Report Summary

Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General

January 2009

Follow-up:  The Social Security Administration’s Procedures for Addressing Employee-related Allegation

(A-13-08-18077)

Objective

To determine the extent to which the Social Security Administration (SSA) had implemented recommendations from a series of reports on employee-related allegations we issued in Fiscal Years (FY) 2004 and 2005.

Background

In FYs 2004 and 2005, we issued 11 reports on SSA’s procedures for addressing employee-related allegations. We issued 1 report to each of the 10 Regional Commissioners and 1 report to the Deputy Commissioner for Systems. In the report issued to the Boston Regional Commissioner, we indicated employee-related allegations were addressed and potential criminal violations were referred to the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). However, in the remaining 10 reviews, we identified deficiencies in the Agency’s management of employee-related allegations. To view the full report, visit http://www.ssa.gov/oig/ADOBEPDF/A-13-08-18077.pdf

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Our Findings

Generally, we found SSA implemented the recommendations most often made in our FY 2004 and 2005 series of reports on employee-related allegations.  With the exception of Office of Systems (OS), our follow-up review found appropriate actions had been taken regarding tracking the receipt, development, and disposition of employee-related allegations.  However, the use of allegation control logs, including allegations received from sources other than the OIG, should be made uniform Agency-wide.  We found documentation was retained related to the employee-related allegations.  Lastly, for the period reviewed, we did not identify any adverse personnel actions involving potential employee criminal violations that had not been referred to OIG.  That is, for the period January 2006 through September 2007, nothing came to our attention to lead us to believe the Offices of the Regional Commissioners and OS did not refer employee-related allegations with potential criminal violations to the OIG.

Our Recommendations

We believe the resolution of employee-related allegations should be monitored and tracked Agency-wide. As such, we again recommend OS use a control system to ensure all employee-related allegations are tracked and monitored. SSA agreed with the recommendation.