Open Recommendations

We recommend that the FWS require the Department to resolve the Federal share of questioned costs related to the Federal reimbursement for the unsupported in-kind match totaling $104,351.

We recommend that the FWS require the Department to resolve the Federal share of questioned costs related to unallowable central service costs totaling $61,878.

We recommend that the FWS require the Department to apply the questioned rate of 1.5 percent for SFY 2020 and 1.63 percent for SFY 2021 to other grants not listed in our report that had incurred costs claimed during those State fiscal years (grants for which a final SF-425 had not been submitted as of the period of audit) and resolve the questioned costs resulting from the application of the questioned rate.

We recommend that the FWS require the Department to implement internal controls to verify that costs included in the indirect cost base are assigned to the period in which the costs are incurred.

We recommend that the FWS require the Department to develop and implement a process that ensures expenditures claimed on grants are documented in the State financial system at a sufficient level that allows them to be easily traced to a specific grant without requiring manual adjustments.

We recommend that the FWS require the Department to develop and implement controls in the payroll system and accounting system to prevent project ID miscoding.

We recommend that the FWS require the Department to develop and implement monitoring procedures so only eligible costs are charged to grants.

We recommend that the FWS require the Department to implement and train officials involved in subaward management on oversight techniques applicable to Federal requirements and the Department's newly established policies and procedures on subawards.

We recommend that the FWS require the Department to review all open contracts to determine if any contracts should have been subawards. If so, amend the agreements, include all required elements, conduct risk assessments, develop monitoring plans, and report on USAspending.gov.

We recommend that the FWS require the Department to train subrecipients on their responsibilities under Federal awards.

We recommend that the FWS require the Department to develop policies and procedures to better identify and evaluate potential sources of program income on grants.

We recommend that the FWS require the Department to train all personnel responsible for conducting physical inventories on the frequencies required by the State regulations (e.g., annual, biennial, etc.).

The executive director of VA’s Office of Construction and Facilities Management should confirm seismic evaluations are done for all critical and essential buildings in high and very high seismic zones immediately to ensure they meet life, safety, and occupancy performance standards.

The director of the Office of Asset Enterprise Management to publish criteria for payments for energy savings performance contracts to ensure compliance with federal law and Department of Energy Federal Energy Management Program guidance.

The director of contracting for the Program Contracting Activity Central to develop procedures to ensure contracting officer’s representatives or other contracting officer designees have independently witnessed and validated the contractor’s energy baseline and savings estimates prior to negotiating energy savings performance contracts’ guaranteed savings amounts.

The director of contracting for the Program Contracting Activity Central to develop oversight procedures to ensure documentation that demonstrates the contractor’s energy baseline and energy savings estimates were witnessed and validated is maintained in the official contracting records.

We recommend that the National Institutes of Health develop policies and procedures to issue timely management decision letters for foreign grant recipient audit reports, with audit findings, within 6 months of the date HHS accepts the audit report package.

We recommend that the National Institutes of Health follow up with the foreign grant recipients to confirm the 81 outstanding audits were completed, obtain the outstanding audit reports, and issue management decision letters where appropriate.

We recommend that the National Institutes of Health issue management decision letters for the two audit reports that indicated a need for increased monitoring.

We recommend that the National Institutes of Health work with HHS ARD officials to identify foreign grant recipients required to submit annual audit reports and address audit report submission delinquencies by NIH foreign grant recipients.

NIH should ensure that the 6-month requirement for issuing MDLs for all single audits is met.

NIH should ensure that relevant single audit data are available and used by NIH staff to inform decisions about new and ongoing awards.

NIH should use risk to prioritize the issuance of MDLs.

NIH should track the effectiveness of single audit processes and single audits' use.

Establish a process to regularly validate the accuracy, completeness, and consistency of the data it uses to assess the timeliness of the hiring process.