Reports

OIG investigated allegations that Joseph Dubois filed a fraudulent surety bond to secure a contract at the Pine Hill School, Ramah Chapter of the Navajo Nation, NM. We found that the Ramah Navajo School Board contracted Dubois to renovate a building at the Pine Hill School. The contracts required him to obtain and provide a surety bond, but instead Dubois produced a fictitious surety bond that falsely appeared to be under the authority of a legitimate surety company. Dubois pled guilty to passing fictitious obligations and to tax evasion in U.S.

The OIG investigated approximately $1,600 in fraudulent charges that were made on several Government charge cards issued to a U.S. Geological Survey employee. We found no evidence that the employee made the fraudulent charges and we discovered that a friend of the employee may have been responsible. As a result, we closed our investigation and referred this matter to the local police department.

The OIG investigated allegations that a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) senior official approved or directed the approval of two drawdowns totaling approximately $3.1 million from an Operation, Maintenance, and Replacement (OMR) Trust Fund designated for a regional rural water system (RWS) at a time when the RWS was years from completion and had few, if any, OMR expenses.

We evaluated the Department to determine whether it effectively follows the incident response lifecycle, as defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). We found that the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) had not fully implemented the capabilities recommended by NIST in its incident detection and response program.

The Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) for fiscal year (FY) 2017. FISMA (Public Law 113-283) requires Federal agencies to have an annual independent evaluation of their information security programs and practices. This evaluation can be performed by either the agency’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) or by an independent external auditor, as determined by the OIG, to determine the effectiveness of such programs and practices.