Open Recommendations

For FTA funds identified at elevated risk for misuse, implement written procedures to strengthen the Agency's ability to assess expense eligibility prior to recipients receiving payments. Implementing this recommendation could put up to $446.9 million in Region 9 funds to better use by improving FTA's ability to identify unsupported costs and ineligible expenses before issuing CARES Act payments. This could also result in hundreds of millions in Agency funds put to better use among the other nine FTA regions.

Develop and implement processes to identify grant awards since FTA's implementation of the Transit Award Management System that provide Federal funding for reportable real property and use this information to improve oversight of real property reporting.

Develop and implement a process to identify and provide oversight of real property to active recipients with new grants that do not receive a triennial or State management review.

Update FTA's Contractors Manual to require contractors to request a current and complete real property inventory that complies with FTA Circular 5010.1E reporting requirements and require contractors to review and verify that the real property inventory complies with FTA reporting requirements.

Establish and implement a process to verify that FTA's financial interest in real property dispositions is managed in accordance with FTA Circular 5010.1E. Implementing this recommendation could put up to $996,877 in funds to better use.

Develop and implement a process to require grant recipients to annually certify, when applicable, adherence to FTA's requirements for the approval of disposed real property funded with Federal grant assistance.

1. We recommend that the Director of the CHIPS Program Office and the Acting Director of the CHIPS Research and Development Office collaborate with the Director of the NIST Office of Human Resources Management to develop a comprehensive workforce plan that includes a skills assessment, vacancy analysis, and risk assessment.

2. We recommend that the Director of the NIST Office of Human Resources Management implement lessons learned from CPO and CRDO for future NIST hiring efforts.

Reconcile the differences between grantees’ internal accounting records and FFRs to determine the propriety of the component payments or require grantees to perform this reconciliation. In addition, AmeriCorps should report any remaining unmatched reporting errors as improper payments to ensure accuracy, reliability, and consistency of their improper payment reporting. (Modified FY 2022 Recommendation 2.1)

Assess whether FFRs were submitted by eligible organizations during the FFR data pull process, as required by OMB. If it is determined that any grant recipients were ineligible to receive the grant, AmeriCorps should include the entire amount of FFR expenses as an improper payment.

Publish improper payment and unknown payment estimates for NST in the accompanying materials provided with future annual financial statements in accordance with OMB guidance. (Modified FY 2022 Recommendation 5)

Develop and/or enhance systems to capture data that measure the effectiveness of initiatives to reduce customer wait times.

Develop goals specific to wait times for customers in the office and time customers wait for scheduled appointments.

Develop the 35 sample cases where Illinois or Texas workers’ compensation benefit payment data were not reflected in beneficiaries’ payment records and establish overpayments, as appropriate.

Evaluate the feasibility of a legislative proposal requiring states to provide workers’ compensation payment information to SSA.

Update initial claim and post-entitlement processes to more explicitly request claimants and beneficiaries report whether they have received, will receive, or expect to receive workers’ compensation benefit payment information.

(U) Rec. A.1: The DoD OIG recommended that the Commander, U.S. European Command, in coordination with Security Assistance Group-Ukraine and its Service Component Commands, document roles, responsibilities, processes, and procedures for validating the Ukraine requests for military equipment and assistance.

(U) Rec. B.1: The DoD OIG recommended that the Commander, U.S. European Command, in coordination with the Commander, Security Assistance Group-Ukraine, identify and implement courses of action to mitigate coordination challenges with partner nations regarding the classification level of information.

We recommend the Vice President, Environment and Sustainability determine what information is needed to be submitted in the campgrounds’ annual operating plans, if any, and enforce the requirement. If the Tennessee Valley Authority determines annual operating plans are not necessary, then instead require one submission at the onset of the agreement and only require a new submission to reflect relevant changes, as needed. If this requirement is removed, add a “no change” confirmation to the standard review items to be completed during Natural Resources representatives’ compliance inspections.

We recommend the Senior Vice President, Generation Projects and Fleet Services, implement a process to determine the appropriate level of Original Equipment Manufacturer oversight needed for future projects.

Reiterate policy and coordinate with Vice President, Engineering Systems to identify opportunities for automated controls to verify that employees are clocking into the correct operation number and supervisors are regularly monitoring timekeeping reports.

Establish a process to assess and analyze Management Operating Data system review results.

Update Handbook M-32, Management Operating Data System (MODS) policy and coordinate with Vice President, Engineering Systems, to update the MODS Coordinator Guidebook to identify current roles and responsibilities and clarify the frequency of Management Operation Data system reviews to ensure consistency.

OIG recommends that the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration develop and implement criteria for incorporating specific, measurable objectives and performance indicators into the award terms and conditions for voluntary contributions to enable measurement of the success of voluntary contributions awarded to public international organizations.

OIG recommends that the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration develop and incorporate output and outcome performance indicators into its monitoring plan to assess progress against the established objectives of its voluntary contributions awarded to public international organizations for the humanitarian assistance response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine as appropriate following implementation of Recommendation 1.