Federal Reports

The Inspector General Act of 1978 requires the Inspector General to prepare semiannual reports summarizing the activities of the Office of Inspector General for the preceding six-month period. The semiannual reports are intended to keep the Secretary and Congress fully informed of significant findings, progress the Agency has made, and recommendations for improvement.

The Loan Programs Office’s (LPO) mission is to be the premier public financing partner that accelerates high-impact energy and manufacturing investments to advance the economic future of the United States. The LPO received $385 billion in loan authority through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Inflation Reduction Act, and related legislation, of which approximately $31 billion in loans were included in the audit’s scope.

The LPO’s Federal employees and contractors assist with loan application processing by reviewing loan applications with expertise in legal, engineering/ technical, market analysis, and financial/credit aspects.

Given the significant amount of loan authority and congressional interest, we performed this audit to determine whether the LPO was managing conflicts of interest (COI) for its Federal employees, as required.

We found that the LPO did not always manage COI for Federal employees, as required. Although we did not identify issues with required ethics training, the LPO did not always ensure compliance with Federal Government ethics regulations. Specifically, the LPO did not always: (1) identify or mitigate instances of potential COI and the appearance of loss of impartiality; (2) ensure outside positions were disclosed or approved; (3) provide accurate or sufficient information to the Department of Energy’s Office of the General Counsel; (4) properly vet Federal employees for potential COI; and (5) file financial disclosure reports timely with required information.

These issues occurred because the LPO did not comply with ethics regulations and internal policies. We also found that the lack of a COI standard operating procedure and a designated ethics official in its legal division contributed to the LPO’s COI and impartiality issues identified.

Our audit results show that the LPO could not provide reasonable assurance that it managed COI and/or the appearance of loss of impartiality concerns. Given the importance and sensitivity of the LPO’s mission, it is critical for LPO Federal employees to be impartial and free from COI with companies conducting business with the LPO. Any real or apparent COI may undermine public trust, accountability, and the LPO’s integrity.

To address the issues identified in this report, we made three recommendations that, if fully implemented, should help ensure that potential COI and the appearance of loss of impartiality in performing official duties are mitigated for LPO Federal employees.

The Office of Inspector General is required by statute to annually identify what it considers to be the most significant management challenges facing the Department of Energy. The Office of Inspector General’s goal is to focus attention on significant issues with the objective of working with Department officials to enhance the effectiveness of agency programs. 

This year’s management challenges report provides a high-level view of five challenge areas with specific challenges facing the Department in each area. We identified the different challenges based on our completed and ongoing work, including audits, inspections, investigations, our prior Management Challenges reporting, our risk assessments, and our assessment of ongoing national and Congressional interest. Our intent is to provide the Secretary, other policymakers, and the public with a brief overview of the challenges facing the Department and a starting point to learn more. 

This report should assist the Secretary and senior Department officials in addressing its challenges, as well as illustrate the progress that the Department has made to address the challenges.

The U.S. Postal Service’s mission is to provide timely, reliable, secure, and affordable mail and package delivery to more than 160 million residential and business addresses across the country. The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General reviews delivery operations at facilities across the country and provides management with timely feedback in furtherance of this mission. 

This interim report presents the results of our self-initiated audit of delivery operations and property conditions at the Cleveland Heights Branch in Cleveland Heights, OH. The Cleveland Heights Branch is in the Ohio 1 District of the Central Area and serves about 59,123 people in ZIP Codes 44112 and 44118, which are considered urban communities.

Audit of the Federal Labor Relations Authority's Financial Statements for Fiscal Year 2025