| 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 October
1, 2005, through March 31, 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.
During
this period, we conducted work in all areas designated as
Management challenges, focusing much of our audit effort on
the financial statement audit and its related reports, and
contract audits.
- Governance—
the Board of Directors and PBGC Executives focused on strengthening
financial oversight, ethics and communication (see page
5).
- Financial
management— we issued the 13th consecutive unqualified
financial statement audit opinion and management letter
reports for financial and information technology issues,
sponsored “lessons learned” survey and discussions
sessions along with the Chief Financial Officer (see page
6).
- Information
technology — our FISMA report highlighted a concern
about systems certification and accreditation, Continuity
of Operations became a reportable condition as the result
of a major disruption of e-mail and business systems (see
page 9).
- Procurement
and contracting—we audited PBGC’s procurement
process and four large-dollar contracts (see page 11).
- Program
performance—we evaluated PBGC’s process for
verifying participants’ continued eligibility for
disability benefits and earnings limitations (see page14).
In the
investigative area, we received a large number of allegations,
many of which we were able to close during the inquiry stage.
We opened 23 new cases, and closed 13 cases and 18 inquiries.
Significant investigative work this period included:
- uncovering
a fraud scheme that spans several states to steal the identity
of “missing participants” and obtain pension
checks ranging from $4,000 to $21,000 (see page 17);
- working
a joint investigation with the Social Security Administration
to obtain prosecution of a deceased participant’s
daughter and restitution of money paid to her (see page18);
and
- multiple
briefings and outreach activities focused on fraud prevention
and detection (see page 18).
OIG staff
participated in many internal and external activities, including
active participation in several PBGC mentoring programs as
senior mentors, and activities impacting the IG community.
The Inspector General was elected as Chairman of the Board
of Governors of the newly-formed Inspector General Institute.
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