Open Recommendations

Embassy Baghdad, in coordination with the Bureau of Global Talent Management, should update the mission's local compensation plan, in accordance with Department standards.

Embassy Baghdad should implement a system for oversight of U.S. direct-hire employee compliance with Department mandatory training requirements.

Embassy Baghdad, in coordination with the Bureaus of Overseas Buildings Operations and Information Resource Management, should remediate the telecommunications infrastructure at the Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center, in accordance with Department standards.

Embassy Baghdad, in coordination with the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, should configure mailrooms at the Baghdad Embassy Compound and the Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center in accordance with Department standards.

Embassy Baghdad should comply with mandatory training requirements for Diplomatic Post Office staff.

Embassy Baghdad should upload to the State Messaging and Archive Retrieval Toolset all diplomatic notes it prepares and receives in accordance with Department standards.

Embassy Baghdad should manage mission records in accordance with Department standards.

Embassy Baghdad, in coordination with the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, should comply with Department standards for server room safety controls.

The assistant secretary for information and technology and chief information officer to develop and implement a strategy with milestones for identifying all VA websites, confirm their inclusion in VA’s Web Registry as the current system designated by policy, and certify the accuracy of entries annually or as changes occur.

The assistant secretary for information and technology and chief information officer to establish a mechanism for web communication offices across VA to enforce the implementation of VA Handbook 6102 related to Section 508 compliance.

The assistant secretary for information and technology and chief information officer to coordinate with VA under secretaries and other assistant secretaries to ensure system owners are educated on VA Directive 6221 and its accompanying handbook requirements to request accessibility audits.

The assistant secretary for information and technology and chief information officer to institute a mechanism to ensure information technology system accessibility designations are accurate in the VA Systems Inventory.

The assistant secretary for information and technology and chief information officer to update, recertify, and republish VA Directives 6221 (accessible information and communications technology) and 6404 (systems inventory).

Complete analysis on compliance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles and prepare a position paper addressing accounting theory and practice for the accounting for the change in obligation recognition implemented in September 2023.

Sensitive But Unclassified.

Sensitive But Unclassified.

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED

We recommend that the Indian Health Service develop policies and procedures to communicate to Tribes that HHS employees assigned to Tribal health programs met the background investigation requirements of the ICPFVPA and inform Tribes that Federal background investigation criminal history results may not cover more stringent character standards that Tribes may adopt as allowed by the ICPFVPA.

We recommend that the Indian Health Service provide Tribes with documentation that confirms that current HHS employees assigned to Tribal health programs met all background investigation requirements of the ICPFVPA.

We recommend that the Indian Health Service develop and offer a nationwide training seminar to Tribes on background investigation requirements of the ICPFVPA.

We recommend that the Indian Health Service enhance Single Audit Compliance Supplement, part 4: "Agency Program Requirements," for Tribes receiving ISDEAA funds from IHS by: establishing special tests and audit procedures in the annual Single Audit Compliance Supplement for all its ISDEAA programs to ensure that the ICPFVPA's requirements are tested during a review of a Tribal health program as part of the single audit, and reviewing the results of those special tests and audit procedures in the annual single audits for Tribal health programs to help assess whether Tribes are complying with ICPFVPA requirements to conduct background investigations and…

We recommend that the Cherokee Nation develop and implement policies and procedures to ensure that: all individuals, including contractors and volunteers, in contact with Indian children are fingerprinted prior to starting employment, illegible fingerprints are retaken and resubmitted to FBI until a background investigation is completed in accordance with the requirements of the ICPFVPA, background investigations of contractors, including HHS employees, are reviewed or performed as required by the ICPFVPA and Tribal policies, and criminal history results are assessed to verify that applicants meet the required minimum character standards.

We recommend that the Cherokee Nation request and review agency contractor background investigations that comply with the ICPFVPA, including documentation that confirms HHS employees met all background investigation requirements of the ICPFVPA, or perform background investigations on these individuals that comply with the ICPFVPA.

We recommend that the Cherokee Nation identify employees and volunteers outside our sample who lack evidence that a background investigation was performed, as required by the ICPFVPA, and who currently have contact with Indian children and perform the required background investigation and determine whether these individuals meet the required minimum character standards.

We recommend that the Cherokee Nation perform background investigations, as required by the ICPFVPA, on the employees and volunteers we identified as not having complete background investigations who currently have contact with Indian children and determine whether these individuals meet the required minimum character standards.