Federal Reports

The OIG investigated allegations that two propane delivery contractors, one of which was American Indian-owned, conspired to improperly obtain U.S. Government contracts that are restricted to Indian economic enterprises under the provisions of the Buy Indian Act. Specifically, we investigated to determine if the Indian-owned company subcontracted 100 percent of contract performance to the non-Indian-owned company.We found that the Indian-owned company was awarded approximately 17 contracts, with a combined value of about $350,000, under the Buy Indian Act. We also found that though the Indian-owned company received approximately 51 percent of the net profit, it had little or no involvement with the actual performance of the propane supply contract: the non-Indian contractor provided all the fuel and made all the physical deliveries, thus violating the Buy Indian Act.

As part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the largest public funder of biomedical research agency in the world, investing more than $30 billion in taxpayer dollars to achieve its mission. NIH's mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability. OIG has identified risks related to the sharing of sensitive data.

Our objective was to assess the Postal Service’s Postal Vehicle Service (PVS) tire usage and failures for 7-to 11-ton PVS vehicles.

Community Hospital (The Hospital), located in Munster, Indiana, complied with Medicare billing requirements for 84 of the 170 inpatient and outpatient claims we reviewed. However, the Hospital did not fully comply with Medicare billing requirements for the remaining 86 claims, all of which were inpatient, resulting in net overpayments of $1.3 million for calendar years 2015 and 2016. These errors occurred primarily because the Hospital did not have adequate controls to prevent the incorrect billing of Medicare claims within the selected risk areas that contained errors.