Open Recommendations

5. We recommend that the Director of the Census Bureau ensure that integrated project teams (IPTS) responsible for OAs provide the required report elements and document when required report elements are not available or transparency is not permissible.

6. We recommend that the Director of the Census Bureau develop guidelines for the querying and reporting of cost data that permit comparisons between planned and actual costs.

7. We recommend that the Director of the Census Bureau extend the Bureau's analysis of scheduling delays to examine variances between originally planned baseline start and finish dates and actual start and finish dates.

10. We recommend that the Director of the Census Bureau develop mechanisms to better account for the required resources to complete EAE activities to aid in the planning and execution of future EAE operations.

Perform an assessment of employee resources in the Office of Financial Management, Planning, and Evaluation, and other relevant financial process areas to ensure an appropriate complement of resources are in place to manage accounting and reporting matters as they arise and through their normal course of business.

Provide training and supervision for personnel on financial management matters that affect the financial statements, including adhering to accounting policies and procedures, as appropriate, and performing key internal control functions in support of financial reporting.

Develop desktop manuals to assist new personnel in meeting their assigned responsibilities.

Improve the risk assessment process at the financial statement assertion and process level to ensure that CPSC management is appropriately capturing significant changes in the control environment and subsequently responding to those risks.

Implement key monitoring controls over the financial reporting process and develop robust policies and procedures to increase oversight, review, and accountability of accounting events at the process level to ensure the successful implementation of an effective internal control environment.

Document the acquisition process and necessary requirements to determine the appropriate date placed in service for PP&E, and update and enhance policies and procedures to align with the requirements of the applicable financial reporting standards.

Design and implement controls in accordance with the updated policies and procedures to ensure PP&E balances are completely and accurately recorded in the general ledger.

Establish recurring communication with appropriate support office personnel to ensure necessary PP&E information is available for analysis.

Consult with appropriate support office personnel to perform a detailed analysis of estimated useful lives of PP&E.

Formalize and document a policy over prepaid expenses, including consideration of compliance with GAAP.

Design a control to identify, analyze, and respond to risks related to the reporting of pre-paid expenses.

We recommend that the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing follow up with the 20 nursing homes reviewed in this audit that demonstrated life safety, emergency preparedness, and infection control deficiencies to ensure that they have taken corrective actions.

We recommend that the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing work with CMS to develop a risk-based approach to identify nursing homes at which surveys would be conducted more frequently than once every 15 months, such as those with a history of multiple high-risk deficiencies or frequent management turnover.

We recommend that the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing work with CMS to develop standardized life safety training for nursing home staff.

We recommend that the Massachusetts Department of Public health work with CMS to develop standardized life safety training for nursing home staff.

Where cost effective, expand existing initiatives to obtain earnings information electronically.

Automate printing applicants’ responses to the earnings-test questions on the application summary SSA provides beneficiaries when they request to start receiving their Old-Age, Survivor, and Disability Insurance benefits.

Revise systems to ensure the Agency requests monthly earnings information from beneficiaries eligible for the monthly earnings test before it assesses an overpayment.

Add language to overpayment notices informing beneficiaries who are eligible for the monthly earnings test their overpayment may be reduced or eliminated if they had monthly wages below the applicable limit.

Expand controls to detect potential underpayments based on discrepancies between the Master Beneficiary Record and Master Earnings File.

Implement systems changes to automatically grant earnings-test-related monthly benefit increases at, or closer to, the date they are first allowed by policy.