Federal Reports

Why We Did This Report

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Inspector General conducted this evaluation to determine whether the EPA verifies that EPA-authorized state lead-based paint programs continue to meet regulatory requirements after initial authorization. We initiated this evaluation in response to an anonymous OIG Hotline complaint.
 

Summary of Findings

The EPA is not verifying that authorized state lead-based paint programs remain at least as protective of human health and the environment as the federal programs and that the programs provide adequate enforcement after initial program authorization. Without changes to the EPA’s oversight procedures, authorized state lead-based paint programs may not adequately protect public health, and children may suffer adverse and irreversible health effects.

VBA’s Pension and Fiduciary Service, which administers the death benefits program, assists eligible claimants with burial expenses, plot costs, and transportation costs for a veteran’s remains. To streamline claims processing for death benefits, VBA launched a system called pension automation. This automation system extracts data from claim applications and documents, such as a death certificate, and uses rules to generate decisions and notification letters for claims. Given VBA’s increased reliance on automation, the VA OIG conducted this review to determine whether VBA’s automation system is accurately processing claims for death benefits. 

Based on statistical analysis of a sample of 150 claims for veterans’ death benefits completed by automation from January 5, 2023, through March 31, 2024, the OIG estimated that 83 percent of such claims contained an error, of which 2,000 claims (16 percent) resulted in about $1.9 million in underpayments to survivors. Although the automation system correctly processed most burial allowances (90 percent) and plot allowances (95 percent), the OIG team estimated that 9,800 transportation claims (79 percent) were improperly processed during the review period. The most common errors identified by the team were: the automation system prematurely denied transportation claims that should have been transferred to a claims processor to review the transportation benefit; some transportation claims were never reimbursed; and the notification letter did not provide a decision on transportation for some claims. These errors occurred because the automation system did not have rules to ensure the proper processing of transportation benefits and because of a discrepancy in VBA policy. The OIG made and the under secretary for benefits concurred with two recommendations to update VBA policy and ensure automation is consistent with the policy for processing this benefit.

OIG examined the circumstances surrounding the oversight and enforcement of the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR)/Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) food delivery contract. 

Note: This report contains sensitive content that is being withheld from public release. Any monetary impact amounts redacted from this report are not reflected in monetary totals.

We found an energy company failed to decommission operations as required within one year after its Federal oil and gas leases expired.