Open Recommendations

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

Second Consecutive Year of Non-Compliance:a. FSA should propose to the director of OMB in its next budget submission additional program integrity proposals for ECP that would help the program come into compliance. This process will unfold as part of the annual development of the President’s budget. In the budget submission, the agency should describe how each proposal would help the program come into compliance.b. If the director of OMB determines that additional funding would help the program become compliant, the agency should obligate an amount of additional funding determined by the director of OMB to intensify compliance efforts. When providing…

Create a detailed plan for how each TXS capability will be implemented and develop benchmarks, performance measures, and milestones.

Establish a process to track and regularly report on the performance results of taxpayer experience improvements described in the TXS.

The U.S. Agency for Global Media, in coordination with Voice of America, should systematically track and review the metrics on all stages in Voice of America’s federal hiring processes to gather actionable analytics for possible adjustments to these processes.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty should systematically track and review the metrics on all stages in its hiring processes to gather actionable analytics for possible adjustments to these processes.

Voice of America should implement practices to ensure adherence to editorial review standards by the Russian Language Service prior to content dissemination.

The U.S. Agency for Global Media should improve and disseminate procedural guidance for grantee organizations covering distribution and receipt of Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act funding.

We recommend that the Health Resources and Services Administration require the 10 health centers identified in our report as having charged unallowable COVID-19 supplemental grant funding costs to refund $787,152 (less any amounts health centers voluntarily refunded as a result of our audit) to the Federal Government.

We recommend that the Health Resources and Services Administration work with the 13 health centers identified in our report that may not have properly allocated COVID-19 supplemental grant funding costs to determine what portion of the $15,056,835 is allocable to their COVID-19 supplemental grant funding and require the health centers to refund the improperly allocated funds to the Federal Government.

We recommend that the Health Resources and Services Administration assist the 17 health centers identified in our report as having charged unallowable costs or potentially improperly allocated costs to implement HRSA's guidance for developing and maintaining financial management systems and internal controls that ensure that only allowable, allocable, and documented costs are charged to their HRSA supplemental grant funding.

We recommend that the Director for HUD's Office of Disaster Recovery work with its grantee to resolve or correct program income balances for the three grants that had program income balances outstanding.

We recommend that the Director for HUD's Office of Disaster Recovery develop and implement controls to ensure that program income balance discrepancies are identified and corrected.

We recommend that the Director for HUD's Office of Disaster Recovery develop and implement controls to ensure that untimely FFRs are identified and corrected.

We recommend that the Director for HUD's Office of Disaster Recovery implement quality control procedures to ensure that HUD staff completes the action plan and QPR checklists.

Develop a process to formally document and monitor implementation of current and future plans to resolve post office suspensions as reported in the Annual Compliance Reports.

We recommend that the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services develop and implement edits in its claim payment system so that the State agency pays only telehealth claims whose HCPCS codes denote the associated services as eligible to be performed via telehealth.

Update its annual guidance to sites to include more specific direction on payment reporting sites’ collection of useful and consistent data to identify detailed root causes of reported improper payments and on developing plans to mitigate them in the future.

Expand the use of data analytics at both Department Headquarters and payment reporting sites to better identify potential improper payments and the root causes for improper payments, especially as expenditures will increase due to IIJA, IRA, and the CHIPS Act.

Expand the use of data analytics at both Department Headquarters and payment reporting sites to better identify potential improper payments and the root causes for improper payments, especially as expenditures will increase due to IIJA, IRA, and the CHIPS Act.

We recommend that the FWS address the questioned costs related to unfunded retirement and retiree health totaling $386,763 (Federal share) in consultation with appropriate U.S. Department of the Interior offices to determine if the costs are allowable pursuant to Federal regulations and award terms and conditions.

We recommend that the Massachusetts Department of Health and Human Services remediate the three security control findings OIG identified.

We recommend that the Massachusetts Department of Health and Human Services assess the effectiveness of all required NIST SP 800-53 controls according to theorganization's defined frequency.

We recommend that the Massachusetts Department of Health and Human Services assess and adjust if necessary, vulnerability management procedures to ensure anypertinent publicly disclosed computer security vulnerabilities are assessed for risk and remediated promptly, if necessary.

The U.S. Mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in coordination with the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs and the Foreign Service Institute, should develop and implement a training program on how NATO works and how to negotiate in NATO committees.