Open Recommendations

We recommend that the NIST WCF and Departmental WCF develop, document, and implement a policy to require divisions providing services to customers to periodically solicit formal feedback from customer bureaus, document and assess the feedback received, and document the 'going-forward' considerations surrounding the feedback received.

We recommend the FEMA Administrator collaborate with the National Board to develop a more proactive approach to determine, as early in the process as possible, whether Local Boards and State Set-Aside Committees are willing to accept funds, so that funds can be reallocated from jurisdictions unwilling or unable to participate in the Emergency Food and Shelter Program.

We recommend the FEMA Administrator collaborate with the National Board to implement a plan to enforce already established guidance including Local Boards’ deadlines for board plan submission and the disbursement of funds to Local Recipient Organizations within the McKinneyVento Homeless Assistance Act’s 3-month required timeframe.

We recommend the FEMA Administrator update the State Administrative Plan template to incorporate a requirement for grantees to include a description of the steps to prevent improper payments.

We recommend the FEMA Administrator develop and implement a process to monitor whether grantees implement and use the controls attested in FEMA-approved State Administrative Plans.

We recommend the FEMA Administrator work with state workforce agencies to evaluate the Lost Wages Assistance program payments and verify that all recipients who received payment have a self-certification on file, as required; to determine whether the claimant meets eligibility requirements if no self-certification is on file; and, if not, to recover the payment.

We recommend the FEMA Administrator conduct an after-action study of the Lost Wages Assistance program and update FEMA’s Individuals and Households Program based on the lessons learned from the study.

We recommend the Assistant Secretary of Employment and Training: Implement immediate measures to ensure SWAs are required to provide ongoing access to the OIG by amending its current guidance to require disclosures to the OIG for audits and investigations as necessary, mandatory, and without time limitation for the proper oversight of the UI program.

We recommend the Assistant Secretary of Employment and Training: Expedite OIG-related amendments to 20 C.F.R. § 603.6(a) to make ongoing disclosures of UI information to DOL OIG mandatory by expressly adding the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General (including its agents and contractors) to the list of required disclosures that are necessary for the proper oversight of the UI program without distinction as to purpose (e.g., audits versus investigations).

We recommend the Assistant Secretary of Employment and Training: Expedite 603.5(i) to expressly make disclosures of UI information to federal officials for oversight, audits, and investigations of federal programs mandatory.

Collect data on the number of CSP-funded charter schools that remain open for at least 2 years after CSP funding ended and make that information available to the public.

Ensure that CSP grant recipients report in FPRs, APRs, and data collection forms clear, reliable, and timely information on the number of charter schools that they opened or expanded using CSP funds.

Ensure that program officers routinely compare the information reported in FPRs and APRs with the information reported in data collection forms and require CSP grant recipients to timely reconcile any identified discrepancies.

ACF should ensure that ORR's employees and employees of ORR contractors and recipients are informed about Federal whistleblower protections.

We recommend ICE’s Acting Executive Associate Director of Homeland Security Investigations and CBP’s Executive Assistant Commissioner of the Office of Field Operations ensure analysts are following the requirements in the Visa Security Program’s standard operating proceduresand other guidance as they vet visas and document their activities.

We recommend ICE’s Acting Executive Associate Director of Homeland Security Investigations correct the character limit anddata transfer issues in the Visa Security Program Tracking System.

We recommend CBP’s Executive Assistant Commissioner of the Office of Field Operations develop and implement a plan to track, if possible — or estimate, if tracking is not possible — the costs of National Targeting Center activities associated with the Visa Security Program and report those costs to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Identify and reimburse the BHP Trust Fund all improper payments resulting from system defects identified in our report (we estimated improper and potentially improper payments during our audit period to be $69,853,415 ($69,862,030 less $8,615)).

Implement system changes to ensure that BHP enrollees with a pending coverage end-date are transferred from BHP to Medicaid upon the end of their 5-year bar.

If SSA does not implement recommendation 3, then it should retain the IRS non-wage income data in its systems beyond 2 years, so it is available for staff to process cases involving fraud or similar fault.

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services provide States with matched T-MSIS enrollment data that identify Medicaid beneficiaries who were concurrently enrolled in a Medicaid managed care program in two States.

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services assist States with utilizing the data as needed to reduce future capitation payments made on behalf of beneficiaries concurrently enrolled in two States.

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services: direct the MACs to recover the $331,448 from the CAHs for 12,156 claims for which the health care practitioners had not reassigned their billing rights to the CAHs and $83,412 in cost-sharing overcharges to Medicare beneficiaries that are within the 4-year reopening period;

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services direct the MACs to recover the $575,990 from the health care practitioners for 7,857 claims for which health care practitioners had reassigned their billing rights to the CAHs and $197,909 in cost-sharing overcharges to Medicare beneficiaries that are within the 4-year reopening period.

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services coordinate with the MACs to develop and implement claim system edits or alternative means to prevent and detect overpayments for professional service payments.