Open Recommendations

STB management should review the service providers Financial Statement and Notes Review Checklist to verify that the checklist is up to date and includes all required elements per OMB and Treasury guidance and then complete the checklist independently. Alternatively, STB management should develop and complete its own review checklist based on current Treasury and OMB reporting requirements.

STB management should request its financial management service provider to:
a. Reevaluate the inclusion of account balances that were excluded in the Other Liabilities footnote, or
b. Disaggregate (i.e. separately report) intragovernmental other liabilities balances reported as a single line item on the balance sheet that are not included in the footnote so that the total amounts reported for Other Liabilities on the Balance Sheet and in the footnote agree.

STB should perform routine reviews of employee benefit elections and Official Personnel Folders to ensure they are complete and accurate.

STB should address missing or unavailable supporting documentation with its shared service provider to ensure that document retrieval tools are available and are working properly to allow retrieval of all stored documents.

STB management should work with the service provider to identify, at least quarterly, upward adjustments that have been offset by downward adjustments in the general ledger or perform an independent review of the general ledger activity of both accounts so that manual adjustments can be recorded to properly state the ending balances of both accounts, if needed.

STB management should design and implement policies and procedures which enhance the internal review process for upward and downward adjustment transactions and includes a reconciliation of the UDO balances with the supporting documentation to ensure that transactions have been recorded correctly.

STB should amend its existing policy regarding the review and approval of journal vouchers to include a review of all non-reversing entries recorded during the fiscal year and to review all year-end journal vouchers before they are recorded in the agencys general ledger.

We recommend the CIO: Enforce DOL requirements for implementing, auditing, testing and documenting exceptions to baseline configurations.

We recommend the CIO: Execute the OCIO and AO oversight process to ensure compliance with DOL requirements for the performance of Security Impact Analysis (SIA)s prior to the implementation of system changes.

We recommend the CIO: Develop clear standards for the documentation of information security controls and enforce the adherence to these standards through OCIO monitoring processes for developing, reviewing and maintaining system security plans and documentation.

Develop and implement procedures to verify the accuracy and completeness of displaced student counts that can be used for Federal reporting requirements related to the Emergency Impact Aid program.

Implement its procedures for monitoring the Emergency Impact Aid program.

Provide support for the inaccurate and unsupported displaced student counts at Springfield and Worcester or return $895,374 in Emergency Impact Aid program funds received based on projectable inaccurate and unsupported displaced student counts. Review support for all LEAs, or a statistically valid sample of students reported as displaced by quarter, and return any funds related to inaccurate and unsupported displaced student counts.

Provide support for the unsupported displaced student counts at Springfield and Worcester or return $40,875 in Emergency Impact Aid program funds received based on the inaccurate displaced student counts that were collected from the LEAs in the LEA application. Review support for all LEAs, or a statistically valid sample of students reported as displaced by quarter, and return any funds related to inaccurate displaced student counts.

Return $44,750 in Emergency Impact Aid program funds received based on duplicate displaced student counts. Determine whether other Massachusetts LEAs that received Emergency Impact Aid program funds reported duplicate displaced student counts and return funds for any duplicate students that are found.

Provide support showing that Springfield and Worcester properly used Emergency Impact Aid program funds for displaced students reported as children with disabilities or return about $1.43 million to the Department.

Determine whether other Massachusetts LEAs that received Emergency Impact Aid program funds separately accounted for Emergency Impact Aid program funds received for the benefit of displaced students reported as children with disabilities. For all or a statistical sample, of these LEAs that did not separately account for these funds, review support to determine whether they properly used these funds and return any funds that were not properly used.

Develop and implement procedures for providing guidance for and monitoring of future emergency funding from the Department to ensure that (1) award notifications to the LEAs identify Emergency Impact Aid program funds by student type (including children with disabilities), (2) funds received for displaced students are used for activities and services in accordance with Federal requirements, and (3) all Federal grant requirements are provided to the LEAs.

Provide support demonstrating that employees in Springfield and Worcester worked at schools with displaced students or return $304,308 to the Department.

Develop controls to provide reasonable assurance that LEAs use funds received for displaced students for activities and services related to serving displaced students.

ASFR should take steps to ensure that HHS’s suspension and debarment program has more consistent senior leadership and sufficient staffing.

ASFR should improve the case management and tracking of referrals.

We recommend that ONRR evaluate the use of ARC 10, Adjustments, to determine its effectiveness and create additional codes to capture accurate reasons for adjustments.

We recommend that ONRR develop and implement a process to prevent modification of adjustments made as a result of compliance activities without approval from ONRR.

We recommend that ONRR develop and implement processes to reduce unnecessary manual transactions as the BPRM effort is being implemented.