Federal Reports

The U.S. Postal Service has been transporting live, day-old poultry since 1918. “Day-old poultry” is defined as day-old chickens, ducks, emus, geese, guinea birds, partridges, pheasants, quail, and turkeys. As the primary shipper for these time-sensitive shipments, or “lives,” the Postal Service provides an essential service for hatcheries, farmers, feed stores, and backyard hobbyists. Last year, the Postal Service handled over 41 million lives through its air network alone.

To ensure safe, effective, and efficient transportation, the Postal Service requires mailers of live animals to comply with established guidelines. In turn, the Postal Service prioritizes shipment of lives through its processing and logistic networks.

In 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency issued the Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) rule, which included requirements for addressing the risks from coal ash disposal.  The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) updated the program funding for its CCR management program in 2015 to address compliance with the CCR rule and in 2017 began developing a site-specific project to address coal ash at Gallatin Fossil Plant.  The Gallatin Ash Pond Complex Closure and Restoration (Gallatin Ash) project activities include (1) construction, operation, and closure of on-site lined landfills; (2) excavation and disposal of approximately 14 million cubic yards of CCR from Gallatin Fossil Plant; and (3) closure of the legacy ash site and coal yard, along with other site restoration work. 

The project was first approved for implementation by the Project Review Board in February 2018 with a total estimated project cost of approximately $899 million.  As of July 2024, the total estimated project cost had increased to approximately $1.64 billion, an increase of approximately 82 percent.  Because of the costs associated with this project, we assessed the management of project costs. 

We determined cost management for the Gallatin Ash project needed improvement related to the development of the project estimate and monitoring and tracking of project change requests (PCRs).  Specifically, the project estimate (1) did not include the complete scope of work and (2) was not developed using definitive costs as required.  As a result, the initial implementation project estimate was significantly understated.  Some PCRs submitted by contractors lacked adequate detail to determine if project cost increases were reasonable.  In addition, PCRs were not prepared for cost increases resulting from inaccurate project estimates. During the review, we also identified confidential contractor information that was shared by TVA project management with another contractor, creating reputational and liability risks for TVA.

The Department of Homeland Security Headquarters (HQ) did not adequately secure a non-Tier 1 High Value Asset (HVA) system used to support data analysis and reporting on DHS component operations, which rendered the system and its sensitive information vulnerable to cyberattacks. Although DHS HQ developed policies and procedures meant to reduce risks to sensitive information stored on the HVA system and effectively implemented certain controls, we determined the system did not meet security requirements.  We identified nine unique critical and high-risk vulnerabilities that appeared 182 times in the system and, through simulated cyberattack penetration testing, were able to exploit vulnerabilities.  The vulnerabilities we identified pose significant security risks, increasing the likelihood an attacker could gain access to sensitive information. These deficiencies demonstrate that DHS HQ needs to strengthen its management of the HVA system.  Ensuring the system complies with the Department’s security and privacy policies will better protect the sensitive information processed by the system.  Until these deficiencies are addressed, DHS HQ may not be equipped to protect the HVA system and cannot ensure it will be able to quickly respond to and recover from a cyberattack. 

Report on the results of our performance audit of the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC) for the period of August 1, 2021 through July 31, 2024. During this period the National Endowment for the Arts (Arts Endowment) closed four MSAC awards, totaling $4,545,800 in Arts Endowment funds and $24,614,504 in total reported costs.