Transportation Security Administration's Management of Its Federal Employees' Compensation Act Program

This audit is a follow-up to a 2007 Inspector General audit (OIG-07-5) of Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) Federal Employees’ Compensation Act Program. Our objective was to determine whether TSA effectively and efficiently processed and managed workers’ compensation claims. TSA was responsive to our 2007 report recommendations and implemented internal controls across its workers’ compensation program. For example, TSA developed and implemented comprehensive policies and procedures for the submission and management of workers’ compensation claims. TSA also increased the number of workers’ compensation staff and implemented a strategy to address long-term, high-cost claims. Although TSA has made progress in addressing our prior report recommendations, we noted some additional concerns. Specifically, TSA used similar but separate functions for processing workers’ compensation claims without demonstrating increased effectiveness or efficiency in the processing or management of those claims. We also noted that TSA’s process for reviewing the accuracy of Department of Labor’s charges billed to TSA was not formally documented in its workers’ compensation policy.