Federal Reports

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

Our objective for this report was to assess the company’s oversight of the Intercity Trainset program.We found that the company experienced early challenges with stakeholder engagement on the ICT program, leading to scope changes, cost increases, and schedule delays in its trainset acquisition and maintenance facility modification workstreams. For example, the company did not consult with its food and beverage personnel, along with officials from product development, on the design of a food service car before it signed the contract with Siemens. This resulted in a company-initiated change order that increased program costs by $42.5 million and will delay the delivery of the first trainsets by up to five-and-a-half months.The company has since taken steps to address these issues, including establishing an ICT program management framework that closely aligns with company and industry standards such as additional cost and change management controls. The Capital Delivery department is in the process of identifying any controls needed to manage its major capital programs, but it has not yet established and implemented a control to require stakeholder input on all major programs going forward.We recommended the company establish and implement controls to require program personnel to identify and engage all relevant stakeholders to specify requirements early and modify those requirements as program needs and assumptions evolve. The company agreed with the recommendation and is taking corrective action.

The Department of Homeland Security did not consistently comply with NICS requirements from July 2019 to June 2021. FBI NICS examiners rely on NICS data to determine whether a person is eligible to purchase a firearm. However, DHS components did not submit the data to DOJ, as the United States Code and Code of Federal Regulations require. In particular, the components did not consistently update missing information on dispositions, that is, information on the nature and outcome of criminal proceedings. The components also did not always respond promptly or sufficiently to FBI NICS inquiries. Specifically, DHS components took more than 3 days to respond or were unresponsive to 126 (59 percent) of 214 NICS inquiries. We attribute these issues to DHS not having a unified policy or plan to ensure the timely updating of dispositions or a mechanism to ensure prompt, sufficient responses to inquiries. If NICS examiners do not receive disposition data to deny or approve a firearm sale within 3 business days, licensed sellers may transfer firearms at their discretion. Therefore, DHS not sending disposition data to NICS and its delayed and insufficient responses to FBI inquiries create a risk of wrongful firearms transfers.Additionally, as the Fix NICS Act of 2018 requires, DHS submitted semiannual certifications to DOJ consistent with NICS, but at least two submitted certifications were inaccurate. This occurred because DHS has no oversight or policy to ensure compliance with NICS reporting requirements. As a result of DHS’ inaccurate certifications, DOJ’s semiannual report to Congress on Fix NICS Act of 2018 compliance was also inaccurate.