Federal Reports

As part of our annual audit plan, we audited costs billed to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) by Jacobs Technology Inc. (Jacobs) under Contract No. 11163 for construction management services, including design, construction, and project support at various TVA facilities. Our audit objective was to determine if costs were billed in accordance with the contract's terms. Our audit scope included about $21.3 million in costs billed to TVA from July 20, 2017, through April 29, 2020. All of the costs billed by Jacobs during our audit period were for cost-reimbursable projects.In summary, we determined Jacobs overbilled TVA $504,063, including (1) $322,596 in unsupported and ineligible temporary living allowances and travel costs, (2) $73,188 in labor costs, and (3) $108,279 in payroll tax and insurance costs for 2018 and 2019 because costs were not adjusted to actual costs at year end as required by the contract. In addition, Jacobs also informed us that it had not performed a payroll tax and insurance adjustment for calendar years 2017 and 2020. We also identified opportunities for TVA to improve contract administration by ensuring the contract does not include conflicting contract language.(Summary Only)

This report presents the results of our self-initiated audit of Efficiency of Operations at the Portland Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC) in Portland, OR (Project Number 22-028). We conducted this audit to provide U.S. Postal Service management with timely information on operational risks at this P&DC. The Portland P&DC is in the Pacific Northwest Division and processes letters, flats, and parcels; and it services multiple 3-digit ZIP Codes in urban and rural communities. We judgmentally selected the Portland P&DC based on overtime, penalty overtime, and late and extra trips by Postal Vehicle Service (PVS) and Highway Contract Route (HCR) drivers.

The EPA Office of Grants and Debarment does not know the full extent to which program offices and regions have implemented grant flexibilities and exceptions permitted by the Office of Management and Budget due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Office of Grants and Debarment tracked grants that received flexibilities through its issued class waivers and regulatory exceptions but did not track grants that received flexibilities and exceptions approved by program offices and regions. The lack of agencywide tracking of grant flexibilities and exceptions hindered the Agency’s ability to assess how the coronavirus pandemic impacted the grant process.