Federal Reports

Objectives: To determine whether the Social Security Administration (SSA) has established internal controls to (1) initiate enrollment, upon request, in the Direct Express® Debit Card program (Program) and (2) resolve benefits returned to the Agency because of an unfinished enrollment.

Objective: To determine how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the disability determination services’ (DDS) processing of disability claims.

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

An Engineering Supervisor based in New York City violated company policies by working in violation of the 16-hour rule, receiving unnecessary “Time Paid Not Worked,” and receiving pay for more than 24 hours in a day. Specifically, we found 41 occasions when the supervisor claimed compensatory time for minimal or no work and 35 occasions when the employee did not swipe in or out on a time-and-attendance machine, as required by company policy. The employee resigned in lieu of his disciplinary hearing and is ineligible for rehire.

The comments are in response to The Social Security Administration’s Oversight of Beneficiaries Who Receive Benefits Under the Direct Express® Debit Card Program, A-04-20-50977, that was submitted by Comerica Bank on July 25, 2023 pursuant to Pub. L. No. 117- 263, § 5274.

Colby Frazier, a resident of Long Beach, California, was sentenced to 30-months in prison on charges of Wire Fraud and Aggravated Identity Theft in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, on June 21, 2023, for his participation in a "phishing" scheme in which he fraudulently obtained credit card and personal identifying information (PII) from his victims, including names and banking information. Frazier used the victims' credit card information and PII to purchase online travel tickets on common carriers, including Amtrak, and then resold the tickets to other individuals and kept the proceeds. Frazier was previously indicted on July 11, 2019, and he pleaded guilty to the charges on May 19, 2021. He was also ordered to pay $67,056 in restitution to Amtrak.

We performed audits at the Southern Maine Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC) and five delivery units serviced by the P&DC in the Portland Maine region during the week of March 13, 2023. These audits responded to a request from Senator Susan Collins and interest from Representative Chellie Pingree in mail operations in the Portland, ME region. The delivery units included the Industrial Park Annex, Saco, ME; Lewiston Main Post Office (MPO), Lewiston, ME; Main Office Carrier Section, Portland, ME; Southern Maine Carrier Unit, Scarborough, ME; and Sanford MPO, Sanford, ME.