We conducted a review to determine the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 compliance with the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010 (IPERA) (Public Law 111-204) which amended the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 (Pub. L. 107-300) (IPIA) and required agencies to identify and review all programs and activities they administer that may be susceptible to significant improper payments based on guidance provided by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).1 In addition, section 3 of IPERA required Inspectors General to review each agency’s improper payment reporting and issue an annual report.

This report presents the results of our independent performance audit of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) information security program and practices in accordance with the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA). FISMA requires Federal agencies, including EEOC, to have an annual independent evaluation performed of their information security programs and practices to determine the effectiveness of such programs and practices, and to report the results of the evaluation to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The EEOC Office of Inspector General (OIG) contracted with Harper, Rains, Knight & Company, PA (HRK) to conduct a performance audit of EEOC’s information security program and practices for Fiscal Year (FY) 2020.

Harper, Rains, Knight & Company, P.A.was engaged by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC"), Office of Inspector General ("OIG"), to conduct a performance audit of the EEOC charge card program, which includes both purchase and travel cards. EEOC uses purchase cards to reduce the administrative cost of processing small dollar purchases and travel cards to reduce the cost of official travel and for the convenience of the traveler.

The EEOC charge card program had previously been audited in FY 2018, which covered activity in FY 2017 and 2018. The previous audit resulted in two (2) recommendations to improve the management of the charge card program and one (1) finding. We found that while EEOC has made improvements to the account closing process procedures, the procedures have not been properly updated in EEOC directives nor have they been followed in practice.
We found that EEOC has properly designed their internal controls over its charge card program to detect and prevent fraud, waste, abuse and misuse.

On September 22, 2020, President Donald J. Trump issued Executive Order 13950 (EO or the Order), “Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping,” which requires federal agencies, federal grantees, federal contractors, and the Uniformed Services to address trainings that include divisive concepts, race or sex stereotyping, and race and sex scapegoating. Section 6(c)(ii) of the Order states that each agency head shall request the agency’s Inspector General to thoroughly review and assess by the end of the calendar year, and not less than annually thereafter, agency compliance with the requirements of this Order, in the form of a report submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The Chair of the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sent the request to the Inspector General on October 25, 2020. This report presents the findings of the Inspector General’s review.