All Reports

The Office of the Inspector General determined that bid evaluation and negotiation processes related for major equipment suppliers of gas construction projects were operating as intended; however, improvements were needed in TVA’s solicitation process. Specifically, we identified an opportunity for improvement related to the development of technical standards used in the solicitation process.

We performed an audit of costs billed to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) by BFI Waste Systems of North America, LLC dba South Shelby Landfill (BFI) for the transportation and off-site disposal of coal combustion residual (CCR) material from TVA’s Allen Fossil Plant to BFI’s South Shelby Landfill under Contract No. 15327. Our audit objective was to determine if costs were billed in compliance with the contract’s terms.

We performed an audit of costs billed to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) by Wesco Distribution, Inc., (Wesco) for operations materials and industrial equipment as part of TVA’s integrated supply program under master Contract No. 13421. Under the contract, TVA pays Wesco the established rates in the contract’s pricing schedules for inventory items that have a unique item number assigned.

The Office of Inspector General determined that the Tennessee Valley Authority’s portfolio management process is not operating as intended. Specifically, we found: • Some types of projects did not follow the portfolio management process as required by Tennessee Valley Authority-Standard Programs and Processes 19.003. In addition, TVA does not have a reverse capital flex list, as described in the Portfolio Management Guide.

The Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA) requires each agency’s Inspector General (IG) to conduct an annual independent evaluation to determine the effectiveness of the information security program (ISP) and practices of its respective agency. Our objective was to determine the effectiveness of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) ISP and practices as defined by the FY 2023 – 2024 IG FISMA Reporting Metrics. Our audit scope was limited to answering the fiscal year (FY) 2024 IG metrics, which include 20 core IG metrics and 17 supplemental IG metrics.

The Office of the Inspector General performed an audit of costs billed to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) by Service Electric Company (SEC) for transmission construction services provided under Contract No. 16986. The contract provided for TVA to compensate SEC on either a fixed price or cost reimbursable basis.

The Office of the Inspector General performed an audit to determine if TVA manages access to nonpublic critical and sensitive information in accordance with TVA information management policy. Our scope was limited to TVA’s SharePoint® sites as of March 19, 2024. We determined TVA’s management of access to nonpublic critical and sensitive information could be improved. In addition, we determined TVA was not providing SharePoint® site owners with appropriate training to properly manage access to TVA nonpublic critical and sensitive information.

The Office of the Inspector General determined the Cumberland Energy Solution project complied with most elements of scope management and the bid process. However, we identified certain areas under each process that need improvement to help mitigate potential Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) risk. In summary:• TVA’s Cybersecurity, a business unit under TVA’s Technology and Innovation business unit, was not included as a stakeholder throughout the project. • TVA did not adequately mitigate risks related to the use of equipment from nondesignated countries.

As part of our annual audit plan, we performed an audit of costs billed to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) by Emerson Process Management Power and Water Solutions, Inc., (Emerson) under Contract No. 14688 for distributed control systems products and services. Our audit objective was to determine if costs billed to TVA under Contract No. 14688 were in accordance with the contract's terms.

Power plants rely on operational technology (OT) to ensure the plants can run without disruption. Due to the high risks associated with threat events against OT, we performed an audit of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) OT cybersecurity at a combined cycle plant. Our objective was to determine if logical, physical, and general security controls were (1) appropriately designed to reduce cybersecurity risk and (2) operating effectively. We determined logical, physical, and some general controls were appropriately designed and operating effectively.