Open Recommendations

We recommend the Under Secretary of Science and Technology and the Under Secretary for Strategy, Policy, and Plans partner with agencies or Department of Homeland Security components to obtainaccess to appropriate information that may inform development of nationallevel statistics on terrorism and targeted violence

We recommend the Counterterrorism Coordinator use the results of the needs assessment to ensure a dedicated level of staff support and resources to execute National Terrorism Advisory System functions.

We recommend the Deputy Under Secretary for Intelligence Enterprise Operations finalize and implement an overarching policyand standard operating procedures to guide the timely, complete, and accurate review and release of open source intelligence reports.

We recommend the Deputy Under Secretary for Intelligence Enterprise Operations establish a standard process to determinewhether additional oversight or review is needed for open source intelligence reports before their dissemination

Recover the $1.9 million of overpayments to a grant recipient in accordance with 2 CFR § 200.345-346.

Require the reconciliation of the grant recipient’s budget to the final award amount prior to awarding a grant, including ensuring receipt of revised budgets, when changes are needed, prior to disbursing grant awards. Furthermore, discontinue the disbursement of grant awards prior to the receipt of a revised budget.

ACF should encourage all States to evaluate the value of adding an assessment of risk for sex trafficking when children return to foster care after going missing.

ACF should conduct oversight activities to identify States that may not screen all children for sex trafficking when they return to foster care after going missing.

The Railroad Retirement Board's Bureau of Information Services should identify, and document detailed project plans for their Information Technology Modernization initiatives through the Information Resources Management Strategic Plan, which should include the agency's goals, project milestones, and a description of the work necessary, as required by the Office of Management and Budget Circular A-130.

Resolve the $66,270 in questioned participant support for which EDC has not agreed to reimburse NSF and direct EDC to repay or otherwise remove the sustained questioned costs from its NSF award.

Direct EDC to provide documentation supporting that it has reimbursed or otherwise credited the $8,375 in questioned participant support, conference, and consultant travel costs for which it has agreed to reimburse NSF.

Direct EDC to establish clear guidance regarding the allowable uses of participant support cost funding. This guidance should address how to segregate, identify, and account for costs that are covered with participant support cost funding. Specifically, this guidance should address how EDC verifies it does not use participant support costs to cover non-participant or other unallowable costs, such as costs budgeted for within non-participant support costs budget categories, costs incurred for EDC employees, and expenses associated with no-show participants.

Direct EDC to strengthen its administrative and management processes related to the approval of conference registration fees. Updated processes should require EDC to verify that individuals either have dedicated or will be dedicating effort to an NSF award prior to allowing their conference registration fees to be charged to the NSF award.

Direct EDC to strengthen its administrative and management processes to ensure advertising costs associated with sponsoring conferences are not charged to federal awards unless specifically approved by the award sponsor.

Direct EDC to strengthen its policies and procedures for creating and retaining documentation, including introducing additional controls to help ensure that it appropriately creates and maintains all documentation necessary to support the allowability of costs claimed by consultants. Updated procedures could include: • Requiring consultant agreements to specifically note whether the consultant is permitted to invoice EDC for travel costs incurred as a result of performing the requested consulting services. • Requiring invoice approvers to review consulting agreements to determine the allowability of travel expense reimbursement submitted by consultants prior to approving consultant travel expenses.

Direct EDC to strengthen its administrative and management procedures for travel reimbursements to ensure that its employees utilize the Deltek Expense Report Summary for travel reimbursements.

Resolve the $117,804 in questioned indirect costs, travel allowances, and gift card expenses for which BSCS has not agreed to reimburse NSF and direct BSCS to repay or otherwise remove the sustained questioned costs from its NSF award.

Resolve the $334 in questioned salary expenses for which BSCS has not agreed to reimburse NSF and direct BSCS to repay or otherwise remove the sustained questioned costs from its NSF award.

Rec. 2.a: The DoD OIG recommended that the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)/Chief Financial Officer, DoD, in coordination with the Deputy Director of Enterprise Accounting and Audit Support for the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, use a sufficient sample size to support the improper payment estimate by calculating the sample size based on improper payment amounts instead of only using the paid amount. To reduce the required sample size, we recommend considering alternative improper payment estimation methodology, and conducting risk assessments of the payment types for each program.

Develop a detailed review process, such as a checklist or job aid, outlining the review procedures performed by the Quality Assurance Division within the reporting process for overpayments from sources other than recapture audits to ensure that the primary reviewer and the supervisory quality control reviewers are performing a thorough review of the aggregated submissions of overpayments. Necessary review steps include ensuring overpayments are not reported twice, capturing issues with overpayments submitted for the incorrect period, and tracking identified and collected portions that occur in different fiscal years for accurate reporting.

We recommend that the Deputy Chief Financial Officer"|In collaboration with all involved program offices, develop and implement a sampling methodology that allows for a sample size that reasonably allows for the testing of the complete payment cycle within the PIIA reporting timeframe. Status

Develop and implement a plan that ensures the continuity of adequate internal controls over the PIH-TBRA program to detect and prevent improper payments, which can be implemented in a virtual environment. This plan should include how HUD can review tenant files or other information that validates tenant data remotely without compromising PII.

The Bureau of Fiscal Operations and the Office of Programs should work together to develop and document written policies and procedures for the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act process for debts identified for recovery from Railroad Retirement Act benefit payments, across all applicable organizational units involved in the process (both the automated and manual processes).

The Bureau of Fiscal Operations and the Office of Programs should work together to create and document flowcharts for the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act process for debts identified for recovery from Railroad Retirement Act benefit payments, across all applicable organizational units involved in both the automated and manual processes.

The Bureau of Fiscal Operations and the Office of Programs should work together to determine if there are additional missing or ineffective controls in the automated and manual processes (for the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act debts identified for recovery from Railroad Retirement Act benefit payments) which would decrease the likelihood of recoveries, and develop and implement the necessary internal controls.