Federal Reports

Our objective for this report was to complete our review of the company’s use of Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds and its controls to accurately track and report on them.We found that the company is effectively using, accounting for, and reporting on the $1.018 billion it received through the CARES Act, and that it has addressed the initial risks we identified in our interim report published in August 2020. If Congress approves additional assistance, we identified two opportunities for the company to adjust its controls for approving paid leave for coronavirus-related absences and applying the CARES Act formula for calculating state bills for services provided under section 209 of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008. These adjustments would make the controls more consistently effective.

We determined if FS had the proper authority and followed Federal laws and regulations when awarding a $2 million grant to the State of Alaska.

An Amtrak Police Department employee resigned on December 15, 2020, in lieu of a disciplinary hearing for violating various company policies. Our investigation found that the employee engaged in outside employment during his shifts and while on sick leave. In doing so, the employee also violated his union agreement. The employee shopped online and left for long periods of time to purchase supplies for his outside employment during his APD shifts and engaged in his outside employment while the company was paying him to attend mandatory training. During the training, he took significant steps to hide these actions from being discovered.

The OIG investigated allegations that Extraction Oil and Gas (EXT) drilled multiple horizontal wellbores through a railroad right-of-way (ROW) in Weld County, CO, containing Federal minerals without first obtaining a Federal lease or drilling permit.We found that three companies (EXT, Mineral Resources, Inc., and PDC Energy, Inc.) illegally drilled oil wells through a railroad ROW and produced unleased Federal minerals. Based on our investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado entered into civil settlement agreements with all three companies to resolve the violations and recover public revenues. The settlements totaled more than $1,787,000.

We considered Recommendation 5 resolved and implemented and Recommendations 1 – 4 and 6 – 8 resolved but not implemented. We referred those seven recommendations to the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget to track their implementation.

On March 27, 2020, the President signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). To date the CARES Act has provided the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) with $909.7 million, which includes direct apportionments of $756 million to support the needs of DOI programs, bureaus, Indian Country, and the Insular Areas, and a $153.7 million transfer from the U.S. Department of Education to the BIE.This report presents the DOI’s progress as of October 31, 2020, in spending CARES Act appropriations. Specifically, the DOI’s expenditures to date total $566,168,083, and its obligations total $661,068,678.We are also monitoring the DOI’s progress on reporting milestones established by the CARES Act and the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.We anticipate issuing updated status reports monthly.