Federal Reports

HUD does not have a departmentwide policy for dealing with radon contamination. Instead, HUD relies on each program office to develop radon policies that align with HUD’s environmental regulations. The three program offices reviewed do not have consistent radon policies. Only Multifamily’s radon policy includes radon testing and mitigation requirements. PIH’s policy strongly encourages but does not require public housing agencies (PHA) to test for radon and to mitigate excessive radon levels, if possible. CPD does not have a radon policy. Instead, both PIH and CPD use the environmental review process to test for and mitigate excessive radon levels in their properties. Relying on the environmental review process to test for and mitigate excessive radon may result in radon testing that occurs too infrequently, if at all. Further, the flexibility PIH gives to PHAs in its radon policy does not align with statements in HUD’s environmental regulations.Absent a departmentwide radon policy, each program office has developed a radon policy or approach with varying degrees of testing and mitigation requirements. This approach does not align with HUD’s environmental regulations or support industry standards which state that radon testing should occur every 2 years after a mitigation system is installed. Given that environmental reviews generally occur only for specific funding or approval actions and exposure to radon shows no immediate health effects or other warning signs, HUD cannot ensure that residents in HUD-assisted housing receive consistent and sufficient protection from the hazardous health effects of radon exposure. During fieldwork, HUD could not confirm whether it has complied with certain requirements of the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Amendments Act – namely, developing and recommending an effective policy on radon contamination to Congress, developing a memorandum with Environmental Protection Agency to address radon contamination, and submitting a radon report to Congress. We offer seven recommendations to help HUD better protect residents from hazardous health risks of indoor radon exposure. The statuses of recommendations 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 are all “unresolved-open.” Recommendation 7 is closed.

Audit of fiscal year 2020, third quarter financial and award data the Commission submitted for publication on USASpending.gov, and the applicable procedures, certifications, documentation, and controls to achieve this process.

The Southwest Station, Washington, D.C., is in the Capital District of the Atlantic Area. The Southwest Station has 48 city routes which are delivered by 59 full-time city carriers and 29 city carrier assistants. The Southwest Station also has 15 clerks, including 10 full-time and five postal support employees. We selected the Southwest Station for review based on the number of stop-the-clock (STC) scans occurring at the delivery unit. Our objective was to evaluate select mail delivery and customer service operations and determine whether internal controls are effective at the Southwest Station, Washington, D.C.

We selected the Lehigh Valley Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC) for audit because from January 1, 2019, to August 31, 2020, MCV reported about 605 million delayed mailpieces, or 32.2 percent of the total pieces handled at this facility. We reviewed operations with the most delayed mail — Delivery Point Sequence totaling about 476 million (or 78.7 percent) and Managed Mail Program (hereafter refer to as managed mail) incoming letters totaling 67.7 million (or 11.2 percent). Delivery Point Sequence is an automated process of sorting mail by carrier routes into delivery order and managed mail originating from other processing locations that requires additional processing at a destinating facility before delivery. Our objective was to determine the cause of delayed mail at the Lehigh Valley P&DC.

Our objective was to assess the Postal Service’s exit processing and determine whether managers revoked facility access for separated employees and inactive contractors in a timely manner.

The OIG analyzed revenues and costs of nearly all USPS-managed post offices in the U.S. The research found that both revenue and costs at post offices aligned closely with population density — highest in more urban areas, lowest in rural locations. However, rural post offices were more likely to have costs exceed revenue. Nationally, 42 percent of post offices did not cover their costs; in rural areas, it was 60 percent. Opportunities exist for the Postal Service to rethink its retail network either to increase retail network funding or reduce costs, or both.

An Amtrak Customer Service Representative based in Kansas City, Missouri, resigned from employment on April 12, 2021, prior to his administrative hearing. Our investigation found that the former employee violated company policies by leaving his post between two and four hours at a time during his shifts without authorization to do so and without clocking out. In addition, the former employee also violated company policy by initially lying to our agents about his abovementioned actions.

GPO OIG Semiannual Report to Congress October 1, 2020 - March 31, 2021.