Open Recommendations

The Bureau of Fiscal Operations and the Office of Programs should work together to develop and document written policies and procedures for the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act process for debts identified for recovery from Railroad Retirement Act benefit payments, across all applicable organizational units involved in the process (both the automated and manual processes).

The Bureau of Fiscal Operations and the Office of Programs should work together to create and document flowcharts for the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act process for debts identified for recovery from Railroad Retirement Act benefit payments, across all applicable organizational units involved in both the automated and manual processes.

The Bureau of Fiscal Operations and the Office of Programs should work together to determine if there are additional missing or ineffective controls in the automated and manual processes (for the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act debts identified for recovery from Railroad Retirement Act benefit payments) which would decrease the likelihood of recoveries, and develop and implement the necessary internal controls.

The Bureau of Fiscal Operations and the Office of Programs should work together to research the unrecovered debts identified in this audit and take action to: recover them; properly record the recoveries in the Financial Management Integrated System and other applicable agency systems; and/or record the reasons why they were not recovered, and if there are legitimate reasons why they should no longer be recovered.

The Bureau of Fiscal Operations and the Office of Programs should work together to identify the organizational unit with debtor notification responsibility and take the necessary actions to ensure that the debt notification process addressed in this audit is properly documented and maintained in agency records.

The Bureau of Fiscal Operations and the Office of Programs should work together to ensure that Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act debtors for the debt process addressed in this audit are properly notified of the debt, as required.

The Bureau of Fiscal Operations should implement a process to periodically monitor the status of each Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act debt transaction (adjustment type code 41) and prepare a report that contains the status of each Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act debt recoverable from Railroad Retirement Act benefits that is also to be provided to the Office of Programs to aid in their monitoring efforts of these Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act debts.

The Office of Programs should develop and implement a process to periodically monitor the new report that the Bureau of Fiscal Operations will provide, (that will identify adjustment type code 41 Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act debts) to determine if any of the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act debts need further action to recover them from the annuitants’ Railroad Retirement Act benefits.

We recommend that the Food and Drug Administration identify and implement additional ways to improve the timeliness of its foreign for-cause drug inspection process

We recommend that the Food and Drug Administration consider streamlining the process for writing and reviewing EIRs to minimize potential delays due to unexpected events.

We recommend that the Food and Drug Administration conduct an analysis of the workloads of individuals responsible for: (1) determining final classification, (2) issuing warning letters, and (3) holding regulatory meetings, and address any potential issues identified by this analysis.

We recommend that the Food and Drug Administration implement policies and procedures to ensure that lead investigators assigned to inspections have completed the Level 1 Investigator Certification Process.

We recommend that the Food and Drug Administration ensure that supervisors review investigators' qualifications and document that they meet applicable training requirements when the investigator training records do not exist.

We recommend that the Food and Drug Administration review the training records of the lead investigators that were outside the scope of the audit to verify that documentation supports either: o that the investigators completed the required training courses, Level 1 Performance Audit, and Level 1 Investigator Certification, or o that investigators are recommended as "experienced investigators" by supervisors and have completed training courses equivalent to the current required training courses.

We recommend that Retirement Services develop and implement additional cost-effective corrective actions, aimed at the root causes of improper payments, to further reduce the improper payments rate.

We recommend the Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for Resilience implement management procedures to ensure HMGP property acquisition project applications and project information are complete and accurate when submitted, reviewed, closed, and maintained by FEMA.

The OIG recommends the Under Secretary for Benefits, in conjunction with the Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology, establish a mechanism to gain assurance that proper Office of Information Technology project management processes and protocols are followed when establishing information technology systems and applications.

Given the sensitivity of our review, this recommendation is restricted.

Rec. 2.a: The DoD OIG recommended that the Army's Deputy Chief of Staff, G-4 (Logistics); Navy's Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Fleet Readiness and Logistics; and Chief of the Logistics Readiness Division, Headquarters Air Force (Logistics, Engineering, and Force Protection) reinforce and periodically communicate to ordering activities DoD and Service-specific reuse policies promoting maximizing reuse of excess property as a supply source. As part of this communication, the Military Services should provide ordering activities details regarding the newly established Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services educational sessions, reuse website information, and instructions on how to search and place orders for…

Rec. 2.b: The DoD OIG recommended that the Army's Deputy Chief of Staff, G-4 (Logistics); Navy's Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Fleet Readiness and Logistics; and Chief of the Logistics Readiness Division, Headquarters Air Force (Logistics, Engineering, and Force Protection) establish a process to ensure that activity ordering personnel comply with DoD and Service-specific policy for completing reuse training, including ensuring that all staff complete the training, and newly?hired ordering personnel are trained on the reuse of excess property within a few months of starting their duties.

Rec. 2.c: The DoD OIG recommended that the Army's Deputy Chief of Staff, G-4 (Logistics); Navy's Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Fleet Readiness and Logistics; and Chief of the Logistics Readiness Division, Headquarters Air Force (Logistics, Engineering, and Force Protection) reinforce DoD and Service-specific policy and guidance to assist Military Service activities on proper assignment of condition codes when turning property in to Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services.

Rec. 2.d: The DoD OIG recommended that the Army's Deputy Chief of Staff, G-4 (Logistics); Navy's Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Fleet Readiness and Logistics; and Chief of the Logistics Readiness Division, Headquarters Air Force (Logistics, Engineering, and Force Protection) collaborate with Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services to identify and implement training, educational sessions, or another solution to address the lack of trust in the accuracy of the condition codes for items the Military Services turn in to Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services.

Rec. 2.e: The DoD OIG recommended that the Army's Deputy Chief of Staff, G-4 (Logistics); Navy's Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Fleet Readiness and Logistics; and Chief of the Logistics Readiness Division, Headquarters Air Force (Logistics, Engineering, and Force Protection) establish an internal control mechanism such as monitoring or periodic assessments to ensure assignment of accurate condition codes on turn-in documentation to Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services.

Rec. 2.f: The DoD OIG recommended that the Army's Deputy Chief of Staff, G-4 (Logistics); Navy's Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Fleet Readiness and Logistics; and Chief of the Logistics Readiness Division, Headquarters Air Force (Logistics, Engineering, and Force Protection) review the Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services report on inaccurate condition codes, take action to identify why the inaccurate condition codes occurred, and mitigate future inaccurate condition code assignments.

We recommend that the Deputy Secretary of Commerce ensure that the Chief Information Officer implement multi-factor authentication for access to all of the Department's NSS according to Committee on National Security Systems requirements.