Federal Reports

In its fiscal year (FY) 2009 budget request, VA identified the need for the Palo Alto major construction project to improve seismic safety at the Palo Alto Health Care System. The planned construction project would also provide ambulatory and polytrauma care. Over the next 15 years, the project’s cost and timeline increased. The OIG conducted this review to evaluate the significant events that led to cost increases, schedule slippages, and scope changes for the major construction project.

The OIG found VA has still not achieved two of its three critical project objectives and is more than 21 years behind its original schedule. As of February 2025, about $458.8 million had been spent on the project. Furthermore, because VA did not provide adequate justification for a significant scope increase proposed in the FY 2012 budget, the OIG questioned the expenditure of about $716.6 million. To proceed with the project, VA will need a total of about $1.6 billion.

Cost increases and delays occurred because VA did not have adequate formal procedures for governing major construction projects from 2009 to 2017. The OIG could not obtain evidence that the Palo Alto project was ever added to the Acquisition Program Management Framework, as required. VA must consider whether it is worth continuing the project or canceling efforts to complete it. Should VA be unable to justify the business need to continue funding the project, the OIG determined taxpayers could save about $907.8 million.

The OIG made four recommendations to the VA Secretary including ensuring the project is brought into the Acquisition Program Management Framework and ensuring a decision is made about the project’s future. VA concurred with the OIG’s recommendations.

Dragonfly, a rotorcraft lander that will fly like a large drone, isdesigned to gather samples from Saturn’s moon Titan, characterize Titan’s habitability, and look for precursors of the origin of life. However, the project has undergone multiple replans impacting cost and schedule, resulting in a life-cycle cost increase of nearly $1 billion and over 2 years of delays. 

This Office of Inspector General (OIG) Healthcare Facility Inspection program report describes the results of a focused evaluation of the care provided at the VA Jackson Healthcare System in Mississippi. This evaluation focused on five key content domains:
•    Culture
•    Environment of care
•    Patient safety
•    Primary care
•    Veteran-centered safety net
The OIG issued one recommendation for VA to correct an identified deficiency in one domain:
1.    Primary care
•    Panel size accuracy

The Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA) requires each agency’s Inspector General to conduct an annual independent evaluation to determine the effectiveness of the information security program (ISP) and practices of its respective agency.  Our objective was to determine the effectiveness of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) ISP and practices as defined by the FY 2025 IG FISMA Reporting Metrics.  Our audit scope was limited to answering the fiscal year (FY) 2025 IG metrics, which include 20 core and 5 supplemental IG metrics. The FISMA methodology considers metrics at a maturity level 4 (managed and measurable) or higher to be at an effective level of security.

Based on our analysis of the FY 2025 IG metrics and associated maturity models, we determined TVA's ISP and practices were operating in an effective manner as defined by the FY 2025 IG FISMA Reporting Metrics.  However, we identified areas for improvement in both the core and supplemental metrics to further improve TVA’s ISP and practices. 

An Amtrak senior management official based in Washington, D.C., resigned from his position on July 17, 2025, and a senior director in Florida, resigned from his position on August 22, 2025. At the time of their resignations, both employees were under investigation by our office for alleged conflicts of interest with Amtrak vendors that were not disclosed to the company. The former senior management official is not eligible for rehire.