All Reports

This investigation addressed an allegation that a contract employee and his employer submitted mileage reimbursement expenses in the amount of $23,431.82 that were not allowed under their contract with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). These travel expenses were submitted for the employee’s travel to and from TVA’s Watts Bar Nuclear Site between February 2017 and April 2019.

This investigation addressed an allegation that a contract employee and his employer submitted mileage reimbursement expenses in the amount of $34,173.15 that were not allowed under their contract with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). These travel expenses were submitted for the employee’s travel to and from TVA’s Sequoyah Nuclear Site between August 2016 and June 2019.

In this semiannual period, our audit, evaluation, and investigative activities identified more than $2 million in questioned costs, funds to be put to better use, recoveries, fees, waste/other monetary loss, and shared opportunities for TVA to improve its programs and operations.

This investigation was initiated after concerns were reported to the Office of the Inspector General that the duties of a managed-task contract employee working at TVA placed him in a position to direct TVA contracts to his company. While it was determined that, as a contractor, criminal conflict of interest statutes did not apply to this contract employee, the OIG made several recommendations to address this situation.

The Office of the Inspector General conducted a review of Hydro Generation (Hydro) to identify operational and cultural strengths and risks that could impact the organizational effectiveness of Hydro as a whole. Our review was based on the results of our prior evaluations in the five Hydro areas and additional interviews and data analyses conducted in this evaluation. Our report identified strengths within Hydro related to (1) organizational alignment, (2) positive interactions within and outside of Hydro, (3) effective leadership, and (4) positive ethical culture.

As part of our annual audit plan, we performed an audit of costs billed to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) by National Emergency Assistance Inc., (NEA) under Contract <br> No. 11992. NEA provided assistance to state and local governments under the authority of the Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act. Our audit included approximately <br> $27.5 million in costs paid by TVA from October 25, 2016, to September 24, 2019. Our audit objective was to determine if the costs were billed in accordance with the terms and conditions of the contract.

The Office of the Inspector General audited TVA’s Insider Threat Program (ITP) to determine if TVA had a program established to address insider threats that was consistent with best practices. We found several areas where TVA’s ITP was consistent with best practices. Additionally, we found TVA had designated a senior official charged with overseeing classified information sharing and safeguarding efforts of the agency. Although TVA had not yet implemented its planned ITP, we determined TVA’s program will be at a proactive maturity level upon its planned implementation.

As part of our annual audit plan, we audited the allocation of labor expenses in the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Information Technology (IT) organization. Our audit objective was to determine if financial transactions for labor charged to Operations and Maintenance and Capital general ledger accounts under the IT organization during fiscal year 2018 received the proper accounting treatment.

The Office of the Inspector General audited TVA’s backup verification of mission essential data to determine if TVA’s backups were being performed in accordance with business requirements and industry best practice. In summary, we determined that TVA’s backups of mission essential data included industry best practice in their business requirements. However, we found three business requirements were not being met.

As part of our annual audit plan, we performed an audit of costs billed to Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) by BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, Inc. (BCBST) under Contract <br> No. 11022 for medical administrative services. Our objective was to determine if the costs billed to TVA under Contract No. 11022 for medical administrative services were in accordance with the contract's terms.