| This
Semiannual Report to Congress summarizes the activities and
accomplishments of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
(PBGC) Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the period April
1, 2006 through September 30, 2006. When accomplishing audit
and investigative work, we ensure that it accords with our
mission to be an “independent and objective voice for
Congress, the Board of Directors, and PBGC.” We want
to focus our work on the challenges facing PBGC and to be
the primary source of timely and objective information for
the organization. We will accomplish our work demonstrating
our values of respect, excellence, and integrity.
We conducted
work in all areas designated as
Management challenges, including:
- Governance—
our evaluation of PBGC’s actions in marketing and selling a significant
claim to stock that it obtained in a reorganized private sector business
resulted in recommendations to establish policy, internal guidance regarding
responsibilities, and standard documentation for such dispositions (see page 5).
- Program
performance— our audit concluded that the $7 million proposed expenditure in PBGC’s
FY2007 budget for developing of a system jointly used by several federal agencies was
disproportionate, and we responded to a Congressional request concerning PBGC’s
proportional share (see page 6).
- Financial
management— in monitoring and facilitating the work of our financial
statement audit contractor, we evaluated substantive statutory and regulatory
changes impacting the financial statements and participated in regular
meetings with the Chief Financial Officer and financial operations staff (see page 8).
- Information
technology — our FISMA report noted significant information security improvements
but continued to highlight a concern about systems certification and accreditation;
and our evaluation of PBGC’s use and distribution of Blackberry devices recommended
that PBGC develop distribution and cost-management policy. (see page 11 and 13).
- Procurement
and contracting— we questioned costs in audits of a contractor’s termination proposal
and its incurred costs prior to termination for a significant IT development contract that
PBGC terminated (see page 11).
In the investigative area, we opened 11 new cases,
and closed 16 cases and 10 inquiries. Significant investigative work this period included:
- finding a PBGC manager was using
PBGC resources to operate a travel business, soliciting and arranging travel for
PBGC employees, contractors and external individuals (see page17)
- obtaining an indictment and
conviction of one participant in a multi-state fraud scheme to steal the identity
of “missing participants“ and obtain pension checks ranging from $4,000 to $21,000 (see page 18); and
- issuing a management advisory regarding
internal control vulnerabilities we found while investigating fraud in the Missing Participants program.
(see page 19).
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