Federal Reports

Implementing the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act is among the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) highest priorities in this time of national emergency. The CARES Act provides DOT with over $36 billion to prevent, prepare for, and respond to COVID-19 across all modes of transportation. To its credit, DOT swiftly distributed these funds and has begun implementing the Act’s requirements to provide much-needed relief to American workers, families, and businesses. As the Department is aware, the volume of CARES Act funds and the speed with which the funds have been disbursed creates oversight challenges. Therefore, to support the Department in meeting its mission while promoting effective stewardship of significant taxpayer dollars, we are providing a summary of key risk areas for DOT’s consideration in bolstering its oversight of CARES Act grantees and contractors. These potential risk areas and our suggested actions to mitigate those risks are drawn largely from our prior work assisting DOT with oversight of a significant influx of funds for economic stimulus and emergency relief. By maintaining focus on these risk areas early on and putting in place key internal controls, DOT can promote efficiencies; help ensure compliance; and better prevent fraud, waste, and abuse.

Protecting children in the Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) Program is an essential and ongoing responsibility of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). By law, ORR, which is within the Department of Health and Human Services' ACF, has custody of and must provide care for each child in the UAC Program.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), has custody of and must provide care to minors (children younger than 18 years of age) in the Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) Program. ORR is responsible for providing a safe environment for all minors in the program. In recent years, ORR-funded facilities have reported allegations of sexual and physical abuse of minors in their care, some resulting in criminal convictions.

The objective of this report is to provide insight into the top management challenges facing federal agencies that received pandemic relatedfunding as identified by Offices of Inspector General.

This report presents the findings of an audit that examined whether VA’s police information systems provided program leaders and the workforce with adequate information to manage operations and in turn support effective governance. It builds on a December 2018 Office of Inspector General (OIG) publication that recommended improvements to VA’s national governance of its police program. The OIG found that VA lacked an effective strategy or action plan to update its police information system. In September 2015, the VA Law Enforcement Training Center (LETC) acquired Report Exec, a replacement records management system, for police officers at all medical facilities. Inadequate planning and contract administration mismanagement caused the system implementation to stall for more than two years. LETC spent approximately $2.8 million on the system by fiscal year 2019, but police officers experienced frequent performance issues and had to use different systems that did not share information. As of April 2019, only 63 percent of medical facility police units were reportedly using the Report Exec system, while 37 percent were still using an incompatible legacy system. As a result, administrators and law enforcement personnel at multiple levels could not adequately track and oversee facility incidents involving VA police or make informed decisions on risks and resource allocations. The audit also revealed that information security controls were not in place for the Report Exec system that put individuals’ sensitive personal information at risk. The OIG made seven recommendations that included evaluating which entity should oversee the records management systems for VA police, establishing a working group to assess whether the Report Exec system meets the needs of VA police, and developing a strategy to fully implement the system or its replacement. The OIG also recommended that an information security officer be consistently responsible for the Report Exec system.

We conducted a performance audit of the North Carolina Arts Council (NCAC) for the period of October 1, 2016 through September 30, 2019. Based on our performance audit, we concluded that NCAC generally complied with financial management system and recordkeeping requirements established by the Office of Management and Budget and the National Endowment for the Arts. However, we identified the following areas requiring improvement. NCAC: reported unallowable subaward costs on its Federal Financial Report; did not maintain current policies and procedures for subawards; did not have debarment and suspension policies and procedures; and did not have policies and procedures for the management of Federal awards.