Open Recommendations

Ensure medical facility directors in Veterans Integrated Service Network 8 develop a process to ensure facility staff safeguard expendable supplies in accordance with Veterans Administration Handbook 0730.

Ensure medical facility directors in Veterans Integrated Service Network 8 develop and implement local procedures that require clinical service areas to notify supply chain staff when equipment is relocated and establish protocols to validate and update equipment location during clinical moves or room changes and ensure equipment items are properly tagged.

Require medical facility directors in Veterans Integrated Service Network 8 to enforce timely completion of reports of survey in accordance with Veterans Health Administration policy and implement oversight mechanisms to monitor the timely initiation, approval, and closure of reports.

Ensure facilities implement corrective actions to effectively address deficiencies identified during the Veterans Integrated Service Networks quality control reviews.

The Chief, Taxpayer Services, should revise the IRM 21.3.5, Taxpayer Inquiry Referrals Form 4442, to require CSRs to add the AMS case number in the historical narrative section within AMS.

The Chief, Taxpayer Services, should collaborate with the Commissioner, SB/SE Division, Commissioner TE/GE Division and Chief, CI to develop centralized intake, tracking, and resolution processes for inquiry referrals processed outside of AMS, and ensure that business unit employees working outside of AMS use the AMS case number in their tracking processes.

Develop and implement oversight activities for ECAP to provide reasonable assurance that selfcertified commodity information for routine applications is accurate.

Document the agency’s program risk assessment process to ensure the agency considers and validates risks related to the accuracy of self-certified information on pre-filled applications.

The Director, SB/SE Division, Collection Inventory Delivery and Selection, should develop a process to validate the accuracy and completeness of the ACS chat applications’ data.

The Director, SB/SE Division, Collection Inventory Delivery and Selection, should establish standards to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the ACS chat applications using quantitative performance measures and indicators.

The Director, SB/SE Division, Collection Inventory Delivery and Selection, should correct the programming error related to the calculation of the handle time metric.

The Director, SB/SE Division, Collection Inventory Delivery and Selection, should implement a control to ensure the resolution code is not blank and is limited to only one entry.

The Director, SB/SE Division, Collection Inventory Delivery and Selection, should implement and assess the results of the ACS live chat survey.

The Director, SB/SE Division, Collection Inventory Delivery and Selection, should update the automated chatbot survey to allow taxpayers to provide written feedback at the completion of the session.

The Director, SB/SE Division, Collection Inventory Delivery and Selection, should implement evaluative reviews for employees working ACS live chats to ensure that live assistor performance is meeting customer service standards.

The Director, SB/SE Division, Collection Inventory Delivery and Selection, should establish policies and procedures for managing the ACS live chat application, including the expectations and duties of ACS managers.

In June 2025, we notified the Director, SB/SE Division, Collection Inventory Delivery and Selection, of our concerns that the ACS function’s automated chatbot is not providing taxpayers with adequate customer service in certain situations. Specifically, our concerns were that taxpayers are not having their inquiries and issues adequately addressed through the chatbot’s self-help options due to technical problems. We recommended that the IRS update the broken links and insufficient responses within the ACS automated chatbot and its word bank to recognize keywords and questions. We also recommended that the IRS implement the ability to enter keywords or questions for the…

Leverage existing System resources to develop and implement a process to provide pretravel briefings covering threat and risk awareness to employees traveling on official business trips or taking Board devices to high-risk and restricted countries, at a minimum.

Leverage existing System resources to develop and implement a process to provide Board-specific travel threat awareness trainings for employees in high international travel or senior positions and employees in high traveling divisions, at a minimum.

Leverage existing System resources to develop an optional post-travel questionnaire and establish a process to provide the questionnaire to Board employees who are required to report international travel based on the implementation of recommendation 6, at a minimum.

Establish a program that consolidates and assesses international travel data available to Board divisions regarding employee international travel, including
a. creating capabilities to aggregate and analyze foreign travel data from available sources, including the travel reimbursement platform, the security clearance holder reporting application, and the travel device request platform.
b. developing a process to reconcile clearance holder unreported travel data.
c. expanding foreign travel data analysis beyond risks related to travel with devices and developing a process to conduct travel trend analysis including indicators of suspicious travel patterns, define levels of organizational risk tolerances for suspicious travel activity and follow-up…

Strengthen travel reporting requirements by
a. determining which Board positions or division employees should be required to report personal international travel before departure based on access to System sensitive information.
b. updating policies and procedures detailing travel reporting requirements for relevant positions and divisions with access to
System sensitive information.
c. designating a program to monitor reported travel and defining risk monitoring and threat awareness reporting expectations for that program.

Develop a process to ensure all division designated travel reviewers are informed of country-specific risks at least annually and provide training when updates occur to the international travel with mobile devices process.

We recommend the Vice President, Projects and Outages, update the Nuclear project management procedure to define rework and provide guidance for documenting and tracking rework.

The Martinsburg VA Medical Center Director conducts a comprehensive review of the peer review process from identification to completion to ensure adherence with Veterans Health Administration Directive 1190(1), Peer Review for Quality Management, amended July 19, 2024, and takes action as warranted.