IG

White House presses for improved agency-IG cooperation

The White House has called for increased collaboration between federal agencies and inspectors general after conducting a review which revealed some agency leaders had not fully communicated their endorsement of IG policies and whistleblower protections to staff.

  • By Chris Riotta

Speed bumps for VA's new scheduling system

A watchdog report identified gaps in training and oversight for the new scheduling system being implemented at VA medical facilities.

  • By Adam Mazmanian

GSA addresses plans for FBI headquarters at House hearing

GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan told lawmakers she was in contact with FBI Director Chris Wray about ongoing plans to build new headquarters for the bureau after the years-long plan was scrapped by the previous administration.

  • By Chris Riotta

Senate Republicans seek IG probe of TSA pipeline directives

Republican leaders on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee are calling for an inspector general probe into how the Transportation Security Administration developed its first ever pipeline-specific security directives.

  • By Chris Riotta

Federal watchdog calls out transparency issues in pandemic spending

A committee established to ensure transparency around government spending related to COVID-19 found that federal agencies failed to provide clear reporting on how they were spending billions of dollars.

  • By Chris Riotta

IGs look to expand investigative authority

Agency watchdogs told lawmakers that they would like authority to subpoena former federal employees, contractors and other non-governmental witnesses to give testimony in IG probes.

  • By Natalie Alms

IG reports delays in COVID notification in GSA facilities

A report from the General Services Administration's Office of the Inspector General says the agency's Public Buildings Services at times failed to follow CDC guidelines around reporting and cleaning procedures for COVID-19 incidents.

  • By Chris Riotta

Was DOD ready for telework in 2020?

Slow networks, a lack of management buy-in and the need for more government equipment all affected how DOD feds transitioned to telework at the start of the pandemic, new reports from DOD's IG found.

  • By Natalie Alms

Census servers hacked in 2020

A watchdog report indicates that aging remote-access servers at the Census Bureau were successfully targeted by hackers in early 2020 using a known vulnerability, and while no data was stolen, the incident revealed flaws in the bureau's cybersecurity response.

  • By Adam Mazmanian

Watchdog says contractor oversight was lacking in Afghanistan

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction's newest report calls out the government's failure to oversee contractors as a source of waste, fraud and abuse.

  • By Lauren C. Williams

Inconsistent job coding may undercut DOD’s cyber workforce efforts

A DOD inspector general audit found that while the Pentagon has made strides, inconsistent job coding for civilian cyber work roles across filled and vacant positions may hinder recruiting and retention.

  • By Lauren C. Williams

VA to continue pause on Cerner deployment for six more months

At the end of calendar 2021, the Department of Veterans Affairs expects to announce a new schedule for the deployment of its $21 billion electronic health record modernization project.

  • By Adam Mazmanian

Lawmakers balk at cost-overruns, transparency issues with VA's $21 billion health record program

At a Senate hearing last week, Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough noted deficiencies in training including the lack of a real system available for use by clinicians in advance of the go-live date for a new, integrated health care software system.

  • By Adam Mazmanian

DOD's 3D printers are vulnerable to hackers, IG finds

The Defense Department didn't properly secure additive manufacturing systems from foreign intrusion and data tampering, according to an inspector general report released July 7.

  • By Lauren C. Williams
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Labor watchdog calls out gaps in unemployment fraud reporting

The department says it will update current requirements so that data flagged as potentially fraudulent will be shared with the agency's Office of the Inspector General.

  • By Natalie Alms

VA watchdog warns of security risks from undocumented PIV cards

A new report warns contracting officers at the Veterans Health Administration are failing to comply with agency and federal guidelines ensuring contractor personnel return personal identity verification (PIV) cards after employment.

  • By Chris Riotta

DOD watchdog says DDS director didn't mistreat employees

A probe found that Defense Digital Service Brett Goldstein did condone the use of unapproved encrypted communications apps and also identified discussion among staffers about programming a script to rig an online competition.

  • By Natalie Alms

DHS faces setbacks implementing CDM, watchdog says

The Department of Homeland Security has failed to address critical vulnerabilities across information technology assets due to significant delays in the department's rollout of a federal Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program.

  • By Chris Riotta

Army rolls back short-lived IoT telework policy

The Army is "restaffing" the policy, which would have required teleworkers to turn off or remove smart devices, such as Amazon Echo speakers, from their remote workspaces.

  • By Lauren C. Williams

Legacy tech hindered delivery of unemployment benefits during the pandemic, IG finds

States with modernized systems were able to stand up new programs faster than states that relied on legacy technology, according to a new report from the Labor Department's internal watchdog.

  • By Natalie Alms

VA lowballed health record modernization costs, watchdog says

In a newly released report, the inspector general at the Department of Veterans Affairs indicates that the $16 billion estimate for the switch to the Cerner electronic health record system doesn't incorporate billions in needed physical infrastructure costs.

  • By Adam Mazmanian