Open Recommendations

We recommend that the Chief Financial Officer for the Department, in conjunction with the acting Chief Financial Officer forFSA, develop sampling and estimation plans for the Pell and Direct Loan programs that will produce reliable estimates.Specifically, the plan should (a) produce appropriate and accurate confidence intervals around a statistically valid pointestimate; (b) consistent with 31 U.S.C. section 3352(c)(1)(A), produce an estimate that is otherwise appropriate using amethodology approved by the Director of OMB; or (c) consistent with OMB Circular A-123 Appendix C, Part II, B(2), include adetailed explanation as to why it is not possible to produce a statistically-valid point…

The Office of the Chief Management Officer and Security Services Office assign the staffing and resources necessary to conduct pending reinvestigations.

The Security Services Office develops and implements adequate internal policies and standard operating procedures.

The Security Services Office develops and implements a required training framework for its Security Specialists and program personnel.

The Security Services Office implements an internal database to house investigation and clearance documentation.

Develop and implement a plan, including communication strategy and available staff, for the timely deployment and installation of mail theft initiatives nationwide.

Require the New York 2 District Manager to establish procedures to complete annual safety inspections, remediate deficiencies, and document the results for blue collection and green relay boxes.

Develop a process to define roles, responsibilities, and frequency for inspecting green relay boxes, and to record and track the location and condition of green relay boxes.

Review and appropriately resolve hold codes related to the 5,044 7(a) loans to determine impact on 7(a) eligibility and seek remedy or repayment of all 7(a) loans deemed ineligible.

Implement written procedures to test recipients' CARES Act payments using methodologies to sufficiently validate that costs are supported and eligible. These procedures should include guidance for determining the extent of transaction level testing needed to sufficiently validate recipient's payment.

Implement written procedures to test recipients' financial system controls to prevent duplicate payments from Federal, State, and local sources.

Implement a written policy requiring that FTA officials develop and implement enhanced oversight processes to specifically mitigate identified risks associated with any funding appropriation, when applicable.

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 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 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.

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.