All Reports

Our audit of $5.9 million of costs billed to TVA by a contractor that conducted various projects and programs from April 1999 through September 2007 found the costs were fairly stated and agreed with the terms of the contract. However, about 20 percent of the payments TVA had made to the contractor were related to a specific project under which TVA acts as an administrator, collecting funds from various federal agencies and disbursing the funds to the contractor.

We previously issued an audit report (2007-019F) that noted (among other things) significant duct leaks at two fossil plants. Management agreed with our recommendation to work to promote a culture of transparent reporting throughout TVA organizations. We have now closed a joint investigation with the EPA Criminal Investigations Division that found installation of a Selective Catalytic Reduction system led to deterioration in the flue gas ductwork at the Widows Creek Fossil Plant. The deterioration caused extensive leaks that became progressively worse.

We identified 21 TVA contractors who held purchasing cards from March 28, 2004, to March 28, 2007, incurring 35,605 transactions totaling about $16.7 million. This included six contractors whose purchases each totaled more than $1 million for the period. A review of documentation supporting selected transactions found instances of noncompliance with TVA's policy and procedures.

We reviewed the TVA dam safety inspection process to determine whether it (1) met federal guidelines for dam safety, (2) was being followed by Dam Safety inspection personnel, and (3) was adequately supported by an information database.

As part of our annual audit plan, we audited $5.2 million in costs billed to TVA by a contractor for subcontract services provided on the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Unit 1 (BFN U1) recovery project. Under its subcontract, the subcontractor provided engineers for the BFN U1 project to assist in the resolution of technical issues developed during the field implementation of modifications. Our audit objective was to determine if the costs the contractor billed to TVA were in compliance with the provisions of the contract and the subcontract.

We determined the provisional billing adjustments a contractor calculated for calendar years 2005 and 2006 were understated by $267,040 due to various errors in the contractor's reconciliations of previously billed and incurred costs. Also, we found the contractor owed TVA an additional $636 due to various billing and payment errors. The contractor and TVA management agreed with our findings. Summary Only

We identified issues related to (1) noncompliance with reporting requirements; (2) different interpretations on how some environmental occurrences should be classified; (3) environmental issues that were not documented and managed through TVA's corrective action program; (4) lack of a corporate reportable environmental events (REE) procedure; (5) inaccurate environmental data in the Electronic Corrective Action Program (eCAP), Environmental Event Reporting (EER) system, and REE registry; and (6) two instances where TVA did not externally report events because they did not feel it was r

Our review covered the external contractual services' conducted by RM. Our objectives were to determine if (1) work was performed in accordance with applicable policies and procedures and (2) costs associated with TVA employees working for outside entities/agencies were adequately recovered. In summary, we found:The majority of fiscal year (FY) 2006 RM External Contractual Services' revenue was generated from work for other federal agencies, and the projects we selected for review appeared to be in compliance with the Economy Act of 1932, as amended (31 USC 1535).

TVA contracted with the independent certified public accounting firm of Pricewaterhouse-Coopers LLP (PricewaterhouseCoopers) to audit the balance sheets as of September 30, 2007, and 2006 and the related statements of income, changes in proprietary capital, and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended September 30, 2007. The contract required the audit be done in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.

We conducted three reviews to determine whether the coal supplier was in compliance with weighing, sampling, and shipping provisions of the respective contract. We performed tests to verify that shipment weight and coal test results documentation maintained at each mine supported the amounts used to (1) invoice TVA for tonnage shipped and (2) calculate coal-quality adjustments. In summary, our reviews found documentation maintained at the respective mine for ten randomly selected shipments agreed with the information provided to TVA regarding tons shipped and coal-quality test results.