The Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the RRB focuses its audit and investigative efforts on protecting the integrity of the agency's trust funds by providing comprehensive program and operational oversight. Reports issued by the OIG, and other documents referenced in this section, can be accessed at here.
Office of Audit
During fiscal year 2015, the Office of Audit published 8 reports, completed its mandated CyberScope reporting and assessment of risk associated with purchase and travel cards, and issued findings and recommendations to agency management. Their reports focused on the following topics: the RRB's financial statements for fiscal years 2013 and 2014; information technology security; the RRB's compliance with the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act; internal controls over creditable service and compensation related to injury settlements; vulnerabilities related to railroad Medicare chiropractic payments; and internal control over obligations at the RRB. In total, this work identified $149 million in questioned costs. In addition, the Office of Audit underwent a peer review and received a rating of pass during fiscal year 2015.
Pursuant to the Reports Consolidation Act of 2000 and the requirements of Office of Management and Budget Circular A-136, the OIG issued a document that identified the most serious management challenges facing the RRB and its progress in addressing them. The OIG identified the following challenges: program integrity to strengthen the RRB's disability program; information technology security and modernization; oversight of railroad Medicare; preventing and detecting improper payments; agency succession planning; material weaknesses for financial statement reporting; and limited transparency at the National Railroad Retirement Investment Trust.
Office of Investigations
The Office of Investigations focuses on identifying, investigating, and presenting RRB fraud cases for prosecution or monetary recovery action. It also seeks to prevent and deter RRB program fraud by reporting systemic weaknesses in agency operations and processes identified through investigative work. In order to maximize the impact of its resources, the office pursues cooperative investigative activities in coordination with other inspectors general, such as the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services, and law enforcement agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Secret Service.
As of September 30, 2015, the Office of Investigations' caseload totaled 295 matters, which represents approximately $556.0 million in potential fraud losses.1 During fiscal year 2015, the office secured 19 arrests, 49 indictments and/or informations, 43 convictions, 27 civil judgments, 57 referrals to the Department of Justice, and more than $202.7 million in financial accomplishments.2
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1This reflects potential fraud amounts related to programs administered exclusively by the RRB and potential fraud amounts from other Federal programs such as Medicare or social security which have been identified by Office of Investigations' joint investigative work.
2The total amount of financial accomplishments reflects fraud amounts related to programs administered exclusively by the RRB and fraud amounts from other Federal programs such as Medicare or social security which were included in the disposition resulting from the investigation.
All Office of Inspector General audits and other public documents are available online.