All Reports

The Tennessee Valley Authority continues to live under the cloud of the Kingston ash spill of December 2008. The Office of the Inspector General is reminded of this shadow every day through our continuing review of TVA's efforts to return the Kingston area to its former state. We see TVA making steady progress on the physical cleanup; but more importantly, we see signs of an improvement in the TVA culture that contributed to this unfortunate environmental event.In this semiannual report, we ask the question, Culture: Asset or Liability?

We performed an audit of the prices billed to the Tennessee Valley Authority by a contractor for certain equipment related to dry cask storage systems for spent nuclear fuel at Sequoyah Nuclear Plant and Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant (BFN). In summary, we found TVA had been overbilled $276,000 because the contractor overstated the price of a vertical crawler that had been delivered to BFN. The overstatement resulted because the contractor did not follow the contract's pricing criteria which required the price of the BFN vertical crawler to be set at cost plus 10 percent.

We reviewed TVA's Hearing Conservation Program (the Program) to determine whether (1) the Program complied with Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) regulations, and (2) TVA organizations were in compliance with the Program guidelines. We also looked at actions taken to address recommendations in a prior, related OIG report. We found TVA's Hearing Conservation Program complied with significant provisions of 29 CFR Part 1910.95, "Occupational Noise Exposure" issued by OSHA.

The OIG performed a review of Murphy Power Board (Murphy), a distributor for TVA power based in Murphy, North Carolina. Our review of Murphy found issues involving customer classification and metering that could impact (1) the proper reporting of electric sales, and (2) nondiscrimination in providing electricity to members of the same rate class.

To facilitate public understanding of TVA's efforts to promote the use of green power in the Tennessee Valley, we reviewed the Green Power Switch? program. Specifically, we reviewed the program to determine whether (1) the methods used by TVA to market the program disclosed that green power goes into the general power mix, and (2) revenue from the program exceeded related marketing expenses.

As part of our annual audit plan, our office reviewed the risks associated with the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA) pension plan and how those risks are mitigated.

We audited $10.16 million in costs billed to TVA by a contractor for providiing professional engineering and technical support services associated with the detailed, scoping, estimating, and planning study related to the potential completion of Unit 2 at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant.

In comparison to the fiscal year (FY) 2008 FISMA report, we found TVA had generally improved in the area of establishing its inventory of systems requiring certification and accreditation and general security awareness training for network users.

We audited $147.7 million of costs billed to TVA by a contractor for providing security services for TVA facilities.

The OIG performed a review of the Princeton Electric Plant Board (Princeton), which is a distributor for Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) power based in Princeton, Kentucky. Our review of Princeton found issues involving customer classification and metering that could impact (1) the proper reporting of electric sales and (2) nondiscrimination in providing power to members of the same rate class.