Securing IT

The United States is facing an energy crisis of historic proportions and when coupled with the recent national economic instability, these two factors present utility companies like TVA with unique challenges. The electric utility industry is a very capital-intensive industry requiring TVA to make large scale capital investment decisions. Risk is inherent in the process. How TVA manages those risks is particularly important today. We examined TVA’s enterprise risk management program in this semiannual reporting period as part of our continued vigil as to how TVA is coping with challenging conditions.Like many organizations in America today, IT security is a significant risk at TVA and one that is being carefully examined both by TVA management and the OIG. TVA is making admirable strides to secure information technology in an ever increasingly risky environment. Our work in this area was recognized by the President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency this past October in Washington, D.C., with an Award of Excellence. Our auditors who worked in this area are justly deserving of this special commendation for their contributions to a more effective and robust IS and IT program at TVA.I also want to congratulate our Investigations department and its team of investigators and auditors for their PCIE Award. The excellent work they did in the Kinder Morgan case achieving our largest civil settlement ever truly merits such recognition.This semiannual period we introduce a new series of inspection reports all designed to answer the basic question, “How is TVA doing?” My observation after more than five years as the Inspector General at TVA is that while there are multiple sources of information about TVA, many are hyper-technical and many are simply anecdotal – neither adequately informs TVA stakeholders as to exactly how TVA is doing in key areas. Some sources require interpretation from TVA management which lacks needed objectivity. With our reports on how TVA is doing with customer relations, financial strength, operational performance, and environmental stewardship, we hope to provide a reliable and readable analysis of “How TVA is doing.” The reports follow the tradition of Inspectors General in keeping the head of federal agencies and theCongress “fully and currently informed about problems and deficiencies relating to the administration of such programs and operations and the necessity for and progress of corrective action.” We believe that our benchmarking reports such as the one on customer relations will better serve Congress, the TVA Board, and the residents of the Tennessee Valley.As always, we are aware of the fact that our work was made infinitely better by the high level of support for our recommendations that we received from both the TVA Board and TVA management.