Open Recommendations

We recommend the FEMA Administrator develop and implement a process to monitor whether grantees implement and use the controls attested in FEMA-approved State Administrative Plans.

We recommend the FEMA Administrator work with state workforce agencies to evaluate the Lost Wages Assistance program payments and verify that all recipients who received payment have a self-certification on file, as required; to determine whether the claimant meets eligibility requirements if no self-certification is on file; and, if not, to recover the payment.

We recommend the FEMA Administrator conduct an after-action study of the Lost Wages Assistance program and update FEMA’s Individuals and Households Program based on the lessons learned from the study.

We recommend the Assistant Secretary of Employment and Training: Implement immediate measures to ensure SWAs are required to provide ongoing access to the OIG by amending its current guidance to require disclosures to the OIG for audits and investigations as necessary, mandatory, and without time limitation for the proper oversight of the UI program.

We recommend the Assistant Secretary of Employment and Training: Expedite OIG-related amendments to 20 C.F.R. § 603.6(a) to make ongoing disclosures of UI information to DOL OIG mandatory by expressly adding the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General (including its agents and contractors) to the list of required disclosures that are necessary for the proper oversight of the UI program without distinction as to purpose (e.g., audits versus investigations).

We recommend the Assistant Secretary of Employment and Training: Expedite 603.5(i) to expressly make disclosures of UI information to federal officials for oversight, audits, and investigations of federal programs mandatory.

Collect data on the number of CSP-funded charter schools that remain open for at least 2 years after CSP funding ended and make that information available to the public.

Ensure that CSP grant recipients report in FPRs, APRs, and data collection forms clear, reliable, and timely information on the number of charter schools that they opened or expanded using CSP funds.

Ensure that program officers routinely compare the information reported in FPRs and APRs with the information reported in data collection forms and require CSP grant recipients to timely reconcile any identified discrepancies.

ACF should ensure that ORR's employees and employees of ORR contractors and recipients are informed about Federal whistleblower protections.

We recommend ICE’s Acting Executive Associate Director of Homeland Security Investigations and CBP’s Executive Assistant Commissioner of the Office of Field Operations ensure analysts are following the requirements in the Visa Security Program’s standard operating proceduresand other guidance as they vet visas and document their activities.

We recommend ICE’s Acting Executive Associate Director of Homeland Security Investigations correct the character limit anddata transfer issues in the Visa Security Program Tracking System.

We recommend CBP’s Executive Assistant Commissioner of the Office of Field Operations develop and implement a plan to track, if possible — or estimate, if tracking is not possible — the costs of National Targeting Center activities associated with the Visa Security Program and report those costs to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Implement the necessary staffing changes recommended by the NDB Working Group.

Ensure that all NDB employees comply with the NDB SOP related to proper facility access controls.

Identify and reimburse the BHP Trust Fund all improper payments resulting from system defects identified in our report (we estimated improper and potentially improper payments during our audit period to be $69,853,415 ($69,862,030 less $8,615)).

Implement system changes to ensure that BHP enrollees with a pending coverage end-date are transferred from BHP to Medicaid upon the end of their 5-year bar.

Update policy to establish timeframes for staff to resolve non-wage-related alerts before SSA overwrites IRS non-wage income data in its systems and/or administrative finality rules apply.

If SSA does not implement recommendation 3, then it should retain the IRS non-wage income data in its systems beyond 2 years, so it is available for staff to process cases involving fraud or similar fault.

We recommend SSA revise the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) and/or the Program Operations Manual System (POMS) to provide (a) detailed guidance related to financial oversight of the Disability Determination Services (DDS) and (b) specific instruction to the DDSs to uniformly carry out their financial management responsibilities. In addition, SSA should specify what actions it will take (in compliance with the Social Security Act) to remedy DDSs’ recurring financial management findings and lack of fiscal control procedures.

We recommend SSA determine additional actions it can take in response to DDS’ recurring financial management deficiencies.

(U) Rec. A.1.b: The DoD OIG recommended that the Secretaries of the Military Departments test and evaluate the high-altitude electromagnetic pulse survivability of mission-critical systems to ensure that threshold requirements are met; identify vulnerabilities; and develop and implement risk mitigation tactics, techniques, and procedures or materiel solutions. For programs that utilize hardening as a method for high-altitude electromagnetic pulse survivability, ensure the system requirements documents identify a Hardness Maintenance and Hardness Surveillance requirement and that a Hardness Maintenance and Hardness Survivability program is implemented.

(U) Rec. A.1.d: The DoD OIG recommended that the Secretaries of the Military Departments identify an office responsible for verifying the reliability of the data in the Mission-critical Reports and coordinating data corrections between program offices and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs.

(U) Rec. A.1.b: The DoD OIG recommended that the Secretaries of the Military Departments test and evaluate the high-altitude electromagnetic pulse survivability of mission-critical systems to ensure that threshold requirements are met; identify vulnerabilities; and develop and implement risk mitigation tactics, techniques, and procedures or materiel solutions. For programs that utilize hardening as a method for high-altitude electromagnetic pulse survivability, ensure the system requirements documents identify a Hardness Maintenance and Hardness Surveillance requirement and that a Hardness Maintenance and Hardness Survivability program is implemented.

(U) Rec. A.1.c.1: The DoD OIG recommended that the Secretaries of the Military Departments identify legacy chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear mission-critical systems. Specifically, develop a plan to assess each legacy system's high-altitude electromagnetic pulse survivability limitations.