Federal Reports

We performed a review of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) monitoring and tracking of Continuum of Care (CoC) grantees that have been slow to spend their grant funds. Our objectives were to determine whether HUD was effectively tracking and monitoring CoC grant spending and to determine the impact of COVID-19 on CoC grantee spending.HUD generally tracked and monitored its grantees; however, it did not prioritize grantees that encountered challenges in spending their CoC grant funds before the grants expired. This condition occurred because HUD did not have written guidance that detailed how field offices should review grantees for spending issues. Between 2017 and 2020 HUD recaptured nearly $257 million from CoC grantees that had not fully spent their funds. While several factors outside of HUD’s control contributed to the spending challenges, improved tracking and monitoring could help ensure that the grantees timely address those factors and mitigate their impact. Without proactive measures, grantee spending challenges will likely continue, leading to unused funds that could otherwise have gone toward addressing homelessness. In addition, although the pandemic did impact how CoC grantees carried out their programs and some grants had to be temporarily put on hold, overall nationwide CoC grant fund spending was not significantly impacted in the long term by COVID-19.We recommend that the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Operations for HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) implement written procedures to ensure consistency among field offices in reviewing spending, potentially preventing up to an estimated $47 million in annual CoC recaptures. In addition, we recommend that CPD’s Deputy Assistant Secretary of Special Needs Programs design and implement a strategy-intensive training program for grantees.

This interim report presents the results of our self-initiated audit of mail delivery, customer service, and property conditions at the Kearny Main Post Office (MPO) in Kearny, NJ (Project Number 22-170-2). The Kearny MPO is in the New Jersey District of the Atlantic Area and services ZIP Codes 07031 and 07032. These ZIP Codes serve about 56,039 people and are considered to be urban areas. We judgmentally selected the Kearny MPO based on the number of Stop-the-Clock (STC) scans occurring at the delivery unit, rather than at the customer’s point of delivery, and indicators for undelivered mail.

This interim report presents the results of our self-initiated audit of mail delivery, customer service, and property conditions at the Belleville Annex in Belleville, NJ (Project Number 22-170-1). The Belleville Annex is in the New Jersey District of the Atlantic Area and services ZIP Codes 07104, 07109, and 07110. These ZIP Codes serve about 114,608 people and are considered to be urban areas. We judgmentally selected the Belleville Annex based on the number of Stop-the-Clock (STC) scans occurring at the delivery unit, rather than at the customer’s point of delivery, and indicators for undelivered mail.

This interim report presents the results of our self-initiated audit of mail delivery, customer service, and property conditions at the Union Post Office in Union, NJ (Project Number 22-170-3). The Union PO is in the New Jersey District of the Atlantic Area and services ZIP Codes 07040, 07083 and 07088. These ZIP Codes serve about 80,153 people in a predominantly urban area. We judgmentally selected the Union Post Office based on the number of Stop-the-Clock (STC) scans occurring at the delivery unit, rather than at the customer’s point of delivery, and indicators for undelivered mail.

This report presents the results of our self-initiated audit of efficiency of operations at the Dominick V. Daniels Processing and Distribution Center (DV Daniels P&DC), in Kearny, NJ (Project Number 22-169). We conducted this audit to provide U.S. Postal Service management with timely information on operational risks at this P&DC. We judgmentally selected the DV Daniels P&DC based on a review of operational and service metrics. The DV Daniels P&DC is in the New York Metro Division and processes letters, flats, and parcels. The DV Daniels P&DC services multiple 3-digit ZIP Codes in urban and rural communities (see Table 1).

An Amtrak electrician based in Chicago, Illinois, was terminated from employment on October 19, 2022, after our investigation found that the employee violated company policies by misusing a company-owned computer and misusing company time, which included outside business activities. We also found that the former employee violated company policy by not attending to his daily required duties.

Our objective for this report was to assess how effective the company has been in achieving its emissions-reduction goals.We found that the company appears to be on track to reach its 2030 goal to reduce emissions by 40 percent below its 2010 baseline, to purchase 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2030, and to purchase 100 percent renewable electricity by 2035. We identified, however, two opportunities that could help it more easily achieve these goals. First, the company could collect and analyze its own data to reduce idling time for diesel locomotives. Second, it could require sustainability training for management employees. To address the report’s findings, we recommended that the company analyze its data to better target and reduce excess idling. Further, to ensure management employees are aware of the company’s sustainability goals, we recommend that the company make its sustainability training mandatory for all management employees.

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is 1 of 17 national laboratories operated by the Department of Energy. PNNL carries a broad portfolio of scientific activities within chemistry, earth science, biology, and data science. PNNL conducts research utilizing controlled substances in contributing to fentanyl standards establishment and detection technology. The Pacific Northwest Site Office oversees PNNL for the Department’s Office of Science.We initiated this inspection to determine the extent that PNNL effectively manages controlled substances.Based on our inspection, we found that PNNL’s management of its controlled substances was incomplete. Specifically, PNNL did not incorporate all applicable Federal property regulations into its management of controlled substances, as it did not classify them aspersonal property, did not categorize them as sensitive personal property, and did not follow prescribed inventory standards. This occurred because PNNL and the Pacific Northwest Site Office misclassified controlled substances as chemical assets. However, nothing came to our attention to indicate that PNNL’s safeguarding, use of, and record-keeping for controlled substances were not effective.Failure to address all applicable Federal requirements resulted in PNNL not properly tracking and reporting controlled substances inventories, not sending disposition reports to the Pacific Northwest Site Office, and improper segregation of duties for physical inventory counts. Moreover, the lack of additional mechanisms for identifying lost, misplaced, or stolen controlled substances could pose a danger to public health and safety.To address the issues identified in this report, we made one recommendation that, if fully implemented, should help ensure that PNNL properly manages its controlled substances.