An investigation by the Treasury Department IG’s office has found that some $473 million was at stake in a whistleblower’s disclosure about a software flaw that had left some debts owed to the government uncollected, well above the $92 million amount initially indicated.
The disclosure of the flaw led last year to the OSC honoring the whistleblower—who has remained anonymous—with its annual Public Service Award for disclosing a problem related to collection of money owed to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The money related to fines employers owed for workplace safety violations that OSHA referred to Treasury for collection.
After OSC referred the disclosure to Treasury and Labor, those departments found in an initial review that the problem also affected collections of non-tax debt by Treasury on behalf of a dozen other agencies. The new review by the Treasury IG concluded that yet more agencies were involved and put the total owed to OSHA at $97 million and the total for the other agencies collectively at $376 million.
In a letter responding to the audit, the Treasury Department said the “system error has been corrected” and that it has collected nearly $10 million that was owed to OSHA and $3 million owed to other agencies and that it “continues to attempt collection” on some $223 million “that remains active in our system.”
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; ; ; agreed to pay $17.07 million to settle federal allegations of illegal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hiring practices on Friday, marking the Justice Department's first resolution unde...