The Indian Health Service Did Not Always Resolve Audit Recommendations in Accordance With Federal Requirements

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Indian Health Service (IHS), did not always resolve audit recommendations in a timely manner during Federal fiscal years (FYs) 2015 and 2016. Specifically, IHS resolved 138 of the 651 recommendations that were outstanding during FYs 2015 and 2016. However, it did not resolve 123 of the 138 recommendations (89.1 percent) within the required 6-month resolution period. In addition, as of September 30, 2016, IHS had not resolved 513 audit recommendations that were past due for resolution. These 513 past-due recommendations were procedural in nature and typically involved policies and procedures and internal controls; none of them involved dollar amounts such as recommended disallowances.