Open Recommendations

We recommend the Assistant Secretary for Trade and Economic Security of DHS’ Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans, in coordination with ICE and CBP, develop, implement, and monitor a departmental strategic, risk-based approach for managing and enforcing intellectual property rights.

We recommend the Executive Assistant Commissioner for CBP Office of Field Operations direct the coordinated establishment and implementation of a national database for recording non-seizure events, such as abandonments and return-to-sender.

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services work with State survey agencies to require mandatory participation in standardized life safety training for nursing home staff.

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services propose regulations requiring nursing homes and inspection contractors to notify State survey agencies when fire alarm and sprinkler systems are not working or may be in jeopardy of not working.

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services propose regulations requiring carbon monoxide detectors to be installed in accordance with NFPA 72 and 720 for all nursing homes that utilize fuel-burning appliances or have an attached garage.

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services develop a plan in conjunction with State survey agencies to address the foundational issues preventing more frequent surveys at nursing homes with a history of multiple high-risk deficiencies.

We recommend the FEMA Associate Administrator of the Office of Response and Recovery assess whether it can or should change aspects of the PAAP program in response to suggestions raised by applicants.

Annually conduct an improper payment review in accordance with PIIA and follow the guidance outlined in OMB Circular A-136, section II.4.5 [Payment Integrity Information Act Reporting]

Annually conduct an improper payment review in accordance with PIIA andfollow the guidance outlined in OMB Circular A-136, section II.4.5 [Payment Integrity Information Act Reporting];

Annually conduct an improper payment review in accordance with PIIA andfollow the guidance outlined in OMB Circular A-136, section II.4.5 [Payment Integrity Information Act Reporting];

Complete the OMB Annual Data Call reporting, and if necessary, contact OMB via email at MBX.OMB.OFFM.PaymentIntegrity@omb.eop.gov to obtain access to the annual data call.

CDC should expand its efforts both to improve racial and ethnic data associated with COVID-19 and to supplement them with additional data sources.

Develop and implement internal controls to ensure that officials and staff responsible for gathering data used for Federal reporting requirements obtain an understanding of the rules and regulations surrounding the grant programs they are tasked with overseeing.

Develop and implement effective written policies and procedures and sufficient information system controls to ensure that accurate student enrollment and withdrawal data are entered in its student information system in a consistent manner.

Provide support for the inaccurate and unsupported displaced student counts or return $6.5 million in Emergency Impact Aid program funds received based on estimated inaccurate and unsupported displaced student counts.

Enhance its policies, procedures, training and communication, and/or internal controls for the requisition and government purchase card systems to better ensure that purchasing officials understand the C-SCRM requirements and so that applicable requisitions and purchase requests undergo C-SCRM procedures, as required; and develop policies, procedures, and/or internal controls to periodically monitor FBI compliance by identifying and remedying purchases that improperly bypassed the process.

Ensure mitigation actions for ICT products, especially mission-critical ICT products or services, are descriptive, actionable, and tailored to the user environment and operational contexts (including its anonymity of procurement statement); and work with OCIO and the SCRM Unit to create and resource a continuous monitoring program that monitors C-SCRM risks across the FBI, ensures that users understand and follow C-SCRM mitigations identified in the product vulnerability and procurement risk assessments, and develops procedures to periodically monitor and assess user compliance with its C-SCRM mitigation actions.

(U) Rec. 1: This recommendation is Controlled Unclassified Information

We recommend that the Department's Chief Financial Officer ensure that the Program revises its business process reengineering plan to be more consistent with best practices by including assumptions, skills, and needed resources; documents existing financial management processes; and identifies performance improvement goals.

We recommend that the Department's Chief Financial Officer ensure that the Program sufficiently defines target processes to include details of information flows, interconnections, and potential problem areas and assesses expected performance.

We recommend that the Department's Chief Financial Officer update the Program's risk management plan to ensure that it documents, on an ongoing basis, all information and details necessary to manage its risks, including risk trigger dates, risk mitigation plans, and risk descriptions.

We recommend that the Department's Chief Financial Officer ensure that the Program updates its risk register with all information and details necessary to manage its risks, consistent with the updated risk management plan.

We recommend the Counterterrorism Coordinator, with support from the Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans, Office of Intelligence and Analysis, and the Management Directorate perform a needs assessment toidentify the staffing and budget necessary for overseeing the department-wide mission to counter domestic terrorism.

We recommend the Counterterrorism Coordinator use the results of the needs assessment to establish a long-term governing body to oversee and coordinate the Department’s efforts to counter domestic terrorismby creating:• a charter with business rules and roles and responsibilities for longterm action;• a formalized documented process to monitor and track completion ofaction items; and• a formalized documented feedback process to review, update, andmeasure the impact of priority actions taken in response to changesin the domestic terrorism threat environment.

We recommend the DHS Secretary work with the Attorney General and the appropriate congressional committees, to ensure each Department collects and shares direct access to domestic terrorisminformation. Specifically: The Under Secretary of Intelligence and Analysis should immediatelybegin working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to ensure Officeof Intelligence and Analysis domestic terrorism analysts have appropriateaccess to Federal Bureau of Investigation case information