Federal Reports

EAC OIG, through the independent public accounting firm of Brown & Company, LLC, audited EAC's financial statements for fiscal year 2017. This letter conveys information concerning control weaknesses, identified during that audit, which do not risk to the level of a significant deficiency or material weakness.

Memorial University Medical Center complied with Medicare billing requirements for 92 of the 131 inpatient and outpatient claims we reviewed. However, the Hospital did not fully comply with Medicare billing requirements for the remaining 39 claims, resulting in overpayments of $599,530.

For the grant we reviewed, Association for Public Health Laboratories managed Global Health Security Agenda funds during the budget period July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016, in accordance with Federal requirements. Accordingly, this report contains no recommendations.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act gave States the option to expand Medicaid coverage to low-income adults without dependent children. It also mandated changes to Medicaid eligibility rules and established a higher Federal reimbursement rate for services provided to these beneficiaries, which led us to review whether States were correctly determining eligibility for these newly eligible beneficiaries. California was one of 31 States, along with the District of Columbia, that chose to expand Medicaid coverage.

OIG investigated allegations that an Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) employee stole government equipment and committed time and attendance fraud.We determined the employee stole two stereoscopes and a mapping tool from OSMRE and that the equipment was obsolete and valued at approximately $150. The employee admitted she had the items in her possession, and without authorization. She said she later donated the property to a charity. We did not substantiate the allegation of time and attendance fraud.The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado declined prosecution.

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The OIG investigated allegations that Richard Ruggiero, Chief of the Division of International Conservation (DIC), International Affairs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), may have violated Federal ethics regulations when he issued a cooperative agreement and was involved in two grants to nonprofit organizations with which a family member was associated.We found that Ruggiero violated Federal conflict of interest laws and regulations by participating in an FWS cooperative agreement that financially benefited his family member, and neither Ruggiero nor his family member disclosed their relationship in writing to the FWS. Ruggiero also shared nonpublic FWS information about the agreement with his family member. Ruggiero initially told us he did not participate in any decisions related to the agreement, but he later admitted his involvement and said he should have documented the potential conflict and recused himself from working on the agreement.Other FWS employees, to include one of Ruggiero’s senior employees, knew that Ruggiero’s family member was involved with the agreement, and that Ruggiero authorized additional funding to the agreement. The senior employee consulted with the FWS Ethics Office on behalf of Ruggiero, but failed to follow the guidance he received to have Ruggiero draft a recusal memorandum and submit it to the ethics office for review. Neither Ruggiero nor any of the other FWS employees reported the conflict of interest to the FWS Ethics Office.We also found that Ruggiero was a decision maker on other grants awarded by the FWS to organizations with which his family member was involved.We provided this report to the Acting FWS Director.