Open Recommendations

We recommend that USAID/Kenya and East Africa determine the allowability of $74,752 in ineligible questioned costs on pages 34 to 37 of the audit report and recover any amount that is unallowable.

The Veterans Health Administration chief operating officer establishes a written policy or procedure to reasonably ensure that potential conflicts of interest or appearance of partiality concerns involving VHA employees are identified and remediated before contractor presentations to Veterans Integrated Service Network or facility leaders.

The Veterans Integrated Service Network 8 director confirms that VA has initiated the process to seek recoupment of the critical skill incentive paid by VA to Ms. Skala that was attributable to a service period that she did not complete due to her retirement.

The assistant secretary for Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness directs a review to determine whether any VHA employee ranked GS‑15 or above awarded a critical skill incentive has left VA before completing their required service obligation, and, if so, whether VA has established a debt and initiated recoupment in the amount of the CSI attributable to the uncompleted period, and takes further corrective actions as warranted.

Improve vulnerability management processes to ensure all vulnerabilities are identified and plans of action and milestones are created for vulnerabilities that cannot be mitigated by VA deadlines.

Implement a more effective baseline configuration process to ensure network devices are running authorized software that is configured to approved baselines and free of vulnerabilities.

Verify that Yozmot Atid corrects the two instances of material internal control deficiencies detailed on pages 22-24 of the audit report

Verify that Yozmot Atid corrects the four instances of material noncompliance detailed on pages 30-37 of the audit report

Determine the allowability of $867,725 in questioned costs ($852,824 ineligible and $ 14,901 unsupported) on page 15 of the audit report and recover any amount that is unallowable.

Verify that Fondation Serovie corrects the one material weaknesses in internal control detailed on page 24 of the audit report.

Verify that Fondation Serovie corrects the two instances of material noncompliance detailed on page 29 of the audit report.

USAID/Pakistan determine the allowability of $407,437 in questioned costs ($393,177 ineligible and $14,260 unsupported) detailed on pages 15 to 16 of the audit report and recover any amount that is unallowable.

Work with ARC and the SBA to resolve the reporting discrepancy of $10,000 for non-ARC matching costs.

The OIG recommends that the Executive Director for Operations establish a process to verify that all telework agreements are submitted and reviewed to maintain oversight and data integrity.

The OIG recommends that the Executive Director for Operations conduct periodic reconciliations between the telework agreements and the NRC’s payroll system to ensure the accuracy and completeness of employees’ telework statuses.

The OIG recommends that the Executive Director for Operations implement and document validation procedures to ensure submitted telework agreements are complete and records are maintained in compliance with NRC procedures.

The OIG recommends that the Executive Director for Operations require all official duty station changes resulting from telework to be supported by an approved agreement and ensure all relevant documentation is retained within the telework records.

The OIG recommends that the Executive Director for Operations implement a process to track the completion of corrective actions for discrepancies and ensure any unresolved issues are properly addressed.

The OIG recommends that the Executive Director for Operations implement a tracking system to monitor telework agreements nearing expiration, ensuring that necessary updates, such as changes to official duty stations, are made promptly and in accordance with established procedures.

The OIG recommends that the Executive Director for Operations develop procedures to mitigate the risk of inaccurate locality pay resulting from employees not reporting to their official duty station as required by the terms of their telework agreements.

Incorporate all business-essential processes and related interfaces, as defined by product owners, during validation sessions, user acceptance testing, or equivalent procedures to accurately present system capability.

Enhance the test plan to incorporate a more robust, risk-based testing process that incorporates user-testing requirements for functional and nonfunctional business-essential processes related to interfaces.

Develop a process to confirm with affected administrative offices whether they are aware of needed changes to test environments and that they have sufficiently executed them before interface test events.

Develop a method to evaluate whether test deficiencies necessitate changes to the deployment schedule to ensure deficiencies are properly addressed before wave go-live and implement these changes.

The Overton Brooks VA Medical Center Director reviews and monitors compliance with Veterans Health Administration health professions trainee onboarding requirements, and takes action as indicated.