Federal Reports

The Postal Service reported processing and delivering record numbers of ballots during the 2020-2021 election season — over 135 million ballots. Within that total were ballots of international origin, including 62,139 for the general election and 1,055 for the Georgia Senate runoffs. These figures included only those mailings with trackable barcodes processed for either the general election or the subsequent Georgia Senate runoff elections. The total number of ballots processed without a barcode is unknown. Our objective was to evaluate the Postal Service’s international mail operations during the 2020 general election and the state of Georgia Senate runoff elections.

Contractor approved temporary living allowance (TLA) for contract employee based on a claim of permanent residence when the residence claimed was actually owned by the contract employee’s father and rented at a low monthly rate that was paid sporadically. The contract between TVA and the contractor explicitly forbids the approval of TLA when the arrangement for the residence claimed is not part of an “arm’s length” transaction. The contractor was aware of its employee’s rental arrangement with his father and, yet, approved the payment of TLA which was subsequently billed to TVA.