Federal Reports

Letter to Shalanda Young, Acting Director, Office of Management and Budget

Amtrak terminated the contract of a contractor based in Camarillo, California, on January 21, 2022, following the issuance of our investigative report. Our investigation found that the contractor stole two train horns from the Beech Grove Maintenance Facility and later sold them to individuals he met on various train-related internet sites and online forums. In addition, Amtrak required the contractor to remove all equipment from Amtrak property and barred the contractor from entering any Amtrak property in the future.

The PRAC examined whether the Small Business Administration (SBA) Phase III fraud controls, which were applied to process Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans in 2021, would have likely detected the earlier fraud found in PPP criminal cases. SBA designed the PPP Phase III controls to address significant fraud identified in the earlier phases of the program and some were later used by the SBA in its Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) program.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement should implement policies and procedures if it establishes a special case royalty relief program to address declines in commodity prices.

The official embezzled $95,001 by making personal purchases.

We substantiated allegations that a leaseholder failed to make timely royalty payments for minerals (gravel) a subcontractor removed from a tribally owned gravel pit.