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Related Organizations
Any Recommendations
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Reports
Audit of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command Use of Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act Funding
Rec. 1.a: The DoD OIG recommended that the Commander, North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, develop internal controls that implement emergency funding guidance and ensure proper use of emergency authorized funds.
Rec. 1.b: The DoD OIG recommended that the Commander, North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, develop internal controls that require North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command officials to retain sufficient evidence, including a clear and accurate description of the goods and services purchased, that demonstrates how those goods and services supported the specific emergency.
Rec. 2.a: The DoD OIG recommended that the Director, Budget Operations and Personnel, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Budget) develop and implement internal controls that verify whether current and future emergency expenses meet specific funding requirements prior to reimbursement and retain sufficient evidence of verification.
Rec. 2.b: The DoD OIG recommended that the Director, Budget Operations and Personnel, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Budget) conduct a review of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command CARES Act transactions 1, 3, 5, 6, 14, 16, 17, 18, 24, and 25 to determine whether the purpose statute was violated. In addition, review the remaining 472 North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command CARES Act transactions, which were not part of our sample, to ensure CARES Act funds were used as intended.
Rec. 2.c: The DoD OIG recommended that the Director, Budget Operations and Personnel, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Budget), in coordination with North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, make the appropriate accounting adjustments for transactions 1, 3, 5, 6, 14, 16, 17, 18, 24, and 25 to non-CARES Act funding if the Director's review concludes the purpose statute was violated. The Director's review could result in the potential monetary benefits of $19.2 million (in questioned costs) and $7.4 million (in unsupported costs).
Rec. 2.d: The DoD OIG recommended that the Director, Budget Operations and Personnel, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Budget) determine whether any purpose statute violations result in Antideficiency Act violations based on Recommendations 2.b. and 2.c.
Rec. 2.e: The DoD OIG recommended that the Director, Budget Operations and Personnel, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Budget) report any resulting Antideficiency Act violations to the Secretary of the Air Force, who then reports relevant information to the President and Congress.
The Social Security Administration’s Mail Processing During the COVID-19 Pandemic
If cost-effective, invest in software and equipment to reduce manual processing of incoming mail.
Expand the use of Post Office Boxes for long-term, high-volume workloads.
If cost-effective, outsource additional mail duties to contractors.
Incorporate centralized printing of forms and notices into SSA’s systems modernization efforts.
Implement policy and operational changes, where appropriate, to decrease reliance on original documents.
Implement options for customers to submit the most frequently used forms online.
Implement capabilities for employees to securely correspond with the public electronically.
Implement online versions of the most frequently sent notices.
Management Alert - FEMA's COVID-19 Funeral Assistance Operating Procedures Are Inconsistent with Previous Interpretation of Long-Standing Regulations for Eligible Funeral Expenses
We recommend that the Federal Emergency Management Agency Administratorimmediately issue modified COVID-19 Funeral Assistance operating proceduresthat align with the Individual Assistance Program and Policy Guide provisions9 OIG requested relevant documentation during a November 16, 2021 meeting with FEMA onthis topic.www.oig.dhs.gov 7 OIG-22-36We recommend that the Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator immediately issue modified COVID-19 Funeral Assistance operating procedures that align with the Individual Assistance Program and Policy Guide provisions on ineligible funeral assistance expenses and ensure all future cost reimbursements by FEMA in connection with the COVID-19 Funeral Assistance Program are necessary expenses associated with funeral services and/or burials.
COVID-19: To Protect Mission Critical Workers, OSHA Could Leverage Inspection Collaboration Opportunities with External Federal Agencies
We recommend the Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health develop an OSHA outreach plan to be activated during a large-scale safety and health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic that (a) identifies external federal agencies with enforcement or oversight personnel who are active on worksites and (b) defines how OSHA will collaborate with those agencies. OSHA should consider incorporating into the plan: a process to identify and document highly visible, safety and health hazards for large-scale safety and health crises; a plan for how OSHA will conduct related outreach and training on those hazards and how to refer them to OSHA; and a tracking system for agency referrals and outcomes of those referrals, using that information to periodically inform the outreach plan on areas and types of guidance and training the agencies’ oversight and enforcement personnel need.
We recommend the Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health explore mechanisms to enhance collaboration, such as MOUs or other written agreements using GAO’s seven key features for collaboration, and incorporate a process to utilize those mechanisms into the outreach plan.
Audit of Entitlements for Activated Army National Guard and Air National Guard Members Supporting the Coronavirus Disease–2019 Mission
Rec. 1.a: The DoD OIG recommended that the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)/Chief Financial Officer, DoD, in coordination with the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, update the DoD Financial Management Regulation, volume 7A, "Military Pay Policy - Active Duty and Reserve Pay," chapter 27, "Family Separation Allowance" to clearly state that the permanent duty station of a Reserve Component member on temporary duty status is the member's primary residence for the purpose of determining Family Separation Allowance entitlement.
Rec. 1.b: The DoD OIG recommended that the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)/Chief Financial Officer, DoD, in coordination with the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, update the DoD Financial Management Regulation, volume 7A, "Military Pay Policy - Active Duty and Reserve Pay," chapter 27, "Family Separation Allowance" to clarify that Family Separation Allowance entitlement determination is based on the commuting distance between the member's primary residence and their temporary duty location.
Rec. 2.a: The DoD OIG recommended that the Chief, National Guard Bureau, in coordination with the Director of the Army National Guard and the Director of the Air National Guard, develop and implement policies and procedures to require the Army National Guard and Air National Guard to complete a review of proof of residency documentation when the member's primary residency is established or changed for the Basic Allowance for Housing entitlement to ensure consistency throughout all Army National Guard and Air National Guard units and organizations within every state, territory, and the District. The policies and procedures should also include requirements that: 1) document a member's primary residence address; 2) require members to provide proof of their primary residence address; 3) certify the primary address of members and review supporting documentation; and 4) provide oversight to ensure primary residence address information is complete and accurate.
Rec. 2.b: The DoD OIG recommended that the Chief, National Guard Bureau, in coordination with the Director of the Army National Guard and the Director of the Air National Guard, develop and implement policies and procedures to outline the process and frequency of recertification for Basic Allowance for Housing entitlement that Army National Guard and Air National Guard officials will use to verify and fully document the dependency status of members to provide clarification to the DoD Financial Management Regulation, volume 7A, chapter 26. These procedures should include: * how recertifications will be completed; * which members will complete a recertification; and * how Army National Guard and Air National Guard officials will provide oversight to ensure that information is complete and accurate.
Rec. 2.c: The DoD OIG recommended that the Chief, National Guard Bureau, in coordination with the Director of the Army National Guard and the Director of the Air National Guard, develop and implement policies and procedures to require Army National Guard and Air National Guard officials to review and document the status of a military member married to another military member regardless of which Military Service, Reserve or Active Component, or Army National Guard or Air National Guard unit the member's spouse belongs to, and identify which member will claim any applicable dependents.
Rec. 2.d: The DoD OIG recommended that the Chief, National Guard Bureau, in coordination with the Director of the Army National Guard and the Director of the Air National Guard, develop and implement policies and procedures to specify the methods for confirming eligibility and paying Family Separation Allowance for Army National Guard and Air National Guard members, in accordance with the DoD Financial Management Regulation, volume 7A, chapter 27, and include the: * timeliness of payments; * determination of Family Separation Allowance eligibility for back to back orders; * members assigned to their normal duty locations; and * requirement to track members to know when they return to their primary residence.
Rec. 2.e: The DoD OIG recommended that the Chief, National Guard Bureau, in coordination with the Director of the Army National Guard and the Director of the Air National Guard, develop and implement policies and procedures to establish formal dissemination and communication procedures for National Guard Bureau policies related to entitlements provided to the Army National Guard and Air National Guard, including the policies in the preceding recommendations. The procedures should require: 1) creation of a central location where policies and procedures will be kept for easy access by all states, territories, and the District; and 2) confirmation of receipt from all of the states, territories, and the District when procedures are communicated or obtained.
Rec. 3: The DoD OIG recommended that the Chief, National Guard Bureau, in coordination with the Director of the Army National Guard and the Director of the Air National Guard, develop and implement additional internal control procedures for the review of transactions manually submitted by the Army National Guard and Air National Guard to the payment system prior to payment to ensure the completeness and accuracy of transactions.
American Rescue Plan Act: Implementation of Advance Recovery Rebate Credit Payments
The Commissioner, Large Business and International Division, should coordinate with the territories to share information that will enable the territories to recover duplicate payments that the territories have issued, to the extent permitted under the relevant territory’s domestic law.
If Congress enacts additional stimulus payments, the Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should consider additional programming changes to prevent ineligible individuals from receiving advance payments, including individuals claimed as dependents or dependents claimed on multiple returns, nonresident individuals, individuals who had a filing status or filing partner change, deceased individuals, and individuals affected by the mentioned related programming errors.
Program and Organizational Changes Are Needed to Address the Continued Inadequate Tax Account Assistance Provided to Taxpayers
On September 20, 2021, we notified the Director, Accounts Management, that the Austin site was not requiring Accounts Management screeners to come into the office to perform their duties, resulting in a significant backlog and delays in inventory being routed to Accounts Management to be worked. We recommended that the IRS establish consistent guidance and clarification on when resources can be directed to the office to help with screening inventory, to ensure that sufficient staff is available to screen documents in a timely manner, and establish processes to monitor the progress,
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should update existing scanning software or obtain a new scanning software to address document capacity concerns.
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should ensure that programming is updated to systemically reject electronic submissions of Forms 2848 and 8821 when missing one of the five essential elements (name, address, signature, etc.) without manually mailing a rejection letter.
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should ensure that the rejection letter used for Forms 2848 and 8821 is updated to include language that a revised form can be submitted electronically via an IRS Tax Pro Account25 or through Taxpayer Digital Communication.
Develop an action plan to prioritize the continued expansion of documents that can be sent in via electronic fax and converted into a CIS image.
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should develop an action plan to prioritize the continued expansion of documents that can be sent in via electronic fax and converted into a Correspondence Imaging System (CIS) image.
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should Identify priority work that needs to be expedited by the Image Control Team (ICT) and assess the feasibility of creating an electronic fax number to receive this inventory.
On July 12, 2021, TiGTA notified the Director, Accounts Management, of concerns regarding inaccuracies as it related to the compiling and reporting of the Accounts Management Inventory Report (AMIR). TIGTA recommended that the IRS perform a reconciliation of each Accounts Management site’s AMIR to the source reports to identify inventory inconsistencies and reporting errors by site
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should complete the inventory reconciliations for the four remaining Accounts Management site’s to identify and correct inventory inaccuracies and inconsistencies and implement processes to provide oversight by periodically performing reconciliations for each site so that any future inconsistencies and errors are identified and corrected in a timely manner.
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should develop specific and detailed instructions for preparing the Accounts Management Inventory Report (AMIR), including how controlled and uncontrolled inventory should be captured
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should develop a process to systemically pull all controlled inventory for each Accounts Management site for the Accounts Management Inventory Report (AMIR) to ensure consistency, reduce human error, and increase efficiencies
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should modify Accounts Management inventory reporting to report unassigned controlled inventory separately on the nationwide Accounts Management Inventory Report (AMIR) and limit the site-specific AMIRs to only the inventory assigned to be worked in each site.
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should evaluate directing taxpayers to send tax account correspondence and replies intended for Accounts Management directly to Campus Support Sites for processing to reduce backlogs at Tax Processing Centers and improve services to taxpayers.
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should prioritize the development and implementation of tools that will enable taxpayers seeking assistance or responding to Accounts Management to correspond with the IRS electronically, including the ability to directly upload documents into Accounts Management’s inventory.
The Chief Taxpayer Experience Officer, in conjunction with the Director, IRS NEXT Office, should evaluate establishing two distinct IRS programs as part of the IRS reorganization under the Taxpayer First Act – one dedicated to answering toll-free telephone calls and one dedicated to working Accounts Management inventory – with adequate staffing to provide appropriate service to taxpayers using each channel.
On June 9, 2021, we notified the Director, Customer Account Services, that Submission Processing requested resources from Accounts Management to assist with clearing the Image Control Team (ICT) backlog and was told by Campus Support management that no resources could be made available to assist with reducing the ICT backlog. We recommended that the IRS assess the availability of Campus Support’s ICT staffing or other resources that could be made available to assist with clearing the ICT backlogs at Tax Processing Centers.
On September 3, 2021, we notified the Director, Accounts Management, of concerns relating to the newly stood-up Fresno Campus Support Site, including scanners not being used to the full extent possible. We recommended that IRS management provide us with it plans to address our concerns identified with the new Fresno Campus Support Site, including additional staffing to assist Image Control Team (ICT).
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should complete a strategic review of all 10 Image Control Team (ICT) sites to determine what contributes to the ICT’s inability to timely scan and validate documents. Based on the results of this review, initiate steps to address the concerns identified. This should include the development of an action plan to ensure that the high-capacity ICT scanners and staffing are realigned to the appropriate sites based on actual or expected inventory levels and that responsibility of the ICT operations are consolidated under the appropriate function.
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should cross-train additional mail clerks at Campus Support Sites to work Image Control Team (ICT) validations, freeing up additional resources in sites with higher inventories needing to be scanned, or consider shipping inventory to sites with less inventory to be scanned.
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should develop specific instructions and a common template for all 10 Image Control Team (ICT) sites to consistently capture ICT inventory information.
Railroad Retirement Board Did Not Implement Sufficient Internal Controls in the Mobile Phones Deployed as a Result of the Pandemic
The Bureau of Information Services should update their mobile phone policies to include and implement a National Archives and Records Administration-approved records schedule and transfer procedures for electronic records associated with mobile phones.
The Bureau of Information Services should develop and implement a records management and retention system for electronic records.
The Bureau of Information Services should research the capabilities of Railroad Retirement Board's Microsoft Azure Cloud's functionality to determine feasibility of incorporating the automated records management and retention capabilities to govern the mobile phones electronic records.
The Bureau of Information Services should submit a yearly affidavit to confirm electronic records associated with mobile phones have been identified and retained until the full transition into Microsoft Azure Cloud.
The Railroad Retirement Board's Director of Administration should define and communicate 'personal usage' establishing Railroad Retirement Board's core hours of 5:00 am to 7:00 pm. Any usage outside of core hours would be considered personal usage excluding business management purposes.
The Railroad Retirement Board's Bureau of Information Services should 1) continue efforts to update the Telecommuting and Mobile Security Computing Policy with current laws and regulations and 2) develop a periodic monitoring control to assess personal usage and address it according to agency guidance.
The Bureau of Information Services should incorporate the mobile phones in an existing assessable unit and update their mobile phone policies to include documentation regarding the specific roles and responsibilities of each office overseeing the mobile phone program.
The Bureau of Information Services should enforce and execute a review and approval process for application and software download and restrict access to specified applications found in their Railroad Retirement Board G-6 Rules of Behavior.
The Bureau of Information Services should implement procedures to periodically track, log, and monitor iPhone usage and the completion of the G-6 Acknowledgement Statement.
The Bureau of Information Services should periodically review the mobile phone inventory for completeness and accuracy to include a comparison with Railroad Retirement Board's personnel position index.
The Bureau of Information Services should implement the use of unique identifiers between disparate data sets (e.g., mobile phone inventory, personnel position index) to facilitate comparisons and reconcile inconsistent information.
Management Information Report - Railroad Retirement Board's Actions in Response to Pandemic Funding
The Bureau of Fiscal Operations should reconcile the obligations as reported to USAspending.gov and the weekly outlay report to determine the correct total for Coronavirus Disease 2019 obligations charged to the $5 million technology appropriation.
The Railroad Retirement Board's Executive Committee should establish a group tasked with hiring decisions for appropriated funds from the American Rescue Plan Act. This group should use documented and reliable procedures that are based on accurate and reliable data sources to determine hiring and staffing levels using appropriated funders from the American Rescue Plan Act.
The Railroad Retirement Board's Executive Committee should reconsider and revise its plans concerning hiring based on the American Rescue Plan Act appropriation because adequate supporting documentation had not been prepared.
American Rescue Plan Act: Assessment of Processes to Identify and Address Improper Child and Dependent Care Credit Claims
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should update processes to *****2***** from Form 2441 the care provider’s **2********************2*******************, and the amount paid to the care provider.
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should update paper verification processes to generate errors in the Error Resolution System when the ****************2****************, or amounts paid to the care provider are missing
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should revise Form 2441 to include checkboxes to note whether dependent care expenses are for a spouse or dependent who is physically or mentally incapable of caring for themselves or if special deemed earned income rules apply.
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should develop a process to identify tax returns with adult **********2********** **************************2*****************************. These tax returns should be considered for selection for post-refund compliance reviews.
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should work with the Department of the Treasury, Office of Tax Policy, to obtain the legal authority to disallow the Child and Dependent Care Credit (CDCC) when the primary or secondary taxpayer is identified by an ***2*** Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) on Form 2441
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should develop a process to identify tax returns with ***2*** Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) used to identify the care provider. These tax returns should be considered for selection for post-refund compliance review.
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should revise Form 2441 instructions and Publication 503, using examples, so taxpayers may better understand the requirements for qualifying care and expenses
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should develop a process to identify tax returns with care provider ****************************************************2******************************. These tax returns should be selected for post-refund compliance review.
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should coordinate with the Small Business/Self-Employed Division to develop a compliance plan for post-refund treatment of cases involving **********************2********************************************** ****************************************************2********************************************** ****************************************************2**************************************************2***