not Conduct Agencywide Risk Assessment of CARES Act Appropriations, Increasing Risk of Fraud, Waste, Abuse, and Mismanagement.

The Small Business Administration’s (SBA’s) Women’s Business Center (WBC) program assists women in starting and growing small businesses and provides long-term training and counseling to women business owners, including those who are socially and economically disadvantaged.SBA did not provide effective oversight over the WBC program. SBA program officials did not detect that WBCs in our sample: (1) failed to take corrective action to remedy accounting deficiencies identified during mandated programmatic and financial reviews and examinations; (2) made improper budget transfers and maintained general ledgers that did not support expenses; (3) used federal funds for unsupported, unallowable and unallocable costs; (4) reported unsupported matching funds and program income earned, and 5) failed to submit accurate financial reports. Further, program officials detected significant noncompliance that warranted removal of two WBCs from the program but did not take action. Additionally, program officials’ methodology for evaluating applicant risk was flawed, and resulted in inadequate oversight of the sample WBCs’ use of federal funds.As a result of weaknesses in SBA’s internal controls and limited oversight of the WBCs, program officials did not detect $801,056 in unallowable, unallocable, and unsupported costs, matching funds, and program income earned.We made 10 recommendations to improve SBA’s oversight and management of the Women’s Business Center cooperative agreements. SBA management concurred with all 10 recommendations, and its planned actions resolve the recommendations.