Open Recommendations

Closely monitor combined sewer overflow tank construction progress at the Gowanus Canal Superfund site and take immediate action, including enforcement actions if appropriate, if New York City misses any future tank project milestones from the 2021 administrative order.

Post on the EPA's public website the milestones from the 2021 administrative order regarding the Gowanus Canal Superfund site, New York City's progress towards completing these milestones, and any actions taken to ensure the city stays on schedule.

We recommend that the Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education require MDE to update its policiesand procedures to reflect that all changes to Mississippi’s approved State plan should be submitted to the Departmentand approved by the Department before implementing changes to the accountability system.

We recommend that the Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education require MDE to provide CSI to thefour public schools that should have been identified for CSI in the fall of 2022.

We recommend that the Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education require MDE to submit anamendment explaining that it will apply double weighting to the numerator for students who took and passed certainaccelerated courses and describing how it will calculate the college and career readiness indicator score if a studenttakes both the assessment designed to measure skills that are important for success in postsecondary education andthe assessment designed to measure foundational skills required for success in the workplace.

We recommend that the Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education require MDE to provide records tothe Department showing that it corrected the coding in the MSIS to ensure that the system uses unadjusted compositescores to identify nontraditional public high schools for CSI.

We recommend that the Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education require MDE to provide records tothe Department showing that it ensured that all Title I, Part A-funded schools with 3 years of accountability data areincluded on the list that MDE uses for identifying public schools that are eligible for CSI.

As expeditiously as possible, Treasury's Office of the Assistant General Counsel for General Law, Ethics and Regulation (GLER) should develop and implement standard operating procedures, including monitoring, to ensure ethics officials fully utilize the Ethics Tracker database to track requests, substantive advice and counsel provided, as well as documentation of final resolution of issues.

As expeditiously as possible, Treasury's Office of the Assistant General Counsel for General Law, Ethics and Regulation (GLER) should consider completing a cost-benefit analysis to determine if a fully integrated and automated tracking system would benefit GLER with its ethics responsibilities.

Ensure that the OHC conducts a comprehensive annual review of the control activities for administering the agency’s vision and dental programs to ensure that they are operating effectively.

Develop and periodically provide tailored training for employees who administer the agency’s vision and dental programs.

Coordinate with the Ohio AG to ensure that the Ohio AG properly executes financial and programmatic monitoring of its subrecipients in compliance with Ohio AG policies and forms, to include that supporting documentation of each monitoring activity is collected, reviewed, and maintained.

Ensure the Ohio AG's subaward packages include all current, required grant information.

Require the Ohio AG to bring into alignment its subrecipient risk assessment policy and the tool designed to assess subrecipient risk.

Ensure the Ohio AG revises its financial policies and procedures to help ensure adequate administration of federal award funds and that all relevant personnel are aware of these policies. In particular, the financial policies and procedures should cover, at a minimum: (1) completing appropriate Subgrant Award Report (SAR) submissions; (2) drawdown-related reconciliation procedures, which ensure that funds are spent or returned to DOJ within 10 days of being drawn down; and (3) matching cost reporting on Federal Financial Reports (FFR) to help ensure the information reported is reconciled to supporting data, reviewed by appropriate personnel, and that data supporting the…

Ensure the Ohio AG develops a mechanism to complete subrecipient monitoring timely and in accordance with its policy.

Require the Ohio AG to develop a plan to conduct a site visit and/or desk review of those subrecipients that did not receive a review in the past 24 months, as required, with priority given to those subrecipients that did not receive a site visit and/or desk review within our audit scope.

Remedy the $68,674 in unsupported subrecipient personnel expenditures.

We recommend that USAID's Office of Acquisition and Assistance, Cost, Audit and Support Division verify that Accin Contra el Hambre corrects the instances of material noncompliance, detailed on pages III-2 and III-3 of the report.

Evaluate and consider enhanced solutions to store backup data, as described inthe report, and update the Storage Systems Backup Data Protection StandardOperating Procedures, as appropriate.

Conduct an analysis to identify viable alternatives for testing restoration of ActiveDirectory from backups, or have senior management formally accept the risk ofnot testing these backups.

We recommend that the Office of Acquisition and Assistance take the following actions: Review the approval process of administrative guidance to implementers and make appropriate changes to streamline it for use in crisis scenarios, for example, by clarifying the role of each reviewer.

We recommend that the Bureau for Asia, in coordination for the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, take the following actions: Document and disseminate to staff with enterprise risk management (ERM) equities, the bureau's ERM governance structure, the roles and responsibilities of each member within the structure, and the bureau's review and assessment process for its assessable units.

The Office of Health Services and the Country Director either identify a local backup medical provider or renew the post’s agreement with the State Department.

The Office of Health Services details what the Medical Action Plan review process at the post level should include.