Federal Reports

As part of a Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) Disaster Assistance Working Group cross-cutting initiative, we summarized the conclusions, findings, and recommendations of 28 reports related to the Federal Government’s natural disaster preparedness and response issued by 7 Offices of Inspector General (OIGs).  The seven participating OIGs included U.S. Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, and Transportation and the U.S. Small Business Administration.  Many of these reports focused on the Federal Government’s preparedness to respond to the devastating 2017 hurricanes.

The 28 OIG reports, issued between June 2015 and November 2021, made 89 recommendations to the Federal agencies and grant recipients, including recapturing questioned costs, strengthening internal controls, maintaining adequate oversight of contractors and grants, and complying with Federal regulations.  Agencies should learn from the results of these reports and implement controls and systems to limit future obstacles to spending disaster funds efficiently and effectively.

Click below to read more about each management challenge.

•  Challenge 1:  Performance Management and Accountability
• Challenge 2:  Human Capital Management
• Challenge 3:  Financial Management
• Challenge 4:  Procurement Management
• Challenge 5:  Grant Management
• Challenge 6:  Homeland Security and Disaster Preparedness
• Challenge 7:  Information Technology Security and Management
• Appendix B

Click here to access the full report. To access the CIGIE's 2021 Top Management and Performance Challenges Facing Multiple Federal Agencies report, click here.

This report presents a summary of the results of our self-initiated audits assessing mail delivery, customer service, and property conditions at four selected delivery units in the Milwaukee, WI region (Project Number 22-147) and responds to a request from Senator Tammy Baldwin asking for a review of delivery operations in the Milwaukee area. The four delivery units we audited were the North Milwaukee and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Stations, the Waukesha Main Post Office (MPO), and the Bradley Carrier Annex. We judgmentally selected these delivery units based on the number of Stop-the-Clock (STC) scans occurring at the delivery unit, rather than at the customer’s point of delivery. We previously issued interim reports to district management for each of these units regarding the conditions we identified. In addition, we issued a report on the efficiency of operations at the Milwaukee Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC), which services these four delivery units. All four delivery units are in the Wisconsin District of the Central Area and have a combined total of 147 city routes and 14 rural routes. Staffing at the delivery units during our audit included 162 full-time city carriers, 34 city carrier assistants, 14 rural carriers, five assistant/replacement rural carriers, 21 full-time clerks, and 22 postal support employees (see Table 1).

BackgroundThe U.S. Postal Service plans to replace and expand its current delivery fleet with a mix of internal combustion engine and battery electric powertrain, purpose-built Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (NGDV), and commercial off-the-shelf vehicles. As a result, the Postal Service has initiated several efforts to prepare its Vehicle Maintenance Facilities (VMF) — where the current fleet is serviced and repaired — to maintain NGDVs upon initial deployment in late 2023.What We DidOur objective was to assess the Postal Service’s VMF preparedness plans to maintain the future fleet of NGDVs. For this audit, we engaged a contractor to help us identify VMF preparedness and fleet transition best practices from five domestic and foreign delivery fleets and compared Postal Service practices against them. In addition, we conducted site visits at judgmentally selected VMFs in the Los Angeles, CA; Detroit, MI; Atlanta, GA; Pittsburgh, PA; and Baltimore, MD areas to understand their experiences with prior fleet transitions.

An Amtrak Supervisor based in Hamilton, New Jersey, violated company policy bymisusing his company-owned vehicle by regularly stopping at bars and restaurants onhis way home from work and by not keeping this vehicle at an approved location.During his interview with the OIG, the employee admitted to using the vehicle forpersonal use. The employee was terminated after his disciplinary hearing on October17, 2022.

We recommended the NPS obtain updated guidance on its authority to provide LWCF grants specifically program administration costs.

This report represents our current assessment of the U.S. Small Business Administration's programs and activities that pose significant risks, including those that are particularly vulnerable to fraud, waste, error, mismanagement, or inefficiencies. The Challenges are not presented in order of priority, except for the COVID 19 challenge, which we address first in this report. We also view the other challenges as critically important to SBA operations.