Federal Reports

Audit of Federal Trade Commission Interagency Agreement Processes

The Postal Service outsources all relocation services to a relocation management firm (RMF). The RMF provides guidance to relocating employees on Postal Service policies and processes, ensures prompt payment of authorized expenses, and assists with arrangements for moving and storing household goods. On September 19, 2018, the Postal Service entered into a contract with the current RMF to manage its relocation program beginning February 1, 2019. Based on data from February 1, 2019, through May 12, 2020, this program authorized over 800 employee relocations and paid over $21 million in relocation benefits. Our objectives were to determine whether relocation benefits were reasonable and properly paid, the current RMF complied with contractual requirements, and the Postal Service effectively managed the relocation benefits program.

Advance Electronic Data (AED) refers to electronic messages with information about the shipper, the recipient, and the contents of a cross-border postal package. AED helps U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) identify packages from foreign posts that may contain opioids and other illicit goods. Under the STOP Act of 2018, all incoming postal packages must have AED by January 1, 2021. To provide AED, USPS relies on foreign posts’ capability to digitize and transmit data from shippers’ customs declaration forms. The OIG found that the Postal Service will not be able to fully meet the STOP Act requirement to provide Advance Electronic Data (AED) on all incoming packages as from January 1, 2021. The absence of AED regulations, including a definition of compliance, limits the Postal Service’s ability to prepare for STOP Act implementation. Collaboration among posts, compliance incentives, and penalties could be key success factors.

The Office of the Inspector General contracted with Williams Adley to conduct this audit. The audit objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Smithsonian’s information security program in fiscal year 2019.

Our objective was to assess contractual compliance and oversight of the Postal Service’s air transportation agreement with [redacted] (aviation supplier or supplier). We did not review the operational aspects of these provisions, such as mail transportation efficiency. Beginning in [redacted], the Postal Service entered into a contract with the aviation supplier to provide air transportation and ancillary services for moving mail to and from destinations within the contiguous 48 states and non-contiguous areas including Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. The original agreement was effective beginning [redacted] and was extended through [redacted], for a total estimated value over this time period of $17.6 billion.

The objective of our ongoing audit is to evaluate FSA’s administration of MFP—this report provides interim results related to FSA’s demographic data collection policies.

Inspector General (OIG) performed an audit of four mission areas within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to provide an assessment of the management and security of the Department’s information technology (IT) resources as they pertain to access management and logging controls. We reviewed relevant laws, regulations, and industry best practices in order to gain sufficient knowledge to evaluate USDA’s IT security posture.

On May 28, 2020, we initiated a non-audit service to identify U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) funding. Our objective was to identify the funding streams USDA used to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic as of May 31, 2020.