Federal Reports

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) inspected the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2021 and made six recommendations. This follow-up inspection found that issues had not been fully resolved in response to those recommendations. The follow-up inspection reassessed the same financial activities and administrative processes: Medical/Surgical Prime Vendor program use, purchase card use, administrative staffing levels, and pharmacy operations.The inspection team visited the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System in August 2023; interviewed healthcare system leaders and staff; and reviewed data, supporting documents, and processes related to the healthcare system’s financial efficiency.The OIG identified issues with Medical/Surgical Prime Vendor program use, purchase card use, and pharmacy operations. In each area, the healthcare system made limited progress improving issues identified in the OIG’s 2021 report. The inspection team found that the healthcare system improved administrative staffing efficiency, but more opportunities for improvement exist.The OIG reiterated four recommendations from the 2021 inspection where the plans to address the recommendations had not been fully implemented. The OIG also added seven new recommendations to the healthcare system director designed to help officials improve performance. The intent is for system leaders to use these recommendations as a road map to improve financial operations. The recommendations address issues that, if left unattended, may eventually interfere with effective financial efficiency practices and the strong stewardship of VA resources.

Objective: To determine whether the Social Security Administration timely and accurately processed cases where a beneficiary's Medicare premium was higher than the Agency benefit payment.

An Amtrak carman based in Miami, Florida, signed a civil settlement agreement on September 3, 2024, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Florida. The employee was ordered to pay $10,717 in restitution and a $1,883 penalty. Our investigation found that the employee falsified applications for two pandemic relief loans. The first loan was an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) in the amount of $19,500. The loan was for an alleged agricultural business operated out of his home. The second loan was a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan in the amount of $8,217, which was for an alleged trucking business. We interviewed the employee and he admitted that the agricultural business did not exist, and that his trucking business did not have any revenue or any employees. As a result, the employee received funds to which he was not entitled.

We reviewed all 17 recommendations from Report No. C-IN-MOA-0013-2010 and consider them closed.

VA must submit an annual report to Congress documenting its capacity to provide specialized treatment for veterans with spinal cord injuries and disorders, traumatic brain injury, blindness, prosthetics and sensory aids, or mental health issues. Each year, the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) is required to report to Congress on the accuracy of VA’s special disabilities capacity report. The OIG team identified data inaccuracies and omissions that resulted in some material errors in the fiscal year 2022 capacity report. Some of these issues persisted from the OIG’s previous reviews. As the OIG reported in its reviews of previous capacity reports, VA is unable to meet the requirement to compare its mental health capacity with 1996 levels for reasons that include changes in how treatment outcomes of veterans with mental illness are defined and tracked. The OIG continues to believe that, even if VA could compare capacity to 1996 levels, such reporting would not provide Congress with assurances that VA’s capacity is adequate to provide care to these high risk veterans. The Veterans Health Administration reported the wrong spending data for traumatic brain injury when it included obligations data at the national level rather than expenditures data at the national and network/geographic service area level. The capacity report also does not capture data on the services veterans receive through community care or the extent to which bed capacity at VA’s centers for spinal cord injuries and disorders is used. Finally, some medical facilities’ transitions to the Oracle Cerner electronic health record have affected the completeness of some facility, network, and nationally reported data elements. The OIG believes that VA should report special disability data for these facilities separately to allow Congress insight into annual trends across the facilities operating the new electronic health record.

In May 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Inspector General Office of Investigations initiated an investigation into allegations that an EPA-funded researcher may be associated with a Chinese talent recruitment program. Subsequently, the EPA OIG has identified a concern regarding the lack of oversight and controls during the EPA research grant application process and duration of the grant. In July 2023, the OIG initiated an investigation into allegations that a major United States university was allegedly receiving funds from China while simultaneously receiving funds from multiple federal agencies, including the EPA. As explained in further detail in this report, the Chinese government sponsors a malign foreign talent recruitment program which could have placed federal funds in jeopardy or resulted in the unauthorized transfer of intellectual property or other nonpublic information.

An Amtrak train attendant based in Miami, Florida, signed a civil settlement agreement on September 2, 2024, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Florida. The employee was ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution and a $2,500 penalty. Our investigation found that the employee submitted a false claim for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Advance of $10,000 for an alleged agriculture business, which operated out of his home. We interviewed the employee, who admitted he did not own an agricultural business and that his loan application contained false information. As a result, he received an EIDL loan advance in the amount of $10,000 to which he was not entitled.