Office of Inspector General

Highway to Waste

UPDATED 11:47 AM EDT, May 15, 2013 | BY Phillip Swarts

The federal stimulus is the program that keeps on giving -- examples of taxpayer waste, that is.

Investigators inside the Transportation Department offer the latest example of problematic Recovery Act spending from three states that misspent about $125 million in highway repair money - roughly 12 percent of the $1 billion that Pennsylvania, Florida, and Michigan received.

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UPDATED 23:46 PM EDT, May 7, 2013

Air Repairs

Federal Aviation Administration safety inspectors are doing a poor job of policing aircraft repair facilities, leaving passengers vulnerable to risks such as faulty parts, the U.S. Transportation Department's internal watchdog has found.

The new warning comes five years after similar concerns were raised about FAA's ability to oversee aircraft repairs, and the latest review found little has changed.

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UPDATED 6:36 AM EDT, April 29, 2013

EPA: Environmental Purchasing (un)American?

While helping to clean up America, the Environmental Protection Agency didn't always buy American.

Investigators for the EPA inspector general found foreign-made steel pipes in a stimulus-funded project in President Obama's home state of Illinois that violated federal regulations, and now they want taxpayers' money back. But the agency is resisting demanding a refund.

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UPDATED 6:06 AM EDT, April 18, 2013

EPA's Credit Check

If an Environmental Protection Agency workers went on a spending spree, investigators will find out soon.

Government inspectors are looking at the EPA's purchase card and convenience check programs to make sure agency workers have been making taxpayer funded purchases correctly and on things that are needed for the agency to conduct its business.  Investigators noted the review is not in response to any specific tips or concerns, but is a required routine check-up.

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UPDATED 15:27 PM EDT, March 22, 2013

Can't Hear You Now

Despite receiving billions of dollars through a federal bailout, mortgage giant Freddie Mac continues to ignore its customers when they lodge serious complaints about fraud or rule-breaking, leaving taxpayers potentially exposed to new threats, investigators warn.

Between Oct. 2011 and Nov. 2012, Freddie Mac and its eight largest loan servicers received more than 34,000 serious complaints.  Also called “escalated cases,” they cover customers who accuse Freddie Mac of fraud, lawsuits designed to intimidate home owners and other inappropriate conduct.

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UPDATED 7:12 AM EDT, March 20, 2013

Lost in the Mail

Many Americans have stopped using the U.S. Postal Service in favor of private carriers like UPS and FedEx.  And now, it seems, so has the federal government.

In fact, despite spending $337 million last year on shipping, federal agencies only gave the financially troubled Postal Service $4.8 million in business - less than two percent.

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UPDATED 22:29 PM EDT, March 10, 2013

Burning Past Safety

Some troops serving in Afghanistan faced unnecessary increased risks to their safety because the Air Force poorly managed construction projects, an internal Defense Department investigation has found.

The Air Force Center for Engineering and Environment (AFCEE) wasted $36.9 million and put military personnel at Camps Bastion and Leatherneck at risk because they didn’t keep a close enough eye on the contractors hired to complete the tasks, the Pentagon inspector general reported.

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UPDATED 8:38 AM EST, March 9, 2013

VA Insecurity

The Veterans Affairs Department has been routinely transmitting veterans' personal data -- including medical information and Social Security numbers -- over unsecured Internet connections, leaving the information vulnerable to hacking and fraud, according to an internal watchdog that faults the agency for violating the government's own security requirements.

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UPDATED 23:04 PM EST, February 26, 2013

Toxic Fee Failure

The Environmental Protection Agency is running a $16.4 million deficit in its lead-based paint oversight, a report from the agency's internal watchdog said, a poisonous situation stemming from the agency's failure to measure what its program is costing. 

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UPDATED 6:20 AM EST, February 12, 2013

The VA's Paper Tiger

The Veterans Affairs Department has spent $273 million trying to go from paper to digital claims, but it's off to a bumpy start. In fact, veterans claims sent digitally are being processed more slowly than the traditional way.

That's the finding of a new investigative report by the VA's inspector general that provides a stark looks at the flaws in a project that was supposed to speed, not slow, veterans' benefits.

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