Open Recommendations

We recommend that the Board chair or a designee develop an approach to verify the accuracy of the information on financial disclosure reports for individuals who have access to confidential Class I FOMC information and are not covered by the Investment and Trading Policy. As part of this effort,a. determine the method and frequency for checking the accuracy and completeness of financial disclosure reports against brokerage statements, for example, by conducting periodic random sampling or full reviews.b. update financial disclosure review guidance to include the use of employee-provided brokerage statements to check annual financial disclosure reports for accuracy and completeness…

Revise the Transport Airplane Risk Assessment Methodology (TARAM) handbook to incorporate current safety data, including available international data when appropriate.

Review the TARAM handbook's quantitative safety guidelines to determine if they still meet the Agency's needs, and implement identified corrections as appropriate.

Formalize training requirements for engineers responsible for completing TARAM analysis, as well as managers responsible for reviewing the analysis.

Review the TARAM and Transport Airplane Safety Manual (TASM), address any identified key differences the two documents, and integrate TASM into TARAM when appropriate.

Identify lessons learned related to the application of the 737 MAX recertification and the Continued Operational Safety process that have not yet been addressed and include them into airplane certification and safety evaluation processes.

We recommend that FEC’s management should develop a strategic human capital management plan to include a process for conducting and documenting a skills gap analysis of its workforce.

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services establish a comprehensive data-sharing agreement with VHA for the ongoing sharing of data.

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services establish an interagency process to integrate VHA enrollment, claims, and payment data into the CMS IDR to identify potential fraud, waste, and abuse under the Medicare program.

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services establish an internal process (such as system edits) to address duplicate payments made by Medicare for medical services authorized and paid for by VHA, which could have saved Medicare up to $128 million during our audit period.

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issue guidance to providers on not billing Medicare for a medical service that was authorized by VHA.

We recommend that Crow/Northern Cheyenne Hospital, Billings Area Office, and Indian Health Service Headquarters work together to take action to complete background investigations for staff members identified in this report as not having a satisfactory background investigation and adjudicate the investigations that were still pending adjudication.

We recommend that Crow/Northern Cheyenne Hospital, Billings Area Office, and Indian Health Service Headquarters work together to update standard operating procedures for background investigations to address the deficiencies we identified in this report.

We recommend that Crow/Northern Cheyenne Hospital, Billings Area Office, and Indian Health Service Headquarters work together to establish a monitoring system to ensure all elements of required background investigations in accordance with Federal requirements are completed within required timeframes.

We recommend that Crow/Northern Cheyenne Hospital, Billings Area Office, and Indian Health Service Headquarters work together to determine which staff members in contact with Indian children currently have a pending background investigation and take immediate action to ensure that there is adequate documented evidence that these staff members meet IHS sight and supervision requirements when children are in their care.

We recommend that Crow/Northern Cheyenne Hospital, Billings Area Office, and Indian Health Service Headquarters work together to update standard operating procedures for provisional staff supervision to address the deficiencies we identified in this report.

We recommend that Crow/Northern Cheyenne Hospital, Billings Area Office, and Indian Health Service Headquarters work together to establish a monitoring system to ensure that the Hospital meets sight and supervision requirements for staff with pending background investigations and documents that they are met.

Examine its domain assessment process - including the Top 100 Initiative and recall inspection activities - and refine its strategies for identifying and tracking risks, deploying resources, and accomplishing goals.

Refine the CGIC performance review process to include sufficient information to allow for an assessment of the outcomes and effectiveness of the CGIC intelligence that is shared with Industry Operations.

Establish a recurring process to assess the risk indicators that contribute to the selection of FFLs for inspection and evaluate the results of the inspections to ensure that field divisions are effectively identifying high-risk FFLs.

Implement a process to conduct ongoing formal, data-based, comprehensive reviews of inspections results to ensure consistent application of the standards and assist ATF in reaching its inspection program goals of reducing the possibility of firearms being diverted from legal commerce and maintaining the traceability of firearms.

Adopt mechanisms to improve the accuracy of its information-sharing data and the completeness of its information about the outcomes of internal and external referrals and use this information to better assess the value and effectiveness of its information sharing practices, with the goal of providing enhanced oversight of FFLs.

The U.S. Mission to the European Union, in coordination with the Bureau of Consular Affairs, should review the need for the Senior Consular Representative position and make adjustments as necessary to meet both U.S. consular policy objectives and Department standards for effective use of resources.

Embassy Beirut, in coordination with the Bureau of Consular Affairs, should implement a plan to mitigate, to the maximum extent practicable, safety risks associated with the area outside the pedestrian gate used by consular customers, in accordance with Department guidelines.

Embassy Beirut, in coordination with the Bureaus of Consular Affairs and Overseas Buildings Operations, should provide protection from the elements for consular applicants, in accordance with Department standards.