Open Recommendations

Develop an automated tool for notifying field staff in real-time when units open late or close early and sending justification requests to local staff.

Develop system capabilities for recording, analyzing, reporting, and retaining data on units that open late or close early.

Develop procedures to ensure justification responses are properly completed and reviewed in a timely manner and that managers are held accountable when units open late or close early.

Augment suspension-related policies to include strategies for periodically and regularly communicating suspension statuses to impacted customers.

Establish accountability mechanisms, such as timeliness targets, for resolving suspensions in a timely manner and for monitoring performance.

Develop mechanisms to require Postmasters to properly update the status of suspended units to be displayed publicly on USPS.com.

Coordinate with the Midwest Division Director, Processing, to develop and implement a plan to verify supervisors monitor and enforce scanning to improve compliance with the load and unload scanning goals at the Omaha Processing and Distribution Center.

Distribute the 658 PII losses in Sampling Frame 1 to the appropriate component(s) for review to determine whether any losses are moderate, high, or major and, if so, identify and take the proper actions to mitigate those losses.

To prevent future employee errors related to reporting, assessing, and closing PII losses, evaluate the effectiveness of the processes and controls implemented by the Office of Privacy and Disclosure and implement changes as needed.

Update the Breach Response Plan to clearly explain all actions relevant to OIG referrals, such as when managers should use forms related to lost or stolen equipment.

Take appropriate action for the 80 records we identified.

Identify the factors contributing to employee errors during this process and implement appropriate corrective actions.

FHFA's DBR should assess the extent to which FHLBanks are relying on redacted ROEs when reviewing membership applications or performing ongoing monitoring.

FHFA's DBR should clarify and reinforce DBR’s expectation to the FHLBanks that they should request and receive from federal and state regulators ROEs that are not substantively redacted, and that other relevant supervisory reports should be collected when necessary.

FHFA's DBR should conduct outreach to federal financial regulators to reinforce the need for compliance with 12 U.S.C. § 1442(a)(1), which requires their production of reports, records, and information relating to the condition of any member of any FHLBank upon request by an FHLBank. As part of this outreach, make clear that such materials extend beyond ROEs, and that materials produced in response to an FHLBank requests should be provided without substantive redactions.

FHFA's DBR should assess the extent to which restrictions on access to state-issued ROEs may hinder the FHLBanks in making fully informed decisions when evaluating applications for membership and when making determinations to limit or deny member requests for advances in accordance with applicable FHFA regulations.

FHFA's DBR should, if applicable, continue to pursue outreach with the Conference of State Bank Supervisors and state regulators to assist FHLBanks in accessing state-issued ROEs.

FHFA's DBR should complete its assessment of the extent of weaknesses in the FHLBanks’ enforcement of members’ material adverse change notification requirements, and provide guidance to FHLBanks on best practices, such as issuing periodic reminders of notification requirements, to help ensure members’ compliance with the FHLBanks’ contractual requirements.

Establish a process to periodically update training with the correct information and links to reports, systems, and tools.

Create a plan to provide recurring refresher training regarding managing workloads for all management staff, including field and regional offices.

Update written training materials with standardized steps and/or checklists for management to follow to ensure they are properly managing workloads and using the correct reports, systems, and tools.

Create one consolidated resource, which includes reports, trainings, systems, and tools, for information used to manage workloads.

Update systems and tools to reflect workload and software/application version changes and improve their compatibility with other systems and tools.

We recommend that the Office of the Chief Information Officer query bureaus and offices for all current systems with publicly available interfaces and develop a DOI?wide inventory that maintains IP addressing and service ports, system ownership, and point of contact information.

We recommend that the Office of the Chief Information Officer develop a process whereby all changes to publicly available systems and newly deployed systems are updated in a DOI-wide inventory and included in any security assessments and monitoring.