Open Recommendations

OIG recommends the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) Senior Coordinating Official (SCO) develop and implement a policy and procedures to establish ongoing interagency coordination with all designated SCOs until the Afghan SIV program concludes.

OIG recommends the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) Senior Coordinating Official (SCO) develop and implement an updated staffing plan to adjust resources for all Department of State offices involved with the Afghan SIV program to reduce the current Afghan SIV application backlog.

OIG recommends the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) Senior Coordinating Official develop a process and procedures to monitor the implementation, effectiveness, and efficiency of the staffing plan for all Department offices involved in the Afghan SIV program to reduce the current Afghan SIV application backlog.

OIG recommends that the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) Senior Coordinating Official (SCO), in collaboration with the Department of Defense (DoD) SCO, establish a memorandum of understanding between the Department of State (Department) SCO and the DoD SCO defining the roles and responsibilities of the Department and DoD for efficiently and accurately collecting employment documentation of Afghan SIV applicants who worked for DoD contractors. The Department and DoD SCOs should also meet regularly to address efficient employment verification until the Department resolves the backlog of Afghan SIV applications.

EEOC should develop a customer service plan to include establishing goals and objectives, developing performance metrics that target the goals, and measuring performance against the goals. This plan must include goals and metrics for the IIG.

EEOC must manage customer expectations by making customer service standards available to the public.

The IIG should explore and implement ways to reduce the call hold time and email response time for customers.

The IIG should design and implement a quality assurance program for customer emails.

OFP should assess the usefulness of generating 846 inquiries (i.e.; return on investment) and assess whether automatic close out in the system is more practical,

OFP should establish guidelines for generating 846 inquiries and other information sharing between the IIG and district offices.

CMS should evaluate how HHAs are using telehealth specifically, the types of services provided via telehealth and the characteristics of patients who benefit from these services.

CMS should to inform decision-making, evaluate how the regulatory flexibilities it has offered in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency affect the quality of home health care.

CMS should in collaboration with ASPR TRACIE, apply lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic to update and/or develop emergency preparedness trainings and materials for HHAs on responding to infectious disease outbreaks.

In conjunction with corrective actions being taken on previous audits, revise ONAP's internal policy and procedures to include detailed written policies and procedures for the marketing, preservation, and sale of defaulted loan notes and REO properties on tribal trust and other restricted lands.

Requires the REAC in coordination with OFO to determine the number of developments and associated units that contain lead-based paint and lead-based paint hazards.

Status

We recommend that the General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing require the Real Estate Assessment Center in coordination with the Office of Field Operations to determine the cost to eliminate or control the lead-based paint and lead based paint hazards in public housing and the timeframe to complete such work based on the existing funding levels and strategies that could accelerate the timeframe.

We recommend that the General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing require the Real Estate Assessment Center in coordination with the Office of Field Operations to assess the lead-based paint hazard reduction activities performed at the 19 developments associated with 18 public housing agencies reviewed that did not implement interim controls and ongoing maintenance and reevaluation activities or adequately document that previously identified lead-based paint had been abated or treated with interim controls and subjected to ongoing maintenance and reevaluati

Revise Directive 06 to include current FECA citations and guidance related to OIG referrals of campaign finance related matters to OGC.

The implementation plan for the Geospatial Data Strategy contains detailed action items and milestones, including those for developing a complete and accurate inventory of the Agency’s geospatial data.

Continued coordination with NARA to establish the appropriate level of scientific data for inclusion in NARA-approved records schedules.

Update applicable requirements to require assisted property owners, including PHAs, to maintain adequate documentation to support their determinations that maintenance and hazard reduction activities that disturb surfaces with lead-based paint qualify for the de minimis exemption from the lead-safe work practices under the Lead Safe Housing Rule.

Status

To address this recommendation, OLHCHH agreed to:

We recommend the Executive Assistant Commissioner, Operations Support, U.S. Customs and Border Protection: Recommendation 1: Refine current and identify new strategies and solutions to manage delays in detainee transfers to partner agencies and communicate these improvements throughout the sector.

We recommend the Del Rio Sector Chief, Border Patrol, U.S. Customs and Border Protection: Recommendation 2: Assess whether the Eagle Pass soft-sided facility’s supplemental guidance on the management of detainee property can be developed and implemented sector-wide, and implement where operationally feasible.

Oversee a data integrity review at Del Rio Border Patrol facilities for a sampling of detainee activity logs for 1 month, to verify that the information recorded is accurate. If the problem we identified persists, implement a quality assurance plan and continue to monitor data integrity.

The Under Secretary for Management should develop standard guidance for all reporting entities, clarifying which allegations the Department should report to OIG under the Authorities Act and defining the terms serious misconduct and head of the Department entity, and include affected stakeholders in the development of the guidance.