We are initiating an audit of the company’s management of private railcar services. Our objective is to assess the extent to which the company is identifying and billing private rail car owners for the full costs associated with the movement, storage, and support services provided to private rail cars.
I am pleased to submit our latest Semiannual Report to the United States Congress. This report highlights the activities of our office for the six months ending September 30, 2017, pursuant to the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended.
On November 9, 2017, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Florida, announced that Doctor Joaquin Mendez was sentenced to 48 months in prison, one year of supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,198,520 in restitution for his participation in a multi-million dollar health care fraud and money laundering scheme that affected Amtrak’s employee health plan.
In August 2016, Amtrak (the company) received a federal loan to purchase 28 new high-speed trainsets for $1.6 billion and undertake 10 infrastructure improvements needed to operate and maintain these trains for $850 million. Collectively, these projects—called the Acela Express 2021 program—represent the company's largest single investment in its 46 years of service.
We are initiating an audit of the company’s post‐award, contract oversight efforts. Our objective is to assess the effectiveness of the company’s policies and practices for overseeing contractor performance from contract award to completion, and to identify possible areas for improvement. This audit is a follow‐on to our work assessing company efforts to mitigate risks in key contract terms and conditions (project 009‐2017).
In response to a May 2016 OIG investigation on an employee’s use of Amtrak’s (the company’s) benefits for relocation and corporate lodging, we conducted additional analysis examining company practices in this area.