Open Recommendations

We recommend that the PBS Region 2 Regional Commissioner take immediate actions to address any fire protection and worker safety deficiencies at the Javits Building by: ensuring that all fire extinguishers are mounted and unobstructed, all elevator machine rooms comply with applicable requirements for fire barriers, and all fire evacuation route diagrams are up to date to comply with fire codes; confirming that the O&M contractor promptly repairs water leaks or displays proper signage in affected areas to prevent slipping accidents in accordance with Occupational Safety and Health Administration requirements. This is especially important for prolonged leaks for which PBS…

We recommend that the PBS Region 2 Regional Commissioner take immediate actions to reassess compliance with Architectural Barriers Act Accessibility Standards requirements at the Javits Building by: ensuring that proper signage is installed that directs individuals to disability- accessible entrances, exits, restrooms, and other applicable building locations; and cataloging all accessibility violations, resources permitting, throughout the building and developing a plan to remediate them.

Direct the contracting officers to determine whether credits are owed for the remaining unsettled amounts in Section 3610 funds that were paid to its prime contractors for subcontractors who received a forgiven PPP loan and did not remove those Section 3610 monies from their payroll cost calculation when applying for forgiveness. (Approximately $2.2M)

4. ​​​​We recommend that the NOAA Administrator ensure that OMAO or another appropriate office conducts cost-benefit and business case analyses for using tailored acquisitions support (e.g., from the U.S. Navy or U.S. Air Force) to bolster NOAA’s ability to execute complex and challenging aircraft acquisitions.

5. We recommend that the NOAA Administrator ensure that NOAA develops and implements a program oversight structure that can perform rigorous and continuous evaluation of program risks, opportunities, and progress against established benchmarks for complex and technically challenging acquisitions. 

6. We recommend that the NOAA Administrator ensure that NOAA conducts a detailed root cause analysis and lessons-learned review of the G550 program to identify opportunities for improvement in the management and oversight of the second G550 acquisition and the C-130J program. 

7.  We recommend that the NOAA Administrator ensure that NOAA develops and implements systems engineering policy and processes in accordance with best practices and applicable guidance.

Enroll all GPO-issued devices in a Mobile Device Management system capable of controlling application installations, limited to only approved applications, and enforcing policy compliance.

While the current annual GPO Cybersecurity Awareness Training highlights the risks of downloading mobile applications, the OIG recommends that the annual training include more information about or greater emphasis on the prohibition of downloading personal or non-GPO software on GPO-issued mobile devices.

Current GPO IT policy strictly prohibits application downloads. GPO should consider updating IT policies to more clearly define the scope of acceptable and prohibited uses, including establishing a “whitelist” of approved applications. The updated policy should better delineate reasonable personal use, use while off-duty, and the consequences for violations, to include loss of network access or mobile phone use.

Develop a process to ensure that Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act tribal set-aside program funds are allocated to the regional offices in a timely manner.

Provide guidance to the regional offices regarding pre-award recordkeeping requirements for documenting the rationale and data used to determine funding decisions related to the tribal set-aside programs for all Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act awards.

Take adequate steps to ensure that Regions 3, 5, 6, and 8 expeditiously establish quantifiable methods for prioritizing projects to receive Drinking Water Infrastructure Grants-Tribal Set-Aside funds.

We recommend that the Executive Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Field Operations develop and implement a plan to deploy and install the large-scale non-intrusive inspection systems identified in this report.

Rec. A.1.c: The DoD OIG recommended that the Commander, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Marianas assess the risk of not conducting contractor oversight during future National Emergencies and develop and implement contingency plans, as necessary. For the contingency plans deemed necessary, technical personnel should include the contingency plans in the Performance Assessment Plans and the requirement to document the approval to implement the alternate method.

Rec. A.1.d: The DoD OIG recommended that the Commander, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Mariana conduct a personnel staffing study to determine the need for the administration and oversight of facility support contracts.

Rec. A.1.e: The DoD OIG recommended that the Commander, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Mariana develop and implement an alternate method in Performance Assessment Plans and Functional Assessment Plans to assess contractor performance when staff availability is limited and the requirement to document the approval to implement the alternate method, as needed.

Rec. A.2: The DoD OIG recommended that the Commander, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Pacific, should develop and implement a process to notify Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Marianas and Navy installation contracting and technical personnel before awarding contracts without provisions for material costs or purchasing thresholds to ensure that personnel are aware of the increased workload and to ensure that installations have the capacity to provide oversight as required.

Rec. 1.a: The DoD OIG recommended that the Secretary of the Army update and implement policy or guidance requiring personnel commands to use information about wartime readiness requirements for medical personnel when making assignment decisions and clearly identify how military-civilian partnership assignment locations should be prioritized relative to other assignment locations.

Rec. 1.b: The DoD OIG recommended that the Secretary of the Navy update and implement policy or guidance requiring personnel commands to use information about wartime readiness requirements for medical personnel when making assignment decisions and clearly identify how military-civilian partnership assignment locations should be prioritized relative to other assignment locations.

Rec. 2.a: The DoD OIG recommended that the Defense Health Agency Director, in coordination with the Military Departments, develop and implement a plan to determine the capacity of each military treatment facility to meet Military Department-defined assessment requirements for wartime medical readiness.

Rec. 2.b: The DoD OIG recommended that the Defense Health Agency Director, in coordination with the Military Departments, develop and implement a plan to generate a complete registry of military-civilian partnerships.

Rec. 2.c: The DoD OIG recommended that the Defense Health Agency Director, in coordination with the Military Departments, develop and implement a plan to assess the performance of all military-civilian partnerships.

Rec. 3: The DoD OIG recommended that the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) require the Surgeons General of the Military Departments, in coordination with the Defense Health Agency, to submit an annual evaluation to the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) on the Departments clinical readiness assessments. The evaluation must, at minimum:Provide the Departments progress toward implementing its assessment process for wartime clinical readiness.Provide the data quality and collection issues preventing the Department from accurately measuring adherence to wartime clinical readiness standards.Provide the percent of medical personnel, by specialty and assignment location, meeting the Departments established clinical readiness threshold.Provide…

Embassy Ankara should install outside signage at the public entrances of the three consular facilities at the embassy, Consulate General Istanbul, and Consulate Adana, providing consular information in accordance with Department standards.