External Peer Review Conducted by Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency Team - Office of Program Audits and Evaluations

Office of Inspector General Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection June 3, 2019 The Honorable Jay N. Lerner Inspector General Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation 3501 Fairfax Drive Arlington, Virginia 22226 Dear Mr. Lerner: We, the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) external peer review team, conducted the required external peer review of the Office of Program Audits and Evaluations (PAE) 1n the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's Office of Inspector General {OIG). We conducted the review in accordance with the CIGIE Inspection and Evaluation Committee guidance contained in the C/G/£ Guide for Conducting Peer Reviews of Inspection and Evoluat1on Organizations of Federal Offices of Inspector General issued in January 2017. The external peer review team consisted of participants from the OIGs for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, the U.S. Department of Education, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. We performed our review from February 2019 through April 2019. We assessed PAE's compliance with seven standards in CIGIE's Quality Standards for Inspection and Evaluation (Blue Book), issued in January 2012: quality control, planning, data collection and analysis, evidence, records maintenance, reporting, and follow-up. As part of the assessment, we reviewed PAE's policy and procedures that implement those seven standards, and we reviewed three evaluation reports issued during the period covered by this review, January 1, 2016, through December 31, 2018, to determine whether the reports complied with the seven Blue Book standards and PAE's policy and procedures. We determined that PAE's policy and procedures sufficiently address the seven Blue Book standards covered by the external peer review. We also concluded lhat all three reports we reviewed met the seven Blue Book standards and complied with PAE's policy and procedures. We are issuing a separate letter of comment, dated June 3, 2019, that details our specific observation and suggestions and our scope and methodology. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation OIG provided a response, dated May 1, 2019, to a draft of that letter, in which the office agreed with our observation and suggestions. On behalf of the peer review team, I want to thank you for your staff's professionalism, assistance, and cooperation during this review. Sincerely, Mark Bialek /Signed/, Inspector General cc: Stephen Beard, Deputy Inspector General for Strategy and Performance, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation OIG Terry Gibson, Assistant Inspector General for Program Audits and Evaluations, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation OIG