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The September 11 Victim Compensation Fund of 2001

Report No. 04-01
October 2003
Office of the Inspector General


Appendix I
Audit Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

The purpose of this audit was to determine, in conformance with the Act's requirements, the effectiveness of the process created to compensate the victims and their families. Our objectives were to: (1) review the procedures established by the Special Master appointed by the Attorney General to administer the Fund, (2) analyze the award determination process to determine whether the program's compensation awards to claimants are consistent and timely, and (3) examine the Fund's fraud controls, specifically in relation to how fraudulent claims are identified and how the collateral sources of claimants are reviewed and verified.

We conducted our audit in accordance with Government Auditing Standards issued by the Comptroller General of the United States and, accordingly, included such tests as were considered necessary to accomplish our objectives.

We obtained an understanding of the VCF and its procedures by reviewing the VCF's website and by examining numerous newspaper and media articles related to the Fund. In addition, we reviewed pertinent documents including the Act which established the VCF, the Interim Final Rule, the Final Rule (the regulations), the VCF standard operating procedures, claim forms, and award calculation models. We conducted interviews with officials from the DOJ, PwC, and the Special Master's law office. Our fieldwork was performed through March 13, 2003, at the Washington, D.C. offices of the Civil Division, the CPC in Arlington, Virginia operated by PwC, and the Washington, D.C. law office of the Special Master. In addition, we reviewed claim files located in PwC's Arlington, Virginia offices. In some cases, our samples were randomly selected; in other cases, we expanded our review to examine 100 percent of claims with specific characteristics.