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“The USDA Office of Inspector General is committed to partnering with federal, state, and local agencies to combat fraud in USDA programs that impact our communities,” said USDA Inspector General John Walk. “Leveraging resources across agencies at every level of government is key. I am proud to participate in the Inaugural Florida Anti-Fraud Task Force meeting which ensures strong collaboration going forward to fight fraud and hold those responsible who steal from Floridians and American taxpayers.”
“USDA OIG will not tolerate the violent and inhuman practice of dogfighting,” said Inspector General John Walk. “I commend our law enforcement agents for rescuing more than 100 dogs from this heinous cruelty and bringing the defendants to face justice.”
Today, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch and USDA Inspector General John Walk briefed on the success of their partnership around Operation Stronghold – an education and outreach operation to fight SNAP fraud in Mississippi. These are exactly the types of successful partnerships – federal, state, and local – that will protect American tax dollars and help stop SNAP fraud across the nation.
"This week the USDA OIG announced its partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in the launch of the National Fraud Detection Center (NFDC). As a signatory of the NFDC Charter, USDA OIG has committed dedicated analysts and investigators to the prosecutor-led effort to strengthen interagency coordination to detect and dismantle complex fraud schemes dramatically strengthening our ability to safeguard taxpayer funds.” - USDA Inspector General John Walk
This report presents the results of the System and Organization Controls 1 Type 2 examination conducted in accordance with relevant attestation standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants for the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Financial Management Service (FMS) description of its financial systems used to process user entities financial transactions throughout the period October 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026.
The objective of this performance audit was to determine the effectiveness of USDA’s information security program. We found USDA’s maturity level is 3, which is ineffective according to OMB’s criteria. We found weaknesses still exist and made 10 new recommendations to address five identified deficiencies within USDA’s information security program.
We found that USDA lacked adequate security protocols to prevent the unauthorized transfers of agricultural research and funding to foreign adversaries.
We initiated the subject inspection to determine whether contractors importing select goods complied with trade laws and that claims submitted for any tariff and duty expenses reimbursed were properly supported.