Open Recommendations

We recommend that the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education require Tennessee, in consultation with the Governor of Tennessee, to retroactively obtain prior written approval from the Department for the three equipment expenditures or return the approximately $123,000 expended for those equipment purchases and perform a review of the remaining equipment expenditures to determine whether there are additional purchases that require prior written approval. Tennessee should also incorporate into its grants management policies and procedures a step to determine for any Department grants whether it is required to obtain prior approval from the Department for certain…

NEA should disallow the $1,560 unallowable ARP activity costs from the 2020 award and determine whether a refund is due.

We recommend that the Peace Corps OCFO develops and documents a process for adopting and implementing new accounting standards and guidance going forward, including, but not limited to, the implementation of the embedded leases13 portion of SFFAS 54.

We recommend that the Peace Corps OCFO updates its policy to include all assumptions and used and the reasoning behind those assumptions.

We recommend that the Peace Corps OCFO determines what information needs to be captured at a transaction level to allow for the identification of the lease and the type of lease (escalating vs. non-escalating) at the disbursement transaction level.

We recommend that the Peace Corps OCFO updates its current lease calculation methodologies to better align with SFFAS 54 and to calculate the interest expense and interest payments.

We recommend that the Peace Corps Office of Management develops and implements a process to capture the information needed to identify a lease, to allow for automation of calculating, reporting, and disclosing required lease balances.

We recommend that the Peace Corps Office of Management ensures the new processes developed to identify and record leases are adequately communicated to impacted personnel, both in writing and through trainings.

We recommend that the Peace Corps implements the provided FISMA recommendations from the Peace Corps OIG Report on FISMA (IG-25-01-SR) to mature and improve its information security program.

We recommend that the Peace Corps Office of Management establishes a process and procedure for all Peace Corps offices to record property on tracking spreadsheets and provide those spreadsheets to the Office of Management on a monthly basis, until Maximo is fully operational. Follow-up with any offices that are not adequately submitting the information.

We recommend that the Peace Corps Office of Management establishes a plan with milestones and timelines to fully implement Maximo as soon as possible and work with OCFO and the offices to ensure all applicable property data is transferred into the system.

We recommend that the Peace Corps OCFO perform monthly reconciliations of information entered on the property tracking spreadsheets with payable data in Odyssey and research any discrepancies to ensure the completeness and accuracy of the property tracking spreadsheets.

We recommend that the Peace Corps OCFO, once Maximo is operational, perform monthly reconciliations between Maximo and Odyssey and investigate any differences. Coordinate with the Compliance and Risk Office to review the initial reconciliations to ensure it is designed and operating effectively.

Agricultural Research Service Midwest Area Facility Condition and Security

USDA OIG has determined that this recommendation contains sensitive information and will not be publicly released due to privacy concerns.

USDA OIG has determined that this recommendation contains sensitive information and will not be publicly released due to privacy concerns.

USDA OIG has determined that this recommendation contains sensitive information and will not be publicly released due to privacy concerns.

USDA OIG has determined that this recommendation contains sensitive information and will not be publicly released due to privacy concerns.

USDA OIG has determined that this recommendation contains sensitive information and will not be publicly released due to privacy concerns.

We recommend that USAID/Tanzania verify that Christian Social Services Commission corrects the one material weakness in internal control detailed on page 40 of the audit report.

We recommend that USAID/Tanzania verify that Christian Social Services Commission corrects the two instances of material noncompliance detailed on pages 43 and 44 of the audit report.

We recommend that USADF Department of Financial Management and Finance and Chief Financial Officer: Reassess the Funds Held Outside of Treasury reconciliation process for ways to improve the process to maximize the use of electronic records and bank access.

We recommend that USADF Department of Financial Management and Finance and Chief Financial Officer: Reassess the Funds Held Outside of Treasury reconciliation process for ways to improve the process to address inactive accounts and close accounts as necessary.

We recommend that USADF Department of Financial Management and Finance and Chief Financial Officer: Revisit the current policy and procedures related to the recording of financial transactions and reconciliation of bank accounts for the Funds Held Outside of Treasury accounts and make the appropriate changes to ensure that the trial balance and financial statements reflect the true course of events that occurred in their appropriate period.

We recommend that OPM document and enforce system roles and functions for each system, identify and de-conflict incompatible role assignments, and implement changes to enable the ability to generate complete and accurate listings of users from all systems.