Reports

Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration

Additional Actions Are Needed to Reduce Accounts Management Function Inventories to Below Pre‑Pandemic Levels

Audit | 5/10/2023

1 - Closed

Ensure that all sites understand and begin immediately stamping the ICT received date after correspondence screening is completed, and that individual and business documents are screened with equal importance.

10 - Open

Coordinate with the Information Technology organization to explore adding Taxpayer Relations inventories into the CII, so that all Accounts Management inventory is located in the same inventory management system.

11 - Closed

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should establish time frames for and a process to measure correspondence screening timeliness at each site.

12 - Closed

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should rescind the requirement that only the TEs and the CSRs perform correspondence
screening and encourage all sites to use mail clerks, after providing them with adequate training.

13 - Closed

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should ensure prompt completion of the ICT review to determine if additional scanners will be
purchased.

2 - Closed

Discontinue correspondence screening via telework and ensure at all sites that screening must be conducted in the same IRS facility where documents are being scanned by the ICT.

3 - Closed

Identify and address the cause of Accounts Management function employees incorrectly routing cases to other IRS functions and work with other IRS functions to update their Internal Revenue Manuals to make it clear that incorrectly routed documents should be returned to the
originating employee.

4 - Closed

We recommended that management take steps to hire as many mail clerks as possible.

5 - Closed

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should establish goals for each of the Accounts Management function’s inventory types and develop a plan for addressing those goals to ensure a timely return to pre-pandemic inventory levels.

6 - Open

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment, should prioritize funding and implementation of automated processing of Forms 1040-X to increase efficiencies and reduce taxpayer burden.

7 - Closed

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should implement temporary solutions for the processing of Forms 1040-X to reduce the backlogs, reduce taxpayer burden, and save IRS resources until an automated solution is implemented.

8 - Open

Coordinate with the Information Technology organization to prevent generating transcripts for manual refunds less than $100 and adjust the frequency that some transcripts are generated to help management get through the inventory more efficiently.

9 - Closed

Temporarily relieve employees in the Accounts Management function from having to complete paperwork for barred statutes, so they can focus on eliminating the backlogged inventory and prevent future barred statutes.

Department of Veterans Affairs OIG

VHA Can Improve Controls Over Its Use of Supplemental Funds

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act appropriated about $17.2 billion in supplemental funds to the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to support VA’s efforts to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The OIG conducted this audit to assess the effectiveness of VA’s controls over VHA’s use of these funds. Because VA’s financial management system does not support the direct obligation of supplemental funds for all expenses, staff used expenditure transfers to shift funds between appropriation accounts. Expenditure transfers are documented using...

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Audit | 5/09/2023

01 - Closed

VA’s assistant secretary for management and chief financial officer assess the iFAMS configuration to determine whether integration with the payroll subsystems can be accomplished to resolve some of the payroll-related issues that require the need for expenditure transfers.

01 - Closed

Assess the iFAMS configuration to determine whether integration with the payroll subsystems can be accomplished to resolve some of the payroll-related issues that require the need for expenditure transfers.

02 - Closed

Establish guidance that outlines the type of documentation required to support the amounts identified in the manual journal vouchers when processing expenditure transfers.

03 - Open

VA’s under secretary for health require medical facility staff have documented authority, through proper delegation, to make purchases.

04 - Open

VA’s under secretary for health verify that medical facility staff segregate duties so that the same person is not both authorizing and receiving goods and services.

05 - Open

VA’s under secretary for health make certain the purchase card holder is not the requestor or approver for the purchase.

06 - Open

VA’s under secretary for health ensure contracting officer’s representatives know and understand their duties and responsibilities for the certification and payment of invoices.

07 - Open

VA’s under secretary for health check vendors’ compliance with contract terms to include the comparison of invoiced amounts with the contract line-item unit costs.

08 - Open

VA’s under secretary for health ensure that medical facility staff track the receipt of goods to make certain they are the correct quantity.

09 - Closed

Conduct an assessment of lessons learned from the emergency response to the pandemic and develop appropriate action plans to integrate oversight roles, responsibilities, and clear guidance into the use of supplemental funds.

Department of Agriculture OIG

COVID-19—Forest Service’s Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic at Recreation Sites

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

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Department of Veterans Affairs OIG

Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans’ Hospital Missed Opportunities to Distribute Excess Ventilators during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a surge in demand for ventilators and provoked concerns about potential supply shortages across VA medical facilities. During the course of a previous broader review, the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) uncovered a potential issue with the number of ventilators procured and stored at the Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans’ Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, and sought to determine whether they had been properly requested, acquired, received, and accounted for. The OIG found the facility acquired more ventilators from March 1, 2020, through November 30, 2021, than...

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Review | 4/11/2023

Department of Education OIG

University of Cincinnati’s Use of Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund Student Aid and Institutional Grants

Our objective was to determine whether the University of Cincinnati (University) used the Student Aid (Assistance Listing Number (ALN) 84.425E) and Institutional (ALN 84.425F) portions of its Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) funds for allowable and intended purposes. The University spent $109.9 million (83 percent) of its total HEERF allocation of $132.8 million as of September 30, 2021. The University generally used the Student Aid ($42.1 million) and Institutional ($67.8 million) portions of its HEERF grant funds for allowable and intended purposes but needs to strengthen its...

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Audit | 1/17/2023

1.1 - Open

Require the University of Cincinnati to develop and implement a review process to prevent or detect payment errors when awarding emergency financial aid grants to students, including written policies and procedures detailing how the reviews shall be conducted and the results documented, in accordance with 2 C.F.R. section 200.303.

1.2 - Open

Require the University of Cincinnati to develop and implement written policies, procedures, and management review to ensure that its award determinations, eligibility criteria, and management decisions related to eligibility for its emergency financial aid grants to students are adequately documented and supported at the time award decisions are made, in accordance with 2 C.F.R. section 200.302(b)(3).

1.3 - Open

Require the University of Cincinnati to carefully document how its student aid eligibility criteria prioritized and continues to prioritize students with exceptional need throughout the HEERF grant performance period.

2.1 - Open

Require the University of Cincinnati to develop and implement written policies and procedures, including procedures that would identify and prevent improper revenue recognition and duplicate charges, to ensure that future calculations for charging lost revenue to its HEERF Institutional grant are reviewed for accuracy and consistency with its financial reporting policies and procedures.

2.2 - Open

Determine whether the University of Cincinnati implemented appropriate corrective actions to resolve the $797,965 in unsupported lost revenue costs it charged to its HEERF Institutional grant; and, if the corrective actions are inappropriate, require the University to either return the funds to the Department or reallocate the funds for allowable expenditures.

2.3 - Open

Determine whether the $1,916,041 that the University of Cincinnati charged to its HEERF Institutional grant for noncompetitive procurements was reasonable when compared to the costs of suitable alternatives; and, if the charges were inappropriate, require the University to either return the funds to the Department or reallocate the funds for allowable expenditures.

2.4 - Open

Require the University of Cincinnati to develop and implement written policies and procedures to ensure that procurements charged to its HEERF Institutional grant are in accordance with applicable Federal requirements; and it consistently follows its procurement policies and procedures, including maintaining sufficient documentation to support its rationale for noncompetitive procurements and the basis for and reasonableness of the contract price.

3.1 - Open

Require the University of Cincinnati to incorporate in its policies and procedures and implement the cash management requirements for minimizing the time between drawing down and disbursing Federal grant funds, and remitting interest earned in excess of $500 in accordance with 2 C.F.R. section 200.305(b).

3.2 - Open

Require the University of Cincinnati to remit $35,439 based on the TIP’s average rate of return, less no more than $320 ($500 minus the $180 already retained) for administrative expenses if applicable; and remit the actual amount of earned interest on any future advances of Federal funds, in accordance with 2 C.F.R. section 200.305(b)(9).

4.1 - Open

Require the University of Cincinnati to develop and implement written policies and procedures that incorporate the HEERF program’s reporting requirements and ensure that the expenditures in its quarterly HEERF Institutional expenditure reports are accurate and reported in the appropriate expenditure category.

Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration

Backlogs of Tax Returns and Other Account Work Will Continue Into the 2023 Filing Season

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Department of Veterans Affairs OIG

Insights on Telehealth Use and Program Integrity Risks Across Selected Health Care Programs During the Pandemic

The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee’s (PRAC) Health Care Subgroup developed this report to share insights about the expansion—and the emerging risks—of telehealth in selected programs across six federal agencies during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The selected programs, which provided telehealth services to about 37 million people in 2020 (up from just three million in 2019), included the Veterans Health Administration, Medicare, TRICARE, Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, and Department of Justice prisoner healthcare...

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Department of Agriculture OIG

USDA Coronavirus Food Assistance Program Data Story

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.

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Department of Veterans Affairs OIG

VHA Progressed in the Follow-Up of Canceled Appointments during the Pandemic but Could Use Additional Oversight Metrics

The OIG reviewed the Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) progress in monitoring their follow-up of canceled appointments during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, the OIG reported that VHA had not followed up on about 32 percent of canceled appointments. VHA then implemented the Cancelled Appointments and Consult Management Initiative and created a cancellation report to track follow-up conducted for appointments originally scheduled to occur after July 21, 2020. The report allowed tracking by types of care, by month, and cumulatively, but VHA did not use all the reporting features. VHA...

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Department of Education OIG

The Department’s Use of Pandemic Assistance Program Administration Funds

The objective of our review was to determine the Department’s progress on spending program administration funds authorized by coronavirus response and relief laws, including how those funds have been used to date, and the Department’s plans for using remaining funds. We found that the Department has allocated nearly 100 percent2 of its pandemic assistance program administration funds and that the Department is on track to obligate all of its program administration funds prior to the dates the funds are set to expire. The Department allocated the funds to 11 principal offices and as of February...

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Date Range

Report Type

Report Category

Submitting Agency

State/Local Agency

State (State and Local Reports)

Fraud Type

Agency Reviewed

Related Organizations

Management Challenges

Any Recommendations

Any Open Recommendations

Reports

Additional Actions Are Needed to Reduce Accounts Management Function Inventories to Below Pre‑Pandemic Levels

VHA Can Improve Controls Over Its Use of Supplemental Funds

COVID-19—Forest Service’s Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic at Recreation Sites

Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans’ Hospital Missed Opportunities to Distribute Excess Ventilators during the COVID-19 Pandemic

University of Cincinnati’s Use of Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund Student Aid and Institutional Grants

Backlogs of Tax Returns and Other Account Work Will Continue Into the 2023 Filing Season

Insights on Telehealth Use and Program Integrity Risks Across Selected Health Care Programs During the Pandemic

USDA Coronavirus Food Assistance Program Data Story

VHA Progressed in the Follow-Up of Canceled Appointments during the Pandemic but Could Use Additional Oversight Metrics

The Department’s Use of Pandemic Assistance Program Administration Funds

Glossary

Glossary name will go here