Federal Reports

FTC OIG Management Advisory 20-07 Travel and Purchase cards

OIG reviewed RHS’ SFHGLP controls to determine whether it adequately ensured lenders’ and appraisers’ compliance with agency and USPAP requirements.

The purpose of this review was to identify and address factors that contributed to the Hawaii Medicaid Fraud Control Unit's (MFCU's or Unit's) low case outcomes during federal fiscal years (FYs) 2016-18 and to assess Unit operations. In 2015, OIG issued a report from its 2014 onsite review of the MFCU that raised concerns about the Unit's ability to carry out its statutory functions and meet program requirements. To address the deficiencies identified during OIG's previous onsite review, the MFCU developed and implemented a corrective action plan. Despite this effort, we found that the Hawaii MFCU's case outcomes were low during FYs 2016-18, compared to other similarly sized MFCUs.

A Technician in Los Angeles was terminated from employment on May 20, 2020, and a Customer Service Supervisor and an Operations Supervisor from Los Angeles were terminated from employment on June 23, 2020, following their administrative hearings. Our investigation found that the employees violated company policy by allowing a doctor to fraudulently bill the company’s group health plan on their behalf. The employees accepted monetary gifts from the doctor, while allowing her to fraudulently bill the company’s group health plan.

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) identified potential Post-9/11 GI Bill monthly student housing allowance overpayments by analyzing nearly 10 years of participant data. The review focused on students who continued to receive housing payments more than 18 months after their latest tuition payment; received more than 36 months of housing payments; and had fewer than 365 days between each housing payment—all indicators of potential errors. The OIG found the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) substantially overpaid monthly housing allowances to 16 students, totaling about $961,000. These overpayments were a result of control deficiencies that allowed some payments to continue beyond the allowable limits prior to VBA taking corrective action. The OIG considered the number of individual overpayments to be minimal, as more than two million students were enrolled in classes using Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits during the more than nine-year review period. VBA’s Education Service has added controls, such as a system update to prevent monthly housing allowance payments from continuing after the entitlement has ended. These controls have improved VBA processes and should reduce future risk of the substantial monthly housing allowance overpayments found in this review. They appear to have been effective, as there were no similar overpayments identified since the last control was implemented in June 2017, which was a non-college-degree job aid tool to help minimize payment calculation errors. The overall financial impact of the overpayments identified in this review was not significant to VA. However, the OIG encouraged VBA to implement measures to further reduce the risk of future long-term overpayments, such as monthly certifications by students. The OIG did not make any recommendations because VBA’s existing and planned controls appeared to address the errors found in this focused review. VBA concurred with the findings and agreed to consider additional measures.