Fiscal Year
2014
Semiannual option
Apr-Sep
Executive Summary
This Semiannual Report is issued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC’s) Office of Inspector General (OIG) pursuant to the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended. It summarizes the OIG’s activities and accomplishments for the period April 1, 2014, through September 30, 2014.
During the reporting period, the OIG issued five final audit/evaluation reports, completed three investigations, and received 638 hotline inquiries. A total of 243 were charge processing issues, 317 were Title VII complaints, and 26 were investigative allegations. The remaining 52 hotline inquiries were general inquiries.
Significant accomplishments include the following:
- OIG reported that the Agency complied with the Improper Payments Information Act (IPIA), as amended by the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010 (IPERA). The Agency conducted an agency wide risk assessment of vendor and travel payments made in FY 2013.
- OIG reported that there were no Agency efforts to prevent or hinder OIG activities. Additionally, there were no closed investigations, audits or evaluations that had not been disclosed to the public.
- OIG reported on the results of its review of the Agency’s Personnel Security Program. OIG’s contractor Williams, Adley & Company-DC, LLP determined that although EEOC has designed an overall compliant personnel security program, there were areas in which improvements are needed in the implementation of the program to achieve optimum effectiveness and efficiency.
- OIG issued a Results in Brief update for its Cooperative Audit Resolution and Oversight Initiative (CAROI) Pilot Program. The update stated that the OIG’s goal for this pilot program is to use CAROI as a method to improve resolution of recommendations contained in reports that require audit follow-up. Since the OIG began implementing CAROI in 2012, it has achieved significant results, including improved communication with a key program office.
- OIG contracted with Brown and Company CPAs, PLLC to perform an independent evaluation of EEOC's information security program compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA) for FY-2014.
- OIG contracted with the Urban Institute to conduct an evaluation of the Agency’s Outreach and Education Program. The objective of this evaluation is to assess the program’s efficiency and effectiveness. The results will be included in the Performance and Accountability Report.
- OIG contracted with the public accounting firm of Harper, Rains, Knight & Company (HRK), P.A., to conduct the Agency’s 2014 financial statement audit, which is required by the Accountability of Tax Dollars Act of 2002. Fieldwork is ongoing, and the results will be included in the Performance and Accountability Report.
- OIG is conducting an independent assessment to determine if the Agency’s management control evaluation process was conducted in accordance with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) standards. The results will be included in the Performance and Accountability Report.
- OIG reported that there were a total of 57 open and unimplemented recommendations as of September 30, 2014. Further, the OIG identified the most urgent recommendations to be: (1) the EEOC update its control over the maintenance of its official personnel files, (2) the EEOC identify and update all policies and procedures impacted by the implementation of the Financial Cloud Solution (FCS), and (3) that the EEOC perform further analysis on its government charge card operations to identify all controls that should be implemented per Office of Management and Budget (OMB) directives.
- OIG completed investigations regarding ethical misconduct and purchase card fraud. The OIG has ongoing investigations in several field offices involving ethics violations, conflicts of interest, fraud, mismanagement, falsification of government records, impersonation of a Federal official, misuse of travel and purchase cards, theft of government property, misuse of computers, and threats against the Agency.