Federal Reports

The purpose of the Consolidated Technical Assistance grant is to address all four ARC goals to provide technical assistance for project development

OIG investigated allegations that Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) native language teachers accepted payments from a tribe, which illegally supplemented their Federal salaries.We substantiated the allegations. We identified BIE native language teachers who received two or three supplemental payments each, ranging from $1,490.48 to $5,544.43 per payment during the 2014 and 2015 school years. Several teachers admitted that prior to the first payment they were aware that accepting the money violated ethics rules and Federal law. Several also admitted they had been admonished by their supervisors and informed the payments violated Federal law. We also determined that at least one teacher solicited for payments at district and Tribal council meetings.The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Dakota declined prosecution. One of the teachers left the school shortly after we interviewed her, one teacher is now deceased, and the remaining teachers are still employed at the school.

OIG investigated allegations that an oil and gas company improperly claimed royalty suspension under the Deepwater Royalty Relief Act of 1995, and failed to pay mineral royalties associated with an offshore Federal lease.We determined the company was eligible for royalty relief but was required to pay royalties once it reached the royalty free production limit established for the Federal lease. We found the company failed to pay Federal royalties for a five-month period in 2015 after it exceeded its royalty suspension volume, but the company, without knowledge of our investigation or direction from the Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR), self-corrected its royalty reporting and on February 6, 2017, paid approximately $194,974 in late royalties and over $8,000 in interest.

The OIG investigated allegations that a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) contractor submitted a fraudulent claim for an equitable adjustment to a crane repair contract. The contractor allegedly altered cost submission documents submitted by the sub-contractor. We determined that the claim for equitable adjustment did not contain fraudulent information as alleged, and we confirmed that the sub-contractors cost submission documents submitted by the contractor were authentic.

The OIG investigated allegations that a National Park Service (NPS) senior manager purchased personal gifts with government funds, reprised against an employee, committed travel fraud, misused Government-owned vehicles, wasted training funds, improperly permitted park guests to lodge in a ranger station, and used her personal credit card to pay for lodging of park guests. We also investigated an alleged conflict of interest by a subordinate of the NPS senior manager.We substantiated several of the allegations, including that the senior manager used park funds to purchase two high valued items, valued at nearly $600, which could not be located or accounted for. We also confirmed the senior manager lowered the performance rating of an employee after concerns were reported related to the senior manager’s official travel. We further determined that the senior manager permitted visitors and park employees to lodge at a ranger station that was not approved as park housing. We also substantiated that the senior manager drove a Government vehicle to their private residence prior to official travel without the required written approval, and that the senior manager paid for a visitor’s lodging with personal funds and then claimed reimbursement from the Government. We did not find evidence that the senior manager committed travel fraud or wasted training funds as alleged.We also confirmed that a subordinate of the NPS senior manager improperly used park funds to purchase antiques from a family member, a violation of conflict of interest regulations.We referred this matter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York, which declined prosecution.

This report is the result of an Office of Inspector General (OIG) inspection of the VA Medical Center in Washington, D.C., (DC VAMC) that began in March 2017 after receiving a confidential complaint. The OIG released an interim report on April 12, 2017, identifying risks to patients and VA assets. This final report provided findings in four areas: (1) risk of harm to patients, (2) hospital service deficiencies affecting patient care, (3) lack of financial controls, and 4) failures in leadership. The OIG found that critical deficiencies at the DC VAMC were pervasive and persistent—often spanning many years—but were not successfully remediated by leaders at multiple levels within VA. These deficiencies impacted core medical center functions that healthcare providers need to effectively provide quality care. The report details the DC VAMC’s failures in ensuring supplies and equipment reached patient care areas when needed, processing and sterilizing instruments, managing and securing assets, maintaining cleanliness, providing timely prosthetic devices, properly reporting and analyzing patient safety events, and receiving the staffing and leadership needed for sustainable change. The OIG did not find evidence of adverse clinical outcomes, a condition that is largely attributable to front-line care providers who were committed to providing the best possible care by borrowing supplies, improvising, or personally ensuring patients received what they needed. The OIG made 40 recommendations and VA concurred with each one. VA also provided detailed action plans on how the recommendations are going to be implemented and identified the progress they have already made. This report is meant to not only improve conditions at the DC VAMC, but also to serve as a roadmap for other VA medical facilities and to improve integrated reviews and oversight by Veterans Integrated Service Networks and VA central offices.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis (USIA) David J. Glawe used a personal email account to send an invitation to his ceremonial swearing-in event to staff members of the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Because the invitation came from a non-DHS email account and resembled a phishing email, Senator Claire McCaskill asked the DHS Office of Inspector General to review the circumstances surrounding the invitation.

We reviewed DHS’ information security program in accordance with the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA). Our objective was to determine whether DHS’ information security program and practices were adequate and effective in protecting the information and information systems that supported DHS’ operations and assets in fiscal year 2017. The Department of Homeland Security could protect its information and systems more fully and effectively. DHS’ information security program fell one level below the targeted “Level 4” in three of five areas listed in this year’s FISMA reporting instructions.