All Reports

The Office of the Inspector General conducted an evaluation of Safety and Performance Improvement (SPI) to identify strengths and risks that could impact SPI's organizational effectiveness. Our evaluation identified strengths within SPI related to (1) organizational alignment, (2) customer focus, (3) management support of employees, (4) employee teamwork and collaboration, and (5) proactive identification of safety risk behaviors. However, we identified issues that, if left unresolved, could increase the risk that SPI will be unable to effectively meet its objective in the future.

TVA's Nuclear Quality Assurance (QA) provides monitoring and assessment of plant activities to ensure they are conducted in a quality manner. Periodically, reviews are performed (internal and external) of QA that identify improvement opportunities. Due to the importance of QA's role in monitoring and assessing nuclear plant activities, we initiated an evaluation to determine if QA has taken actions to address issues identified during the internal and external reviews. We determined QA generally took actions to address issues identified during reviews of QA.

The Office of the Inspector General audited cyber security of the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA) gas secure rooms that provide remote logical access to all TVA gas fired plants. We found the architecture, current standard programs and processes, and draft standard operating procedures contain appropriate information as suggested by best practices. However, we found the logical controls for the gas secure rooms could be strengthened.

As part of our annual audit plan, we audited costs billed to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) by Williams Plant Services, LLC (WPS) for providing facilities maintenance services and technical support services for Bellefonte Nuclear Plant under Contract No. 4067. Our audit included $23.9 million in costs paid by TVA between January 1, 2013, and August 31, 2015. Our audit objective was to determine if the costs WPS billed to TVA were in accordance with the terms of Contract No. 4067.

The Office of the Inspector General conducted a review of Talent Acquisition and Diversity (TAD) to identify strengths and risks that could impact TAD's organizational effectiveness. Our evaluation identified strengths within TAD related to (1) organizational alignment, (2) collaboration, (3) support from TAD management, and (4) department morale and ethics. However, we also identified potential risks that could negatively affect the achievement of the mission.

The Office of the Inspector General audited Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Internet-accessible Web sites to identify cyber security weaknesses through penetration testing. In summary, 37 Internet-accessible Web sites were tested, and 7 high risk vulnerabilities were identified. Two of the high risk vulnerabilities that were identified require additional testing by TVA's Information Technology for confirmation. TVA management agreed with our findings and recommendations.

The Office of the Inspector General previously conducted an evaluation of Bull Run Fossil Plant (BRF) (Evaluation Report 2015-15357 issued March 30, 2016) to identify strengths and risks that could impact BRF's organizational effectiveness. Our final report identified several operational and cultural areas for improvement along with recommendations for addressing those issues. The objective of this follow-up evaluation was to assess management's actions in response to our recommendations from our initial organizational effectiveness evaluation.

The Office of the Inspector General conducted an evaluation of Materials and Transportation Management (M&TM) to identify strengths and risks that could impact M&TM's organizational effectiveness. Our evaluation identified strengths within M&TM related to (1) employee teamwork, (2) customer service, and (3) management's support of employees. However, we identified issues that, if left unresolved, could increase the risk that M&TM will be unable to effectively meet its objective in the future.

The OIG audited the overall effectiveness of the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA) patch management process for high-risk, end-user desktops and laptops as they are most vulnerable to spear phishing, a very common tactic used in today's environment to infiltrate computer networks and spread malware.

Preventive maintenance (PM) includes tasks carried out on a predetermined interval to reduce the likelihood of a failure. Due to the importance of PM on the reliable operation of assets and as a result of findings identified related to nuclear and coal PM in previous evaluations, we initiated an evaluation of the TVA's transmission PM. The objective of our evaluation was to determine if transmission PM was performed in accordance with established schedules and, if not, what effects the deviations had.