Open Recommendations

(U) Rec. B.3.b: The DoD OIG recommended that the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)/Chief Financial Officer, DoD, develop and implement performance measures to monitor the Financial Improvement and Audit Remediation contracts for overall effectiveness, including verifying the appropriateness of the tasks and funds spent.

Establish formal policies and procedures addressing financial reporting considerations in WAPA's stand-alone AFR

Implement modifications to BOE to reduce manual intervention in account mapping to the financial statements.

Implement checklists and analytics at the disaggregated financial statement caption level, and the related footnotes, to ensure internal consistency and proper mapping of the trial balance to the financial statements.

Implement formal review and approval controls over the AFR.

Work with WAPA’s Asset Management office to establish a formal, consistent method for measuring, ranking and prioritization, and scheduling of maintenance and repairs WAPA-wide to satisfy the requirements of SFFAS No. 42 and relating required supplementary information disclosures.

Establish policies and procedures to require appropriate segregation of duties relating to all manual journal entries, including those initiated and recorded by WAPA’s budget offices.

We recommend that CPB management require KMOJ-FM to identify the corrective actions and controls it will implement to ensure future compliance with Act and CPB requirements for open financial records.

The Bureau of Diplomatic Security should modify the waivers and exceptions tracker to provide more granular data to assess compliance with established process timelines and to identify and resolve bottlenecks in the waivers and exceptions processes.

The Bureau of Diplomatic Security, in coordination with the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, should implement internal controls to verify whether all aspects of each mitigation plan are fully implemented, as required by the approved waivers and exceptions packages.

The Bureau of Diplomatic Security should update and implement its guidance related to facilities that do not meet Overseas Security Policy Board standards to clearly delineate when exceptions to physical security standards are required and when they are not and ensure that the guidance is consistent with Overseas Security Policy Board standards.

Validate periodically that a current, accurate, and complete set of internal rules are reflected on the Commission's internal tracking site.

Establish a monitoring process to ensure rule owners are held accountable for maintaining current and accurate internal rules.

Formally issue a System of Internal Rules Handbook that contains procedural details on the internal rules process.

Work with OCIO to implement automated workflow, tracking, and notification features into the internal rules processes to support task management, progress tracking, and greater Commission visibility to the status of internal rules.

Track and monitor the total time it takes for Directives to complete each step of the rule development and issuance process. Establish key performance indicators, including interim milestones for the directive development and issuance process.

Track and monitor the total time it takes for Handbooks to complete each step of the rule development and issuance process. Establish key performance indicators, including interim milestones for the directive development and issuance process.

Track and monitor the total time it takes for Desk Procedures to complete each step of the rule development and issuance process. Establish key performance indicators, including interim milestones for the directive development and issuance process.

Enhance the internal rules tracking site's search functionality by creating an index of topics and a list of frequently used rules to allow Commission staff to search for and locate internal rules more easily by keyword, topics, etc.

We recommend that the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) review the Government Accountability Office’s Framework for Assessing the Acquisition Function at Federal Agencies and make necessary adjustments to AOC’s current hierarchical reporting structure to provide sufficient independence and support for Contracting Officers.

We recommend that the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) review the contracting manual to determine whether the language restricting access to Independent Government Estimate (IGE) information solely to AOC personnel who require knowledge of the estimate is appropriate. If the AOC determines the language is appropriate as written, it should enforce this requirement. If the AOC determines that it is appropriate to use non-AOC personnel in the IGE process, it should update its contracting manual to reflect that decision and implement appropriate safeguards to ensure the process remains both independent and confidential.

We recommend that the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) update the requirements prescribed in the contracting manual for serving as a Contracting Officer and/or include a reference to AOC Order 30-1.

We recommend that the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) implement compliance monitoring and enforcement standards for the current policies and procedures requiring Contracting Officer’s Representatives to document their roles and responsibilities.

We recommend that the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) develop and implement guidance that directs the format and manner that Contracting Officer’s Representatives (CORs) maintain documentation. This guidance should require that COR files be maintained in a readily accessible and uniform manner.

We recommend that the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) develop and implement guidance that requires Contracting Officers to document the procedures they undertook to complete their audit of Contracting Officer’s Representative files, explain how any deficiencies were resolved, and report the results to their management.