Reports

Small Business Administration OIG

SBA Emergency EIDL Grants to Sole Proprietors and Independent Contractors

The Office of Inspector General examined Emergency EIDL grants to sole proprietors and independent contractors from March 29, 2020, until the funds were exhausted just 14 weeks later on July 10. We set out to determine whether the agency complied with its internal policy that set Emergency EIDL grants at $1,000 per employee up to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act mandated maximum amount of $10,000. Using SBA’s data, we found SBA provided $4.5 billion more in Emergency EIDL grants to sole proprietors and independent contractors than they were entitled to receive...

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Inspection / Evaluation | 10/07/2021

Department of Health & Human Services OIG

Six of Eight Home Health Agency Providers Had Infection Control Policies and Procedures That Complied With CMS Requirements and Followed CMS COVID-19 Guidance To Safeguard Medicare Beneficiaries, Caregivers, and Staff During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Department of Health & Human Services OIG

Indian Health Service Use of Critical Care Response Teams Has Helped To Meet Facility Needs During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Inspection / Evaluation | 9/17/2021

Department of Health & Human Services OIG

CMS's COVID-19 Data Included Required Information From the Vast Majority of Nursing Homes, but CMS Could Take Actions To Improve Completeness and Accuracy of the Data

The United States currently faces a nationwide public health emergency because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Federal regulations, effective May 8, 2020, required nursing homes to report COVID-19 information, such as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases among residents, at least weekly to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) National Healthcare Safety Network. Each week, CDC aggregates the reported information and sends the data to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for posting to the CMS website. These data are used to assist with national surveillance of...

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Audit | 9/01/2021

271069 - Closed

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services assess the costs and benefits of implementing the following recommendations and if CMS determines that the benefits outweigh the costs, take action to develop a process to identify nursing homes that do not report required data for all of the data elements related to COVID-19 cases and deaths among residents and staff and PPE and supplies and request that they submit the required data.

271070 - Closed

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services assess the costs and benefits of implementing the following recommendations and if CMS determines that the benefits outweigh the costs, take action to revise its quality assurance checks for ratios 1, 3, 5, and 6, which use the number of all beds in the denominator, to ensure that it does not exclude from its COVID-19 data nursing homes' data that should be included.

271071 - Closed

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services assess the costs and benefits of implementing the following recommendations and if CMS determines that the benefits outweigh the costs, take action to revise its quality assurance checks for ratios 2 and 4, which use the numbers of confirmed cases and admissions among residents and confirmed cases among staff in the denominator, by adding the number of suspected COVID-19 cases to the denominator in both ratios and adjust the ratios' thresholds to reflect the change.

271072 - Closed

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services assess the costs and benefits of implementing the following recommendations and if CMS determines that the benefits outweigh the costs, take action to identify the nursing homes that reported more total COVID-19 deaths than total deaths from any cause and request that they verify or correct the reported data.

271073 - Closed

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services assess the costs and benefits of implementing the following recommendations and if CMS determines that the benefits outweigh the costs, take action to contact nursing homes that failed quality assurance checks to verify the accuracy of reported data or to correct inaccurate data.

271074 - Closed

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services assess the costs and benefits of implementing the following recommendations and if CMS determines that the benefits outweigh the costs, take action to work with CDC and with State health departments to determine the feasibility of using comparable data elements to collect COVID-19 data and the feasibility of monitoring substantial differences in the data and, if determined feasible, take actions to provide the public with more complete and accurate COVID-19 data for nursing homes.

U.S. Postal Service OIG

U.S. Postal Service Protection Against External Cyberattacks

Our objective was to determine if the Postal Service has an effective security posture to protect its Information Technology (IT) infrastructure from external cyberattacks and prevent unauthorized access to restricted data.

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Audit | 8/31/2021

Department of Health & Human Services OIG

CMS’s Controls Related to Hospital Preparedness for an Emerging Infectious Disease Were Well-Designed and Implemented but Its Authority Is Not Sufficient for It To Ensure Preparedness at Accredited Hospitals

Hospitals that cannot control the spread of emerging infectious diseases within their facilities risk spreading a disease such as COVID-19 to patients and staff. OIG therefore developed a plan to assess the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS’s) controls related to hospital preparedness for emerging infectious diseases.The objective of this audit was to determine whether CMS designed and implemented effective internal controls related to hospital preparedness for emerging infectious diseases such as COVID-19.

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Audit | 6/24/2021

U.S. Postal Service OIG

COVID-19 Leave Administration

Our objective was to assess the Postal Service’s management of its employees’ use of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). Although the FFCRA expired on December 31, 2020, the Postal Service continued to allow liberal leave usage for employees who had a sickness related to COVID‑19. On March 11, 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act was signed into law. This Act is similar to the FFCRA in that it created a new type of leave. Effective March 12, 2021, and continuing through September 30, 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act provides...

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Audit | 6/16/2021

National Science Foundation OIG

Performance Audit of the Implementation of OMB COVID-19 Flexibilities – Florida International University

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Audit | 5/19/2021

Finding 1, Rec. 1 - Closed

Resolve the $1,252 in questioned Award Cash Management $ervice drawdowns for which FIU has not agreed to reimburse NSF and direct FIU to repay or otherwise remove the sustained questioned costs from its NSF awards.

Finding 1, Rec. 2 - Closed

Direct FIU to provide documentation supporting that it has repaid or otherwise credited the $14,167 of questioned costs for which it has agreed to reimburse NSF.

Finding 1, Rec. 3 - Closed

Direct FIU to update its administrative and management processes and internal control procedures surrounding the Award Cash Management $ervice for awards with expiring appropriations. Updated processes should ensure FIU appropriately documents how it calculates the final draw amounts for awards with expiring appropriations, to ensure it only uses the draws to cover costs incurred before the appropriation expired.

Finding 1, Rec. 4 - Closed

Direct FIU to strengthen its award set-up processes and procedures to ensure it cannot charge costs to an active award if the Federal appropriations for the award have expired.

Finding 2, Rec. 1 - Closed

Resolve the $791 in questioned fringe benefit costs for which FIU has not agreed to reimburse NSF and direct FIU to repay or otherwise remove the sustained questioned costs from its NSF awards.

Finding 2, Rec. 2 - Open

Direct FIU to provide documentation supporting that it has repaid or otherwise credited the $5,934 of questioned promotional and salary costs for which it has agreed to reimburse NSF.

Finding 2, Rec. 3 - Open

Direct FIU to establish clear guidance regarding the 
allowable uses

An allowable use is any expenditure on which an entity can spend funding.


of participant support cost funding. This guidance should address: a. Allowable uses of participant support cost funding. b. How to verify personnel did not apply fringe benefit rates to participant stipends or other non-salary expenses.

Finding 2, Rec. 4 - Closed

Direct FIU to strengthen its monitoring procedures surrounding costs charged to its NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates programs. Updated procedures should ensure FIU charges costs associated with promotional and/or other unallowable items to nonFederal funding sources.

Finding 3, Rec. 1 - Closed

Direct FIU to update its current practices to ensure it only applies fringe benefits using fringe benefit rates that have been approved by its cognizant audit agency.

National Science Foundation OIG

Performance Audit of the Implementation of OMB COVID-19 Flexibilities – State University of New York at Stony Brook

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Audit | 5/18/2021

Finding 1, Rec. 1 - Closed

Direct Stony Brook to provide documentation supporting that it has repaid or otherwise credited the $20,530 of questioned Award Cash Management $ervice drawdowns associated with unspent funds.

Finding 1, Rec. 2 - Closed

Direct Stony Brook to update its administrative and management processes and internal control procedures surrounding the Award Cash Management $ervice for awards with expiring appropriations. Updated processes could include validating that Stony Brook only draws down funding based on immediate cash needs and/or adequately documents that any Award Cash Management $ervice draws in excess of its actual expenses support immediate cash needs.

Finding 2, Rec. 1 - Closed

Direct Stony Brook to provide documentation supporting that it has repaid or otherwise credited the $6,913 in questioned travel costs for which it has agreed to reimburse NSF.

Finding 2, Rec. 2 - Closed

Direct Stony Brook to provide additional guidance to ensure personnel reimburse NSF timely for cash drawn down for unused travel advances.

Finding 3, Rec. 1 - Closed

Direct Stony Brook to provide documentation supporting that it has repaid or otherwise credited the $3,898 in questioned travel costs for which it has agreed to reimburse NSF.

Finding 3, Rec. 2 - Closed

Direct Stony Brook to strengthen its monitoring procedures and internal controls surrounding the allocation of travel expenses to sponsored projects. Processes could include reviewing and assessing the allocation of all travel expenses charged to NSF awards.

Finding 4, Rec. 1 - Open

Direct Stony Brook to separately track its on-campus and off-campus activities so that it can appropriately apply the approved on-campus and off-campus indirect cost rates.

Finding 4, Rec. 2 - Open

Direct Stony Brook to update its current budget proposal process to eliminate the use of blended indirect cost rates.

Finding 5, Rec. 1 - Open

Direct Stony Brook to update its current award set-up practices to require that, when setting up accounts established for NSF awards, personnel ensure that the accounts apply indirect costs using the rates that were established in the Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement in effect as of the date of the NSF grant award, rather than using the rates included within the original grant proposal.

Finding 5, Rec. 2 - Open

Direct Stony Brook to update its current award set-up practices to remove the establishment of indirect cost budget caps.

National Science Foundation OIG

Performance Audit of the Implementation of OMB COVID-19 Flexibilities – University of New Mexico

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Audit | 5/13/2021

Finding 1, Rec. 1 - Closed

Resolve the $17,269 in questioned unreasonable per diem, airfare, and ground transportation costs for which UNM has not agreed to reimburse NSF and direct UNM to repay or otherwise remove the sustained questioned costs from its NSF awards.

Finding 1, Rec. 2 - Closed

Direct UNM to strengthen its administrative and management procedures for reviewing travel expenses incurred on sponsored projects. Updated procedures could include periodic training for Principal Investigators to ensure they understand when NSF Grant Officer approval should be requested and how to appropriately document that only reasonable costs were charged to NSF awards.

Finding 1, Rec. 3 - Closed

Direct UNM to strengthen its policies and procedures regarding the reasonableness of per diem expenses incurred when employees are temporarily relocated for a period longer than 30 days.

Finding 2, Rec. 1 - Closed

Resolve the $3,613 in questioned tuition costs for which UNM has not agreed to reimburse NSF and direct UNM to repay or otherwise remove the sustained questioned costs from its NSF awards.

Finding 2, Rec. 2 - Closed

Direct UNM to provide documentation supporting that it has repaid or otherwise credited the $83 of questioned travel costs for which it has agreed to reimburse NSF.

Finding 2, Rec. 3 - Closed

Direct UNM to strengthen its controls surrounding the approval of expense reimbursements to ensure approvers appropriately verify that travelers are reimbursed at the appropriate U.S. General Services Administration per diem rate(s).

Finding 2, Rec. 4 - Open

Direct UNM to strengthen its policies and procedures surrounding the use of participant support cost funding to cover tuition remission expenses. Specifically, UNM should update its current tuition remission policies and procedures to ensure that it does not use participant support costs to cover costs associated with credit hours that do not benefit student participants.

Finding 3, Rec. 1 - Closed

Direct UNM to update its award set-up practices to require that, when setting up accounts established for NSF awards, personnel ensure that the accounts apply indirect costs using the rates that were established in the Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement in effect as of the date of the NSF grant award, rather than using the rates included within the original grant proposal.

Finding 3, Rec. 2 - Closed

Direct UNM to require subawardees to apply indirect costs using the rates that were established in the Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement in effect as of the date of the subaward agreement, rather than using the rates included within the subaward budget and proposal.

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Reports

SBA Emergency EIDL Grants to Sole Proprietors and Independent Contractors

Six of Eight Home Health Agency Providers Had Infection Control Policies and Procedures That Complied With CMS Requirements and Followed CMS COVID-19 Guidance To Safeguard Medicare Beneficiaries, Caregivers, and Staff During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Indian Health Service Use of Critical Care Response Teams Has Helped To Meet Facility Needs During the COVID-19 Pandemic

CMS's COVID-19 Data Included Required Information From the Vast Majority of Nursing Homes, but CMS Could Take Actions To Improve Completeness and Accuracy of the Data

U.S. Postal Service Protection Against External Cyberattacks

CMS’s Controls Related to Hospital Preparedness for an Emerging Infectious Disease Were Well-Designed and Implemented but Its Authority Is Not Sufficient for It To Ensure Preparedness at Accredited Hospitals

COVID-19 Leave Administration

Performance Audit of the Implementation of OMB COVID-19 Flexibilities – Florida International University

Performance Audit of the Implementation of OMB COVID-19 Flexibilities – State University of New York at Stony Brook

Performance Audit of the Implementation of OMB COVID-19 Flexibilities – University of New Mexico

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