Investigative Reports

On May 4, 2020, the OIG was informed that First-Class Mail, including but not limited to political mail and mail-in ballots, was misdelivered and left near cluster boxes at numerous apartment buildings in Paterson, NJ, on May 1, 2020. The investigation revealed through video surveillance, interviews and USPS database searches that on May 1, 2020, mail was improperly delivered to numerous apartment buildings. On May 19, 2020, a Notice of Removal (NOR) was issued. pursuant to the OIG investigation with the charge of Incomplete Disposition of Mail. No further investigative findings anticipated. This case is closed.

This investigation addressed an allegation that a contract employee and his employer submitted mileage reimbursement expenses in the amount of $23,431.82 that were not allowed under their contract with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). These travel expenses were submitted for the employee’s travel to and from TVA’s Watts Bar Nuclear Site between February 2017 and April 2019. The evidence substantiated that these expenses were not reimbursable under the contract.The OIG recommends that (1) TVA re-educate the contractor on when mileage reimbursement is permitted under the contract, and (2) resolve the misinterpretation of the contract terminology pertaining to mileage reimbursement between the Nuclear Projects and Supply Chain groups.

During a recent OIG investigation, we found that the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) has an internal policy that permits authorized senior staff to obtain access to employee emails to ensure “efficient and proper operation of the workplace,” or to search for “suspected misconduct.” We found, however, that the NIGC has no systems, processes, or procedures in place to approve, track, or account for internal email queries of employees’ emails.While we found no U.S. Department of the Interior policy that prohibited such queries, we are concerned about the negative effect this practice could have on employees making protected disclosures. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) issued a memorandum to all executive departments and agencies in February 2018 urging that policies and practices for monitoring employee communications “do not interfere with or chill employees from lawfully disclosing wrongdoing.”To avoid a chilling effect on NIGC employees seeking to engage in protected whistleblowing activity and to ensure adequate oversight of its access to individual Government email accounts, we made one recommendation that the NIGC establish formal policies and procedures consistent with the OSC’s guidance that also provide a way for the NIGC to track and retain all requests and productions.We issued this management advisory to the NIGC Chairman.

This investigation addressed an allegation that a contract employee and his employer submitted mileage reimbursement expenses in the amount of $34,173.15 that were not allowed under their contract with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). These travel expenses were submitted for the employee’s travel to and from TVA’s Sequoyah Nuclear Site between August 2016 and June 2019. The evidence substantiates that these expenses were not reimbursable under the contract.The OIG recommends that (1) TVA re-educate the contractor on when mileage reimbursement is permitted under the contract, and (2) resolve the misinterpretation of the contract terminology pertaining to mileage reimbursement between TVA’s Nuclear Projects and Supply Chain groups.

An Assistant Passenger Conductor based in Washington, D.C., was terminated from employment on May 27, 2020, after our investigation revealed that he had gained employment at the company by using fraudulent forms of identification. During his employment with the company, the employee was arrested and convicted for several felonies and misdemeanors. On several occasions, he inappropriately used leave granted under the Family Medical Leave Act, including one occasion while he was under home confinement wearing an ankle GPS tracker. He is currently serving a 10-month prison sentence for violating federal probation.

We investigated allegations that an Office of Service Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) forester misused his position and violated ethics regulations.We found that the OSMRE forester violated ethics regulations when he promoted the use of a private company to State and Federal officials, which gave the appearance that the Government endorsed this company.

A Carman/Welder in Beech Grove, Indiana, was terminated from employment on May 19, 2020, following an administrative hearing for violating company policy. Our investigation found that the employee failed to disclose his criminal convictions occurring prior to his employment on his initial application and during his employment, and he also failed to disclose multiple drug and/or alcohol related arrests once employed. Additionally, the employee inappropriately used or remained on sick leave and leave granted under the Family Medical Leave Act while serving time in jail.

One Amtrak electrician in Beech Grove, Indiana, resigned from his position on May 4, 2020, and a second was terminated from employment on May 11, 2020, following his administrative hearing. Our investigation found that both employees entered a supply area without authorization and stole company materials. Both employees admitted to the unauthorized entry and to stealing gloves and batteries.

We investigated allegations that U.S. Fish and Wildlife (FWS) volunteers at Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge allowed guests to utilize Government housing, against FWS policy. We also investigated the circumstances surrounding the termination of two other volunteers from the refuge.We determined that two volunteers permitted guests to reside in Government housing on the refuge for several days, in violation of FWS policy and without authorization from refuge officials. We also found that refuge officials had a sufficient basis to terminate the two other volunteers from the refuge.

A Communications and Signals employee violated Amtrak policy by repeatedly disabling the Dash Cam system—designed to monitor and record incidents of unsafe driving—in his company-assigned vehicle, including on December 1, 2019, when he was involved in an accident while operating this vehicle. During the OIG investigation, the employee denied that he tampered with, disconnected, or reconnected his vehicle’s Dash Cam system. The evidence, however, demonstrated that he manually disconnected the Dash Cam system at the times in question. The employee retired on May 6, 2020, prior to his administrative hearing.

The OIG investigated an allegation that an information technology services contractor intentionally diverted a payment made by the Interior Business Center (IBC) away from the contractor’s assignee—an entity to which the contractor owed money—into its own bank account. As a result, the IBC paid the contractor instead of the assignee, and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) lost more than $300,000.We found that the contractor changed its default bank account information in the system of award management to its own bank account, which caused the payment diversion, but we could not show the contractor changed the account information with the intent of diverting the payment. Furthermore, we found the IBC paid the wrong entity because it did not properly enter the assignee as the payment recipient in its contract management system.We presented this matter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which declined prosecution. The contractor filed for bankruptcy protection and could not return the money to the DOI or the assignee. As a result, the DOI paid an additional $324,544 to the assignee to fulfill the money owed under the contract.

This investigation was initiated after concerns were reported to the Office of the Inspector General that the duties of a managed-task contract employee working at TVA placed him in a position to direct TVA contracts to his company. While it was determined that, as a contractor, criminal conflict of interest statutes did not apply to this contract employee, the OIG made several recommendations to address this situation. The OIG recommended TVA do the following: (1) review the duties and responsibilities of the contract employee and ensure compliance with the Organizational Conflict of Interest terms of the contract; (2) require contractors acting in contract manager roles and/or involved with contracting decisions be required to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest, similar to OGE Form 450, “Confidential Financial Disclosure Report;” and (3) ensure contract employees do not review or have access to information that could provide the contractor with an unfair competitive advantage.

The OIG investigated allegations that a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) administrative assistant made numerous personal purchases using a Government purchase card from 2016 to 2018.Our investigation found that during that 2-year period the employee made 27 personal purchases totaling $7,454.88 using the employee’s Government-issued purchase card. We also determined that the employee lied during our investigation when the employee claimed some charges were for office supplies. We later established those purchases were for personal food and alcohol.The employee pleaded guilty to felony theft under a deferred judgment and was sentenced to 2 years supervised release. The employee also agreed to pay $7,454.88 in restitution and resigned from the FWS.

The OIG investigated allegations that an oil and gas production company failed to properly account for oil produced from Federal leases in the Bakersfield, CA area, resulting in a loss of mineral royalties owed to the Federal Government. The company was required to account for and report its oil production to the U.S. Department of the Interior.We determined that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) discovered that the company’s recordkeeping contributed to a production reporting error of 400 barrels of oil, but an audit of the company’s operations did not disclose a loss of royalties. We found the company’s reported oil production volumes coincided with its recorded oil sales.