Federal Reports

The National Service Trust holds the funds set aside to pay the education awards of national service members who successfully complete their service terms. Responsibility for the education awards that have been earned or will be earned in the near future is the largest liability on AmeriCorps’ financial statements at $315 million. AmeriCorps has been unable to produce auditable financial statements for the last seven years. This year, independent auditors issued another disclaimer of opinion, reporting five material weaknesses and one significant deficiency. All the material weaknesses are recurring, two of them since FY 2017, one since FY 2018, one since FY 2021, and one since FY 2022. Further, AmeriCorps’ financial statements and accompanying notes were not in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and Office of Management and Budget Circular A-136. In recognition of the pervasive weaknesses in internal control, AmeriCorps included in its Annual Management Report a Statement of No Assurance, acknowledging that the agency could not provide reasonable assurance as to the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, operations, including programmatic operations, and compliance with laws. This is the fourth year that AmeriCorps has issued a No Assurance statement. Remedial actions by AmeriCorps have closed one of the 41 prior year recommendations. The remaining 40 recommendations continue to be valid, four of them in modified form. The auditors also made six new recommendations, for a total of 46.AmeriCorps acknowledged the disclaimer of opinion and expressed concurrence to one material weakness and one significant deficiency, however, AmeriCorps did not concur with the remaining four material weaknesses. However, AmeriCorps did not specify which material weaknesses they were in agreement or disagreement. AmeriCorps reiterated their focus on remediating long-standing issues. The independent accounting firm RMA Associates LLC performed the audit of the AmeriCorps FY 2023 National Service Trust Fund financial statements, under contract with AmeriCorps-OIG.

In May 2023, we conducted unannounced inspections of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities in the San Diego area, specifically four U.S. Border Patrol facilities and one Office of Field Operations (OFO) port of entry (POE). At the time of our inspection, Border Patrol and OFO held 1,187 detainees in custody in the five facilities. We found that 668 (56 percent) of these detainees were held in custody longer than specified in the National Standards on Transport, Escort, Detention, and Search (TEDS), which generally limits detention to 72 hours (3 days), as operationally feasible.

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Office of Inspector General's (OIG) Semiannual Report to the NCUA Board and the Congress highlights accomplishments and ongoing work for the 6-month period ending September 30, 2023. The OIG's work reflects the legislative mandate of the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended, to promote the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of NCUA programs and operations, and protect against fraud, waste, and abuse. The audits and investigations highlighted in this report demonstrate our commitment to that cause as well as our goal of enhancing public confidence in the NCUA’s regulatory process.

We are pleased to present our report for the period April 1, 2023, to September 30, 2023. In this semiannual period, our audit, evaluation, and investigative activities identified more than $67.7 million in questioned costs; funds to be put to better use; recoveries, fees, and fines; waste/other monetary loss; and opportunities for TVA to improve its programs and operations.TVA relies on contractors and vendors to access materials, build and maintain assets, and innovate new technology to support and advance operations. Just as the world has experienced supply chain issues and workforce shortages, TVA must compete for resources required to expand generation, meet carbon reduction goals, and maintain aging generation assets. Our office supports TVA’s efforts by focusing resources to (1) find ways to save and recover costs, (2) identify operational risks that could impact TVA’s ability to execute its mission, and (3) detect and prevent fraud, waste, and abuse. TVA has served the people of the Tennessee Valley for 90 years. Our imperative to help make TVA better is how we serve the 10 million people of the Tennessee Valley.