All Reports

In March 2016, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a Chilled Work Environment Letter for Watts Bar Nuclear Plant. The NRC concluded a chilled work environment existed in the Operations Department because of a perception that operators were not free to raise safety concerns using all available avenues without fear of retaliation.

In March 2016, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a Chilled Work Environment Letter for Watts Bar Nuclear Plant. The NRC concluded a chilled work environment existed in the Operations Department because of a perception that operators were not free to raise safety concerns using all available avenues without fear of retaliation.

The Enterprise Project Management Office (EPMO) is responsible for the development and deployment of project management processes, systems, tools, and training to project organizations within Generation Construction, Projects, and Services, as well as TVA fleet-wide. Additionally, the EPMO is responsible for evaluating project performance. The OIG assessed the strengths and risks that could impact the organizational effectiveness of the EPMO. Our review found the EPMO to be effective in achieving its current goals and objectives.

In March 2016, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a Chilled Work Environment Letter for Watts Bar Nuclear Plant. The NRC concluded a chilled work environment existed in the Operations Department because of a perception that operators were not free to raise safety concerns using all available avenues without fear of retaliation.

The Office of the Inspector General found Coal and Gas Services (CGS) met its reliability metrics for gas and coal in fiscal year (FY) 2015 through January, FY 2016. However, some of its cost-effectiveness and fuel flexibility targets during the same period were not met because of outside factors. We identified strengths related to (1) employee teamwork, (2) management support of its employees, (3) employee engagement, and (4) working relationships with other TVA organizations.

The Office of the Inspector General audited local rate adjustments processed during fiscal year 2015 to determine if TVA's process for reviewing Local Power Company (LPC) rate change requests complied with the approved Revised Rate Review Process (RRRP) in the TVA regulatory policy. We found TVA's process for reviewing LPC rate change requests did not comply with the approved RRRP in the TVA regulatory policy due to improper and unapproved calculations of the Guideline Amount in two areas.

The Office of the Inspector General previously conducted a review of Corporate Accounting (Evaluation Report 2015-15313, issued November 5, 2015) to identify operational and cultural strengths and areas for improvement that could impact Corporate Accounting's organizational effectiveness. Our report identified several operational and cultural areas for improvement and included recommendations to address this. In response, we received Corporate Accounting's management decision on January 4, 2016.

At the request of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Supply Chain, the Office of the Inspector General examined the cost proposal submitted by a contractor, for engineering, design, and construction support for Holistic Industrial Wastewater Treatment Program services at TVA fossil plants. Our objective was to determine if the contractor's cost proposal was fairly stated for a planned $45 million contract. In our opinion, the cost proposal was overstated.

Along with steam, the coal combustion process produces hot gases (called flue gases), including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and ash particles. Flue gas moves through ductwork to various air pollution control devices prior to being emitted through the stack. The objective of our evaluation was to determine if TVA is taking actions to address environmental and safety risks related to flue gas ductwork at coal plants. Since scrubbers increase the risk of corrosion within flue gas ductwork, our evaluation included plants with operational scrubbers.

The OIG audited TVA's fraud risk management activities to determine if it had incorporated the practices in its organizational culture and structure conducive to fraud risk management as identified by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) framework for managing fraud risk. In summary, we found while TVA has attempted to demonstrate a senior-level management commitment to integrity through various ethics and code of conduct policies, improvements are needed in TVA's practices to combat fraud and involve all levels of the agency in setting an antifraud tone.