Open Recommendations

Implement a standardized, routine review of open market purchases.

Ensure the product list includes items that facilities need and regularly purchase so the Veterans Health Administration can expand the savings and benefits the Medical/Surgical Prime Vendor program offers.

Establish performance measurements using the recipients’ reported data, such as Eligible Small Business Concerns new to the State Trade Expansion Program and include them in the annual report as a verifiable measure of program success.

Develop policies and implement a process to ensure recipients report accurate and complete information for participating Eligible Small Business Concerns that reconciles to the quarterly performance reports.

Clearly define essential measurement criteria, specifically sales, new-to-export, and market expansion, to ensure reporting consistency among the State Trade Expansion Program recipients and include these definitions in the program announcement.

Require State Trade Expansion Program applicants to include reimbursement and activity thresholds for participating Eligible Small Business Concerns in their proposals and review for reasonableness to ensure the program meets the objective of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015.

Enhance the quarterly review process to include strategic planning to emphasize recipients meeting performance goals.

Increase oversight of cooperative agreement recipients and establish and implement a risk-based approach to monitor recipients that are not meeting their quarterly milestone goals.

The Bureau of Diplomatic Technology should update the Foreign Affairs Manual and Foreign Affairs Handbook to define its organizational structure and assign the associated cloud-related responsibilities to the responsible offices in its organizational structure.

The Bureau of Diplomatic Technology should update its cloud computing policies in accordance with Department standards.

The Bureau of Diplomatic Technology should update its cloud service procurement policies and guidelines and communicate the changes to the Department.

The Bureau of Diplomatic Technology should review Department configuration management policies for inconsistencies and update them to align with federal cloud policies.

The Bureau of Diplomatic Technology, in coordination with the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, should follow Department standards for cloud security guidelines.

The Bureau of Diplomatic Technology should comply with Department encryption key management requirements for enterprise cloud systems.

The Bureau of Diplomatic Technology, in coordination with the Bureau of Administration, should develop and communicate guidance specifying what cloud services procurement requirements staff need to implement, which staff are responsible for implementing them, and how the requirements should be implemented.

We recommend the Director, Office of Biometric Identity Management work with the Department of Defense to develop and implement a plan to address Automated Biometric Identification System data access restrictions.

We recommend the Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Commissioner of CBP develop a policy directing field offices to implement a process to manage risk when primary name queries of every traveler are not considered operationally feasible. The policy should include guidance to help field offices manage port understanding and implementation, and conduct annual reviews to verify port compliance and analyze performance.

We recommend the Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Commissioner of CBP continue to conduct technology testing until a solution is identified to perform biometric matching at land POE vehicle lanes.

We recommend the Director of USCIS update screening requirements for delayed adjudications to ensure applicants are continuously rescreened; implement a process to continuously monitor asylum applicants pending adjudication past 180 days to identify those who may pose a threat to the United States and should be placed in an appropriate handling process; and ensure that USCIS takes appropriate action when derogatory information is identified.

We recommend the Director of USCIS develop and implement a plan, including cost estimates, to automate security checks for asylum applicants.

(U) Rec. 1.a.2: The DoD OIG recommended that the Commander, U.S. Transportation Command, conduct a review of shipping operations to simplify shipment acknowledgement processes within the Defense Transportation Regulation requirements.

(U) Rec. 2: The DoD OIG recommended that the Defense Security Cooperation Agency Director update execution orders to direct shippers to use certain Foreign Military Sales transportation and documentation procedures for Presidential Drawdown Authority shipments. Specifically, shippers should use a generic military shipping label that identifies the Presidential Determination order number for the Presidential Drawdown Authority shipment and transports at least one DoD Form 1348-1A or other property transfer or property release form with each shipment unit.

(U) Rec. 1.a: This recommendation is Controlled Unclassified Information

(U) Rec. 1.a: This recommendation is Controlled Unclassified Information

(U) Rec. 1.a.1: This recommendation is Controlled Unclassified Information