Federal Reports

This is our final report on the audit of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO) ship fleet recapitalization effort. Our objective was to determine whether NOAA OMAO performed effective acquisition planning for its construction of new ships. Based on our review, we found that the initial acquisition planning for two Class A ships was not adequate.

This final memorandum addresses the results of our attempt to audit $5,030,452 that the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission (the Commission) paid to its subrecipient, the Gulf and South Atlantic Fisheries Foundation (GSAFF), under financial assistance award NA10NMF4770481 from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Our audit report OIG-19-021-A includes the results of three other subrecipients’ claimed costs and other objectives audited under award NA10NMF4770481.

To fulfill our responsibilities under Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 (CFO Act) (Pub. L. No. 101-576) and related legislation, we monitored Grant Thornton LLP's audit of the Social Security Administration's (SSA) Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 financial statements to ensure the quality of the audit work performed was adequate.

To summarize and assess the most serious management and performance challenges facing the Social Security Administration (SSA).

In compliance with the Reports Consolidation Act of 2000, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) Office of Inspector General reports annually on the most serious management and performance challenges faced by the Department. In addition to the challenges themselves, these reports include a brief assessment of the Department’s progress in addressing the challenges and identity further actions that, if properly implemented, could enhance the effectiveness of the Department’s programs and operations. For FY 2020, we identified four management challenges the Department faces as it continues its efforts to promote student achievement and preparation for globalcompetitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access. These challenges are (1) improper payments, (2) information technology security, (3) oversight and monitoring, and (4) data quality and reporting.

Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) claims include Resource Utilization Groups (RUGs) that identify whether a beneficiary received therapy and the range of therapy minutes provided. For example, SNF claims with a RUG that begins with "RU" or "RV" indicate that an ultra high or very high level of therapy was provided and that during a 7 day period, the beneficiary received 720 minutes or more, or 500 to 719 minutes of therapy, respectively. The higher the volume of therapy services provided, the higher the Medicare payment.

Las mejoras en los esfuerzos de divulgación de la justicia ambiental durante las emergencias podrían mejorar la protección de la salud pública de las comunidades afectadas por huracanes u otro tipo de desastres.

This report details KPMG’s findings of its audit of financial statements from the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST) for fiscal years 2019 and 2018. The OST financial reports contain financial statements and notes for Tribal and Other Trust Funds (Tribal) and Individual Indian Monies Trust Funds (IIM).KPMG issued a qualified opinion, consistent with prior years, on the Tribal financial statements because it was unable to satisfy itself as to the fairness of trust fund balances. KPMG issued an unmodified opinion on the IIM financial statements.