Federal Reports

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) implemented its annual work 
plan to ensure its resources are effectively and efficiently utilized throughout the performance year.

Objective:  To determine whether the Social Security Administration correctly applied workers' compensation (WC) off-set for Disability Insurance beneficiaries who received WC payments from Colorado and Minnesota.

At the request of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Supply Chain, we examined the cost proposal submitted by a contractor for the New Caledonia Gas Plant.  Our examination objective was to determine if the cost proposal was fairly stated.  The contractor proposed a target cost estimate (TCE) of approximately $474.7 million for the construction of a potential simple cycle natural gas electricity generating plant at TVA’s New Caledonia site in Steens, Mississippi.

In our opinion, the cost proposal was overstated. Specifically, we found the proposal for the $474.7 million New Caledonia Gas Plant project included (1) overstated labor costs, (2) inflated subcontract costs, (3) overstated or unallowable other direct costs, (4) understated equipment costs, and (5) overstated (i.e., general and administrative, fee, and taxes).  We estimated TVA could avoid $63.7 million on the proposed $474.7 million New Caledonia Gas Plant project by negotiating appropriate reductions to the proposed TCE.  Additionally, we suggest TVA negotiate to revise the draft contract language and rate attachments to incorporate appropriate changes.

The proposal also included an alternative option to complete the project under a fixed price compensation method for a firm fixed price of approximately $506.4 million.  We analyzed the TCE proposal and alternative fixed price proposal and determined it would be more cost efficient for TVA to (1) negotiate appropriate reductions, including any necessary scope changes, and (2) utilize the TCE instead of agreeing to the fixed price proposal.

The Office of the Inspector General performed an audit of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) cybersecurity vulnerability management program.  Our objective was to determine if TVA is compliant with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01, Reducing the Significant Risk of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEVs), and CISA BOD 19-02, Vulnerability Remediation Requirements for Internet-Accessible Systems. 

We determined TVA generally complied with CISA BOD 19-02 and CISA BOD 22-01; however, two requirements were not fully met. Specifically, TVA did not (1) update CISA with modifications to the inventory of internet-accessible internet protocol (IP) addresses within the five-day requirement or (2) meet the CISA required remediation timeline for 8 of 22 KEVs.