All Reports

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) uses bulk industrial gases, including oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide as part of its normal operations. Due to hazards associated with handling bulk industrial gases and the importance of worker and public safety at TVA, the OIG initiated an audit of TVA's mitigation of risks from bulk industrial gases. We limited our scope to the explosive and flammable risks of hydrogen and oxygen and the asphyxiation risks of nitrogen and carbon dioxide.

The OIG assessed operational and cultural strengths and areas for improvement that could impact Bull Run Fossil Plant's (BRF) organizational effectiveness. We determined, overall, BRF has significant opportunity to improve its effectiveness. While we identified strengths associated with trust of first-line supervisors and teamwork, BRF's performance in fiscal year 2015 was mixed, and the morale of the workforce was low primarily due to the impacts of corporate decisions and limited trust between plant management and employees.

As part of its annual audit plan, the OIG audited $16.7 million in costs billed to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) by EnergySolutions, LLC (ES) under Contract No. 69836. The contract provided for ES to furnish personnel, equipment, chemicals, and consumables necessary to process liquid radioactive waste for all three TVA nuclear operating sites. Our objective was to determine if the costs billed to TVA were in accordance with the provisions of TVA's Contract No. 69836 with ES.

At the request of the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA) Supply Chain, the OIG examined a cost proposal submitted for engineering and management services for hydroelectric power train and associated systems. Our objective was to determine if the vendor's cost proposal was fairly stated for a planned $90 million contract. In our opinion, proposed overhead rate to be applied to noncraft salaries was fairly stated.

We assessed operational and cultural strengths and areas for improvement that could impact Kingston Fossil Plant's (KIF) organizational effectiveness. We determined overall, KIF has significant opportunity to improve its effectiveness. While we identified strengths associated with trust of first-line supervisors and teamwork, KIF's operational performance in fiscal year 2015 was mixed, and the morale of the workforce was low primarily due to a lack of trust between plant management and employees.

At the request of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Supply Chain, the OIG examined a cost proposal submitted for construction and modification services. Our objective was to determine if the vendor's cost proposal was fairly stated for a planned $100 million contract. In our opinion, the proposal (1) included inconsistent and overstated labor markup rates; (2) did not comply with the request for proposal requirements related to nonmanual wages, resulting in overstated wage rates; and (3) included multiple fees in the Paradise Fossil Plant baseline costs.

The OIG audited TVA's Ethics Program to determine (1) compliance with applicable statutes and regulations and (2) if management has identified and incorporated best practices. In summary, we did not identify any areas where TVA's Ethics Program did not comply with requirements for federal agencies' ethics programs in Title 5, Code of Federal Regulations, § 2638.203. Additionally, TVA's Ethics Program has incorporated many of the best practices identified, with the exception of having embedded ethics champions throughout the organization.

The OIG performed this audit to evaluate the effectiveness of TVA's Information Technology Enterprise Solutions Delivery (ESD) group in meeting TVA's mission and values. In summary, we found that ESD's operational maturity is well defined, there are opportunities to improve efficiencies in the documentation of IT development work. In addition, Enterprise Data Warehouse efforts planned withing the IT1K initiatives were not fully implemented as originally planned. TVA management agreed with our findings and recommendations.

The OIG performed this evaluation to determine whether the Nuclear Employee Concerns Program (ECP) was addressing employee concerns in an effective and timely manner for fiscal years 2013 and 2014. In summary, we determined Nuclear ECP generally addressed employee concerns in an effective manner; however, we identified areas for improvement related to documentation, the resolution follow-up process, and reporting to site management.

The OIG audited costs billed to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) by URS Energy and Construction, Inc. (URS), under contract numbers 66777 and 72142. The audit included approximately $113.6 million in costs URS billed to TVA from January 1, 2012, to November 26, 2013.The OIG determined URS may have overbilled TVA $6,885,835 in shared cost savings and $317,852 for a completion bonus, due to potential misrepresentations in estimated material costs included in the Target Cost Estimate for the John Sevier Combined Cycle project.