All Reports

As part of our annual audit plan, we audited $11.3million in costs billed to TVA by a contractor, to design and install hydrated lime injection systems at various TVA fossil plants. Our audit objective was to determine if the costs the contractor billed to TVA were in compliance with the provisions of the contract. In summary, we determined the contractor billed TVA an estimated $310,818 for costs that were unsupported or not in accordance with the contract provisions.

Our review of TVA's compliance with FISMA of 2002 determined that among improvements made during fiscal year 2007, TVA completed revisions to align the security program with NIST FIPS 199 standards and implemented measures to ensure personnel complete security training. While TVA continues to make progress in implementing information technology controls required by FISMA, we noted additional controls are needed to improve (1)oversight and evaluation of contractor systems, (2)the Privacy Program, and (3)consideration of e-authentication risks at TVA.

We conducted a review to assess the procedures in place at TVA to ensure that new hires meet physical job requirements. In summary, we found TVA has a policy in place that requires all new hires to have a medical screening before starting work. However, the TVA Medical Examiners Guide and Health and Safety Practice 1, Occupational Health, do not specify (1)who is responsible for providing examiners with job descriptions to be used in their examination and (2)that examiners are required to utilize the job description information in conducting their physical job requirement evaluation.

We conducted a review of TVA and contractor employment procedures to determine if TVA policies and procedures ensure the hiring of non-citizens complies with legal requirements. In summary, it appears that TVA has appropriate policies and procedures in place to ensure that (1)its hiring process is in compliance with applicable legal requirements and (2)contractors are responsible for ensuring that principals/employees under contract to TVA meet Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) requirements.

We performed an inspection to assess the reasonableness of travel reimbursements where employees were (1)in travel status for an extended period of time and/or (2)received significant reimbursements. The scope of the inspection included all reimbursements made to employees during FYs 1999-2006. We found many TVA employees who received significant travel reimbursements and traveled to the same location for extended periods in multiple years.

We conducted a review to determine whether the trust funds administered by River Operations and the Office of Environment and Research were administered in accordance with terms of the agreements and applicable laws and regulations. Our scope included all trust funds with balances or activity from October 2005-January 2007.

TVA's successful effort to restart Unit 1 at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant (BFN) provides an opportunity to transfer knowledge to future generation projects to (1) improve project oversight, (2) improve project efficiency and effectiveness, (3) generate cost savings opportunities, and/or (4) reduce TVA's risk of fraud, waste, and abuse. OIG reviews of the BFN Unit 1 Restart project and TVA management's evaluations of the restart activities identified opportunities for improvement in future generation projects.

We reviewed control activities and the scale certification process applicable to TVA coal shipments at Calvert City Terminal (CCT). We found the terminal had controls and processes in place for the receiving, blending, weighing, and loading of the coal it handles for TVA. The terminal also appeared to have adhered to the scale certification requirements prescribed by the TVA contract. However, we:Identified one barge shipment where terminal documentation showed the barge being sent to the TVA Colbert Fossil Plant (COF).

We reviewed 42 loans initiated through Economic Development's (ED) four loan programs (Economic Development Loan Fund, Minority Business Development Loan Fund, Business Incubator Loan Fund, and Special Opportunity Counties Loan Fund) and found:Management had not fully implemented procedures governing the loan administrative process after closing, as agreed upon in response to Audit2004-011F.Noncompliance with ED loan guidelines in 13 of 42 loan files reviewed.Uncollectible ED loans were not written off in a timely manner as required by generally accepted accounting principles.Explanati

We conducted a review of 52 TVA non-compete contracts to determine whether non-competed contracts are issued and administered in compliance with TVA policies and procedures, including assessing the justification for the non-competed contract award. We found: Two contracts could not initially be located for review and seven did not have Form17388 and/or the appropriate notification/approval required by TVA policies and procedures. Form17388 is required with the appropriate signatures and justification for the contract.