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 objectives of this audit are to: 1) obtain, review, and assess agency plans to expend these funds, 2) determine the current status of the RRB IT initiatives to expend all or part of the appropriation, 3) evaluate if the project progress is in accordance with the RRB’s project plan timeline, and reasons for delay, if any, 4) evaluate if the RRB’s goals and timeline are reasonable and attainable to achieve the intended purpose as stated in agency plans, and 5) evaluate the outcomes of the project relative to the anticipated improvements.

The preliminary objectives of this audit cover the extended unemployment and sickness benefits that were appropriated through the CARES Act, CARWA, and ARPA to determine if (1) they were accurately expended, recorded, and reported and (2) internal controls were effective, including fraud controls.

Evaluate controls implemented by the IRS to ensure the $765.7 million in appropriated funds received for its Coronavirus response is adequately tracked and used for its intended purpose. 

The objective of the evaluation is to determine whether the IRS effectively used its telework program to reduce the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on IRS operations.

Assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on IRS customer service operations and evaluate the development of the IRS’s comprehensive customer service strategy. 

The OIG plans to initiate a project to research and identify topics for potential audits and evaluations related to the EPA's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

One objective of this audit is to evaluate elements within the System Security Plans to determine whether they provide details to allow the EPA to make decisions to secure its network during the COVID-19 pandemic.

(Audit number: 202040633) Objective: Assess the IRS’s processes and procedures to ensure the validity of COVID-19 relief credit claims.