Federal Reports

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted this review to determine whether VA complied with the requirements of the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 (PIIA) for fiscal year (FY) 2022. PIIA requires VA to review its programs and activities susceptible to significant improper payments based on Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance. In addition, PIIA requires inspectors general to review their agency’s improper payment report and issue an annual report on its sufficiency. Agencies found to be noncompliant with PIIA and OMB guidance are required to perform additional reporting to OMB, Congress, and the Comptroller General depending on the number of years the OIG found them noncompliant.In FY 2022, VA reported improper and unknown payment estimates totaling $3.5 billion for seven programs and activities. Of that amount, about $1.4 billion represented a monetary loss, and the remaining approximately $2.1 billion was considered either a nonmonetary loss or unknown payment that cannot be recovered. While VA reduced the monetary loss from $1.97 billion in FY 2021 to $1.4 billion in FY 2022, it is still higher than the $892 million reported in 2020. In addition, VA reported a decrease in its overall improper and unknown payment rates for six additional programs and activities.Overall, VA satisfied nine of the ten requirements under the PIIA and concurred with the OIG’s recommendations to bring the remaining two noncompliant programs (the Pension Program and the Purchased Long-Term Services and Supports Program) into compliance with the remaining unmet requirement.

We found that the DOI’s bureaus do not perform any analysis of effective royalty rates for Federal oil and gas developed on Federal lands or offshore.

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