Federal Reports

We included an audit of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) management of early payment discounts on vendor invoices in our annual audit plan as a follow up to audit 2017-15500, Early Payment Discounts on Vendor Invoices, dated May 30, 2018, where we reported TVA missed 19 percent of all early payment discount opportunities. Our audit objective was to determine if early payment discounts are appropriately managed by TVA. Our audit scope included invoices from Supply Chain contracts and purchase orders with greater than $1 million in spend in any one fiscal year from October 1, 2020, through September 30, 2023.We found TVA’s management of early payment discounts could be improved as 18 percent of all available discounts, totaling $826,252, were not taken during the audit period. Based on our analysis and interviews with relevant personnel, we determined some personnel were often unaware of important aspects of how to manage (1) early payment discount terms, (2) invoices sent by vendors after the discount period expired, and (3) invoices sent by vendors before materials are received. Additionally, we noted TVA Supply Chain maintains dashboards that could be used to help management identify training needs.

The audit objectives were to determine whether program funds were managed in accordance with the ARC and Federal grant requirements.

The audit objectives were to determine whether program funds were managed in accordance with the ARC and Federal grant requirements.

An Amtrak secretary based in Pennsylvania violated company policies by regularly logging into work remotely, then not showing up to her worksite or arriving late, leaving early, or both. Our investigation found that the employee logged in remotely 30 times on 18 days during a one-month period, when her supervisor only approved her to work remotely on only four of the 18 days. Therefore, the employee was absent from her worksite without her supervisor’s knowledge or approval on 22 of 30 instances. She was terminated on March 12, 2024, after her corporate hearing. The former employee is not eligible for rehire.