Federal Reports

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted a risk assessment of VA’s charge card program evaluating the three types of charge cards—purchase cards (including convenience checks), travel cards, and fleet cards—for transactions during fiscal year (FY) 2019. The OIG conducted its risk assessment from January through March 2020. The team reviewed applicable VA policies, procedures, and other controls. The team also analyzed FY 2018 and FY 2019 charge card data to identify transactions or patterns of activity that represent potentially illegal, improper, or erroneous charge card purchases. The OIG determined that the purchase card program remains at medium risk of illegal, improper, or erroneous purchases, as previously assessed for FY 2018. Data mining of purchase card transactions identified potential misuse of purchase cards. OIG investigations and reviews continue to identify patterns of purchase card transactions that do not comply with the Federal Acquisition Regulation and VA policies and procedures. The OIG also found that VA’s Travel Card Program and Fleet Card Program both remain at low risk for illegal, improper, or erroneous purchases. The risk assessment team assigned a low risk level to both programs primarily because data mining established a low percentage of potential duplicate and split purchases. Travel card transactions represented only about 3 percent of the more than $5 billion spent by VA on charge card transactions during FY 2019. Fleet card transactions represented only about 0.3 percent of that amount.

The OIG conducted this audit to determine whether VA implemented key elements of the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) consistent with the requirements for Chief Information Officer Authority Enhancements (Section 831). Specifically, the audit team evaluated two groups of requirements involving the role of the VA chief information officer during fiscal year 2018. They related to the CIO (1) reviewing and approving all information technology (IT) asset and service acquisitions across the VA enterprise and (2) planning, programming, budgeting, and executing the functions for IT, including governance, oversight, and reporting. The audit team found that VA did not meet FITARA requirements and identified several causes. These include VA policies and processes that limited the chief information officer’s review of IT investments and the oversight of IT resources. The audit team noted that limitations to the chief information officer’s role could adversely affect VA’s ability to achieve its goal to modernize systems and focus resources more efficiently. The OIG made 10 recommendations to help the department meet FITARA requirements. The recommendations focused on VA ensuring that the chief information officer reviews and approves all IT acquisitions. A chief information officer assignment plan should also be submitted for the Office of Management and Budget’s review and approval. Other recommendations called for implementing an agencywide IT acquisition awareness and training program covering FITARA requirements; providing clear and consistent acquisition processes to ensure FITARA compliance; ensuring all VA administration and staff offices work with the chief information officer for planning, programming, budgeting, and execution of all IT resources; and implementing department-level oversight processes to ensure the chief information officer is a member of governance boards that make informed decisions on all IT resources across the agency.

Our objective was to determine whether there were individuals receiving retirement benefits who may have been eligible for, but not receiving, higher widow(er)'s benefits.