Federal Reports

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) assessed the oversight and stewardship of funds by the VA Cincinnati Healthcare System. The review team looked at four areas to determine if appropriate controls and oversight were in place for open obligations oversight, purchase card use, Medical/Surgical Prime Vendor–Next Generation (MSPV-NG) program use, and pharmacy operations. The team reviewed data from fiscal years 2019 through 2021. The report includes the below findings:• Reviews were not completed for nine inactive obligations from a judgmental sample of 20 obligations that totaled about $7.2 million from September 30, 2021.• The healthcare system did not comply with VA policy for three of the 36 sampled transactions (about 8 percent), totaling about $10,200.• The healthcare system did not meet the formulary utilization goal recommended by the VA Medical Supplies Program Office (MSPO) to purchase 90 percent of formulary items from the MSPV-NG prime vendor.• Pharmacy efficiency could be improved by narrowing the gap between observed and expected drug costs.The OIG made eight recommendations to the healthcare system director: ensure finance office staff review inactive open obligations and pharmacy invoice reconciliations, develop a plan to work with the prime vendor to address having adequate stock for system needs, submit MSPV-NG waiver requests and obtain approval before purchasing formulary items from nonprime vendor sources, ensure logistics staff and contracting officer’s representatives use tools to inform the MSPO and Strategic Acquisition Center of prime vendor performance concerns and challenges, create formal processes for achieving efficiency targets and use data to make business decisions, prepare and implement a plan to increase inventory turnover closer to the VHA-recommended level, and develop a plan to complete facility-based inventory audits of noncontrolled drug line items.

Due to the risk of employee exposure to toxic vapors, gases, dust, or oxygen deficiency, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) performed an evaluation of TVA’s Respiratory Protection Program at nonnuclear facilities. The objective of this evaluation was to determine if selected respiratory protection procedures were being performed at nonnuclear facilities.The OIG determined some respiratory protection procedures were not being performed as required. Specifically, we determined some (1) requirements were not being met for training, fit tests, facepiece seal protection, and respirator storage and (2) employees were delinquent on medical evaluation requirements.

This Office of Inspector General (OIG) Comprehensive Healthcare Inspection Program (CHIP) report highlights the results of a focused evaluation of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) facilities’ medication management related to remdesivir use. The report describes medication management-related findings from healthcare inspections performed at 34 VHA medical facilities during fiscal year 2021. Each inspection involved interviews with key staff and reviews of clinical and administrative processes.The OIG found that VHA met many elements of expected performance, including the availability of staff to receive remdesivir shipments. However, the OIG found that VHA did not consistently provide patient/caregiver education for remdesivir or report adverse events to the Food and Drug Administration in accordance with Emergency Use Authorization requirements.Given the FDA’s approval of remdesivir for use in adult patients hospitalized with COVID-19, the OIG made no recommendations related to the Emergency Use Authorization requirements. However, because VHA facility staff continue to administer other medications under emergency use authorizations, the OIG issued one recommendation related to informing patients and caregivers when the medication is not FDA-approved; the option to refuse the medication; and the known risks, benefits, and alternatives prior to administration.

Darius Lopez, a resident of Tampa, Florida, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida, to fraud and related activity in connection with access devices on September 1, 2022. Lopez was arrested on April 15, 2021, by the Citrus County Sheriff’s Department for using counterfeit credit cards to purchase over $20,000 of landscaping equipment. At the time of his arrest, Lopez was in possession of numerous counterfeit credit cards, including a fake GSA SmartPay purchase card with a purchase card number that was issued to Amtrak. This investigation is being conducted jointly with the GSA Office of Inspector General.

This report contains information about recommendations from the OIG's audits, evaluations, reviews, and other reports that the OIG had not closed as of the specified date because it had not determined that the Department of Justice (DOJ) or a non-DOJ federal agency had fully implemented them. The list omits information that DOJ determined to be limited official use or classified, and therefore unsuitable for public release.The status of each recommendation was accurate as of the specified date and is subject to change. Specifically, a recommendation identified as not closed as of the specified date may subsequently have been closed.

This report presents a summary of the results of our self-initiated audits assessing mail delivery, customer service, and property conditions at four select delivery units in the St. Louis, MO region (Project Number 22-115). These delivery units were the Saint Peters Main Post Office (MPO) and the Maryville Gardens, Chouteau, and Marian Oldham Stations. We judgmentally selected these delivery units based on the number of customer inquiries per route each unit received and Stop-the-Clock (STC) scans occurring at each delivery unit. 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 St. Louis Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC) which services these four delivery units.All four delivery units are in the Kansas-Missouri District of the Central Area. These four delivery units have a combined total of 113 city routes and 40 rural routes. Staffing at the delivery units during our audit included 137 full-time city carriers, 28 city carrier assistants, 41 rural carriers, 14 rural replacement carriers, one assistant rural carrier, 26 full-time clerks, and eight postal support employees (see Table 1).