Federal Reports

International mail is primarily processed through the U.S. Postal Service’s International Service Centers (ISC). ISC operations focus on the timely and secure movement of international mail and packages. ISC staff use equipment to perform processing scans for events such as mail arrival and departure and customs clearance. Scan data is recorded in the Product Tracking and Reporting (PTR) system and converted to message scripts for customers tracking packages on USPS.com. Our objective was to assess the Postal Service’s international mail operations and performance data. We reviewed key international operations and data, including analyzing 543 packages judgmentally selected at ISCs from May-December 2021.

Given the importance of medical exams to disability claims and the high cost of VA’s contracts with exam vendors, the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) set out to determine whether the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) oversaw contract medical disability exams to ensure they met quality standards and contractual requirements, established procedures for correcting errors, and gave feedback to vendors to improve exam quality.VBA’s governance of and accountability for the exam program needs to improve. The identified deficiencies appear to have persisted, at least in part, because of limitations with VBA’s management and oversight of the program at the time of the review. The OIG found VBA’s program was deficient because it hindered the ability to hold vendors accountable for correcting errors and improving exam accuracy. VBA should improve the program to help ensure vendors produce accurate exams to support correct decisions for veterans’ claims.Contract exams are a significant investment, and VA has spent nearly $6.8 billion since fiscal year 2017. Some of the exams produced by vendors have not met contractual accuracy requirements. As a result, claims processors may have used inaccurate or insufficient medical evidence to decide veterans’ claims. Therefore, it is vital for VBA to improve the governance and accountability of the program.The OIG made four recommendations to the acting under secretary for benefits, including ensuring vendors can be held contractually accountable for unsatisfactory performance and establishing procedures for vendors to correct errors. The OIG also recommended requiring the Medical Disability Examination Office to communicate vendor exam errors to the Office of Field Operations and the regional offices and demonstrate progress in correcting them, and analyze all available data to identify systemic errors and provide systemic exam issues and error trends to vendors.

The PRAC works with dozens of IGs across the federal government to oversee pandemic relief funds. These collaborative efforts have led thus far to ten lessons learned across the pandemic response, which we outline here in our Lessons Learned Report. This report is intended as a living document that we’ll update as we continue our mission.

A Negotiated Service Agreement (NSA) is a customized and mutually beneficial contractual agreement between the U.S. Postal Service and a specific mailer, customer, or organization to retain price-sensitive customers and encourage additional mail volume and revenue. An NSA provides for customized classifications and pricing under the terms and conditions established in the NSA and may include modifications to current mailing standards and other Postal Service requirements. Our objective was to assess processes, methodologies, accuracy of data, and internal controls for pricing competitive outbound international NSAs. We reviewed NSA data related to cost coverage, inflation, and contingency factors for fiscal years (FY) 2018 through 2021. We also reviewed Postal Service policies and procedures for minimum revenue commitments of NSAs, and FY 2021 through FY 2022, Quarter 2, data to determine the number of customers not meeting minimum revenue commitments.

A Negotiated Service Agreement (NSA) is a customized and mutually beneficial contractual agreement between the U.S. Postal Service and a specific mailer, customer, or organization to retain price-sensitive customers and encourage additional mail volume and revenue. An NSA provides for customized classifications and pricing under the terms and conditions established in the NSA and may include modifications to current mailing standards and other Postal Service requirements. Our objective was to assess processes, methodologies, accuracy of data, and internal controls for pricing competitive outbound international NSAs. We reviewed NSA data related to cost coverage, inflation, and contingency factors for fiscal years (FY) 2018 through 2021. We also reviewed Postal Service policies and procedures for minimum revenue commitments of NSAs, and FY 2021 through FY 2022, Quarter 2, data to determine the number of customers not meeting minimum revenue commitments.

For our final report on our audit of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA's) next-generation satellite system architecture, our objective was to assess NOAA's progress planning and implementing this architecture. We found the following: I. NOAA requirements management practices need improvement; and II. NOAA should improve tools in support of observing system portfolio management.