Open Recommendations

We recommended that the Office of Programs/Disability Benefits Division use the fraud risks identified to establish a scoring or other process for determining those applications where a higher risk of fraud or abuse occurring exists.

We recommended that the Office of Programs/Disability Benefits Division establish additional supervisory review and documentation protocols to ensure that decisions for higher risk applications are sufficiently reviewed and consistently documented to reflect the basis for the decision.

We recommended that the Office of Programs establish procedures specifying how differences in medical assessments between medical experts, including the disability claims examiner, should be documented and reviewed to ensure the basis for the final decision is clearly evident in the disability case file.

We recommended that the Office of Programs gather details about areas where a lack of objective findings to support medical assessments are observed in medical exam reports provided by contracted medical experts, and establish a process with the contracted medical experts for discussing and improving the consistency and quality of future medical exam reports.

USAID/Kenya and East Africa determine the allowability of $1,089,453 in ineligible questioned costs on page 17 of the audit report and recover any amount that is unallowable.

We recommend NIH enhance its FCOI compliance program to review grantee websites and ensure that they have FCOI policies.

We recommend NIH enhance the FCOI program to ensure that institutions resolve identified deficiencies.

We recommend that the Next Door Foundation, Inc. refund $142,104 in unallowable indirect costs and work with its HHS funding agencies to ensure proper claiming of indirect costs,

Complete the heating, ventilation, and cooling equipment upgrade subproject at Metropolitan Detention Center Brooklyn and ensure that the equipment is capable of maintaining temperatures at BOP targets. Further, ensure that upgraded hardware and Building Management System software allow facilities staff to accurately monitor building temperatures and heating, ventilation, and cooling equipment performance.

Take further action to diagnose the sources of temperature regulation issues and remedy them, if the upgraded Metropolitan Detention Center Brooklyn heating, ventilation, and cooling system cannot maintain building temperatures at BOP targets.

Ensure that, in the absence of Building Management System software, institutions use a consistent and sound method to measure and document temperatures and record all maintenance performed on heating, ventilation, and cooling equipment.

Require institutions to maintain a list of inmates who use continuous positive airway pressure machines, or other electronic medical devices, in their cells so that institution staff can make every effort to accommodate those inmates in the event of a power outage.

M/OAA/CAS/CAM determine the allowability of $2,516,933 in ineligible questioned costs on page 19 of the audit report and recover any amount that is unallowable.

Update and revise the 2010 Revised State Implementation Guidance for the Public Notification Rule to include:a. Public notice delivery methods that are consistent with regulations.b. Information on modern methods for delivery of public notice.

Update and revise the 2010 Public Notification Handbooks to include:a. Public notice delivery methods that are consistent with regulations.b. Information on modern methods for delivery of public notice.c. Public notice requirements for the latest drinking water regulations.d. Procedures for public water systems to achieve compliance after violating a public notice regulation.e. Up-to-date references to compliance assistance tools.f. Additional resources for providing public notice in languages other than English.

Establish a process to identify overpayments that exist on suspended or terminated Social Security numbers that the Re entitled Beneficiaries process does not detect, so the Agency can transfer and recover them via benefit withholding.

For the fifth NAS recommendation, provide (a) cost estimates that account forstaffing, enforcement, and data collection; and (b) benchmarks for completion.

For the fourth and sixth NAS recommendations, provide (a)cost estimates that account for staffing, enforcement, and data collection; (b)benchmarks for completion; and (c) potential programmatic reforms, revisions toregulations, or proposals for legislation.

Establish timeliness standards for resolving overpayments in a due process status.

Regularly monitor the debt management database, and build controls into the modernized debt system, to ensure employees take appropriate action for overpayments in a due process status.

We recommend the Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and Health provide training to district management on how provide effective oversight over the pre-assessment conference program. The training should focus on reviewing the conference file and the system data for completeness and accuracy. Note: This recommendation applies to issues 1 (conference files) and 3 (system data).

We recommend the Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and Health provide training to Conference Litigation Representatives and district management on how to write specific supporting reasons for conference decisions in conference files and violation forms.

We recommend the Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and Health develop MSHA Standardized Information System reports showing a summary of conference decisions that Conference Litigation Representatives can use as their monthly report and changes made to violation form attributes through conferencing decisions that MSHA can use to identify high-risk attributes and research the root causes for trends.