All Reports

As part of our annual audit plan, we audited costs billed to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) by Nexant, Inc., for commercial and industrial energy efficiency services. Our audit included $63.6 million in costs paid by TVA between December 29, 2009, and March 21, 2014. Our objective was to determine if the costs billed to TVA were in compliance with the contract's terms and conditions.

As part of our annual audit plan, we performed an interim audit of costs billed to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) by Bechtel Power Corporation for providing engineering, procurement, construction, and related services in support of the completion of TVA's Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 2. Our audit included about$520 million in noncraft costs billed to TVA from January 1, 2010, to September 30, 2013, (craft costs will be audited separately). Our objective was to determine if Bechtel billed TVA in accordance with the contract terms and conditions.

The OIG monitored the work of TVA's external auditor, Ernst & Young LLP (EY), to assure the work was performed in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards (GAGAS). Our review of their work, as differentiated from an audit in accordance with GAGAS, was not intended to enable us to express, and we did not express, an opinion on TVA's financial statements or on the effectiveness of TVA's system of internal control over financial reporting.

The OIG performed six agreed-upon procedures requested solely to assist management in determining the validity of the Winning Performance payout awards for the year ended September 30, 2014. Following are the results of the procedures applied.The fiscal year (FY) 2014 Winning Performance goals for the enterprise-wide and Strategic Business Unit measures were properly approved. One change form for FY 2014 was approved by the Chief Executive Officer on September 22, 2014.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) engaged in three major initiatives during fiscal year (FY) 2009 through FY 2013 related to workforce productivity and operational performance: DeWolff, Boberg & Associates, Inc.'s (DBA) workforce performance, McKinsey and Company's Pilot and Performance Boost, and TVA's Diet and Exercise (D&E). Our audit objective was to assess the effectiveness of TVA's management of those productivity and operational performance improvement initiatives.

Over the last several years, there has been anecdotal information indicating a high level of turnover among the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA) executives. We initiated this audit to review the costs associated with the hiring and dismissal of executives brought in from outside TVA since the change to TVA's part-time Board of Directors.

This review was initiated as part of the Office of the Inspector General's commitment to provide oversight of coal combustion product (CCP) management. The objective of our review was to determine if TVA was meeting its commitments for CCP management.We found TVA was meeting its commitments for CCP management. Specifically, we found TVA has implemented programmatic improvements, stabilized its coal ash storage facilities, and improved oversight of CCP management. Additionally, we found TVA was taking steps to become an industry leader in CCP management.

This review was initiated as a follow-up to Inspection 2010-13530, Review of TVA's Fossil Fire Protection Systems, issued September 30, 2011. Fire protection systems are a combination of mechanical and electrical components and like power generation equipment, need regular attention.

As a result of findings in a recent evaluation 2012-14845, Review of TVA's Nuclear Power Group Preventive Maintenance, we conducted a review of coal plant preventive maintenance (PM). The objective of our review was to determine if PM was performed in accordance with established schedules and if not, what effect the deviations were having.We found compliance with PM schedules varies by plant, and the PM compliance metric captured may not fully represent all PM activities not completed. The monthly PM compliance percentage varied from 10.5 to 100 percent.

Based on the findings of a previous review, we evaluated the TVA Nuclear Power Group (NPG) Groundwater Protection Program (GWPP). The objectives of our review were to determine if NPG's GWPP performed required monitoring and reporting and completed required corrective actions based on monitoring results.While NPG's GWPP performed required reporting, we could not verify the monitoring requirements in TVA's NPG standard programs and processes were followed.