Reports

Pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Act, the CFPB’s Office of Consumer Response collects, monitors, and responds to consumer complaints on financial services and products. The CFPB uses these consumer complaints to help inform the agency’s supervision activities, enforce federal consumer financial laws, and write rules and regulations. With an increase in consumer complaints as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Consumer Response faces an operational risk with respect to the timeliness in which it can respond to consumer complaints. We plan to assess the effectiveness of the CFPB’s processes for reviewing and responding to consumer complaints. 

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Board established the PPPLF to extend credit to financial institutions that originate loans through the U.S. Small Business Administration’s guaranteed Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), taking the PPP loans as collateral. The PPPLF, managed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and operated out of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks, distributed billions of dollars to eligible lenders. We will assess the effectiveness of internal controls to (1) determine lender eligibility, extend credit, and process repayments and (2) identify at-risk advances, handle instances of nonpayment, and detect and mitigate fraud. We also plan to assess the extent to which the Federal Reserve System coordinates with the U.S. Small Business Administration to determine lender eligibility, recover losses due to nonpayment, and detect and mitigate fraud.

The Office of the Inspector General audited the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) use of remote application and desktop virtualization client due to the risks of (1) potential system intrusion through misconfigurations and (2) continued elevated remote users during the COVID-19 pandemic. We found the configuration management control for TVA’s remote application desktop virtualization client was ineffective. However, we determined compensating access controls were in place to mitigate the risk to an overall acceptable level.

OIG identified the prevention measures that Forest Service established for recreation sites in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

What We Looked At The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has highlighted the importance of developing and maintaining resilient supply chains in essential industries. Citing the significance of the aviation industry to the Nation's economy, the Ranking Members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and its Subcommittee on Aviation asked us to assess how the Department of Transportation (DOT) tracks the amount of critical aircraft and unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) imports. They also asked for the amount of critical aviation parts that are manufactured in and...

This data story is the second in the series from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) and focuses on the USDA Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP). This product utilized data analytics, visualizations, and data storytelling methods to enhance transparency of how the CFAP 1 and CFAP 2 programs evolved over time.

What We Looked At Since March 2020, Congress has provided $69.5 billion in supplemental funding to the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to help transit systems in the United States mitigate the impacts of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. As of August 1, 2022, FTA had obligated over $63 billion and expended over $46 billion. In addition to increased funding, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES), Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA), and American Rescue Plan (ARP) Acts permitted changes in how recipients use FTA funds...

The Biden administration purchased rapid COVID-19 test kits to give to Americans free of charge for home use and partnered with the U.S. Postal Service to package and deliver the kits. Within a short period, the Postal Service established a test kit program, which facilitated ordering, fulfillment, and delivery of kits to 125 million residential addresses. The Postal Service designed and developed a website for customers to order test kits for delivery to their homes. Our objective was to assess the accounting treatment and selected technology support associated with the distribution of the...