Open Recommendations

We recommend the Vice President, Projects and Outages, update the Nuclear project management procedure to define rework and provide guidance for documenting and tracking rework.

Ensure Congress is made aware of the continued need to mandate the use of systems designated by the U.S. Secretary of Labor, such as the Prisoner Update Processing System (PUPS), for cross-matching federal incarceration data.

Work with the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of Fiscal Services, Bureau of Prisons, and UI Integrity Center to facilitate states’ streamlined access to federal incarceration data leveraging the Do Not Pay initiative and the Integrity Data Hub.

Develop and implement controls to ensure more efficient use of statutory grant funds, which should include performing data analytics on grant spending and performance data.

Establish and implement procedures to collect and analyze detailed financial data on career services expenditures, which should include identifying the reason for the growth in career services.

Develop and implement controls to ensure ETA leadership and other stakeholders are aware of the complete administrative costs—including those of workforce entities currently exempt from reporting administrative costs—incurred by the WIOA statutory grant programs.

Develop guidance for grant recipients and subrecipients to clarify how to determine if an expenditure materially increases the value or useful life of a capital asset.

Establish a dollar threshold for construction projects over which grant recipients need to obtain approval from ETA.

Remedy the $998,253 in questioned costs associated with construction.

Remedy the $23,718 in questioned costs due to not reconciling the provisional rate with the final indirect cost rate.

Remedy the $14,581 in questioned costs associated with the Texas State Board director’s salary expense charged directly to the statutory grant programs.

Develop guidance that clarifies what documentation is required to support individualized career services provided to participants by grant recipients and subrecipients.

Ensure ETA officials responsible for monitoring grant recipients enforce the documentation requirements in their grant agreements.

The Chief, Taxpayer Services and Commissioner, Small Business/Self-Employed Division should revise IRM 21.1.1, Accounts Management and Compliance Services Overview, to require representatives to document all types of dropped or disconnected calls, or calls that were not properly transferred, including the circumstances of the disconnection when known.

The Chief, Taxpayer Services and Commissioner, Small Business/Self-Employed Division should emphasize to all representatives the importance of following hold time requirements, handling calls properly (e.g., using appropriate tone, avoiding jargon, etc.) and asking probing questions to ensure compliance with procedures and ensure that callers receive good customer service.

The Chief, Taxpayer Services and Commissioner, Small Business/Self-Employed Division, should evaluate recurring quality of service issues identified by Taxpayer Services’ internal quality reviews, identify areas of improvement, and implement procedural changes or additional training to reduce their recurrence.

Work with Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency (GRVA) to ensure it obtains formal approval from the cognizant Federal agency on the indirect cost rate proposal.

Ensure GVRA’s policies reflect compliance with Federal indirect cost requirements.

The VA Caribbean Healthcare System Director ensures that facility leaders make decisions regarding the need for institutional disclosures independent of the peer review process in alignment with VHA Directive 1190 (1), Peer Review for Quality Management.

The OIG recommends that the Executive Director for Operations develop and issue supplemental guidance clarifying the expected implementation of cybersecurity controls, the interpretation of requirements, and methods for evaluating control effectiveness.

The OIG recommends that the Executive Director for Operations update Inspection Procedure 71130.10 to clarify the Cyber Security Issues Forum process and its potential impacts on findings and violations.

The OIG recommends that the Executive Director for Operations update Inspection Manual Chapter 1245, Appendix D-1, to include periodic refresher training requirements for cybersecurity-qualified inspectors.

The OIG recommends that the Executive Director for Operations define a schedule for contractor-led training (in-person or virtual), and ensure sessions are recorded and accessible.

The OIG recommends that the Executive Director for Operations revise the request for information guidance to require inspectors to identify the most current cybersecurity program documents already in the NRC’s possession before issuing the initial request, and to clearly communicate target dates for both issuing requests and receiving licensee responses.

The OIG recommends that the Executive Director for Operations train staff on the correct Cost Activity Codes for reporting fee-billable and non-billable cybersecurity inspection activities within the Human Capital Management Cloud System.