Open Recommendations

1. We recommended that the Department's Senior Procurement Executive and Director of Acquisition Management conduct an acquisition management review to assess the FirstNet Authority acquisition functions and determine if adequate contract files exist to properly support decisions.

2. We recommended that the Department's Senior Procurement Executive and Director of Acquisition Management review the actions taken to execute the contract and task order modifications identified in this report and determine whether, under law, Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and/or Department policy, actions should be taken to review, revoke, or revise the warrants used to execute the modifications.

3. We recommended that the Department's Senior Procurement Executive and Director of Acquisition Management determine whether, in order to comply with applicable federal and Department regulations, FirstNet Authority should be required to submit all future contract awards and modifications to the Department for review prior to award.

4. We recommended that the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator direct FirstNet Authority's Chief Executive Officer to ensure the required justification and pricing analysis are conducted and documented for all contract modifications to ensure compliance with FAR section 43.1.

5. We recommended that the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator direct FirstNet Authority's Chief Executive Officer to ensure compliance with FAR section 32.104 by determining if (1) AT&T will not be able to bill for the first delivery of products for a substantial time after work must begin (normally 6 months) and (2) the expenses for contract performance during the predelivery period will have a significant impact on AT&T's working capital when using contract financing.

6. We recommended that the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator direct FirstNet Authority's Chief Executive Officer to ensure compliance with Commerce Acquisition Manual 1301.71 and obtain legal reviews from the Department's Contract Law Division for all contract modifications when the services are materially changing.

7. We recommended that the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator direct FirstNet Authority's Chief Executive Officer to leverage the remediation options in the contract to hold AT&T accountable and take the necessary actions to address deficiencies when AT&T is either not on track to meet or not meeting contract terms.

8. We recommended that the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator direct FirstNet Authority's Chief Executive Officer to revise FirstNet Authority's Acquisition Review Board Review Process and Procedures to define what is considered a "significant modification" and to ensure results of ARB meetings are documented in compliance with FAR section 4.803.

9. We recommended that the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator direct FirstNet Authority's Chief Executive Officer to ensure the Chief Procurement Officer provides oversight to verfy that contract modifications are sufficiently supported, justified, in compliance with the FAR, and in the best interests of the government and first responders.

Update the Bank Secrecy Act scope tasks and questions within the Modern Examination and Risk Identification Tool to ensure examiners complete and document all necessary steps during Bank Secrecy Act examinations and direct examiners to use additional external guidance such as the National Supervision Policy Manual, Examiner’s Guide, and Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council BSA/AML Manual, as needed.

Meet with the Financial Crime Enforcement Network (FinCEN), no less often than annually, to discuss the operation of the Memorandum of Understanding and to identify any issues or adjustments that may be required. Document any revised agreements and update the agency’s policies to communicate the FinCEN reporting requirements and information needed from the regions and the Office of National Examinations and Supervision.

Develop and implement an efficient process that ensures the completeness, accuracy, timeliness, and validity of information obtained from the agency’s Modern Examination and Risk Identification Tool, such as establishing reports, to meet the agency’s Bank Secrecy Act reporting objectives, including communicating information in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding and other agreement(s) with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

Revise the content of the NCUA’s Enforcement Manual to include current policies, procedures, and responsibilities for the NCUA’s formal enforcement actions and ensure its content is consistent with other agency policies. Regularly review this guidance for continued relevance and effectiveness in achieving the agency’s objectives.

We recommend that OPM issue an improper payment estimate for the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program's that will allow them to be in compliance with the four PIIA requirements for future reporting years.

We recommend that Retirement Services develop and implement additional cost-effective corrective actions, aimed at the root causes of improper payments, to further reduce the improper payments rate.

The Mint Director ensures the Mint considers additional procedures to oversee refiners including, but not limited to, obtaining and periodically reviewing documentation from the Mint’s approved refineries, such as the LBMA-required third party audits and supporting documentation, to ensure that refineries are sourcing gold responsibly in accordance with U.S. law and the best interests of the U.S. Government.

The Mint Director ensures the Mint within 30 days of issuance of this report, develops a plan that outlines the steps and controls the Mint will implement to comply with Public Law 99-185 and Public Law 109-145 in the production of gold coins which includes a review of the Mint’s current methodology to ensure it complies with U.S. law. As part of this review, the Mint should publish its procedures for acquiring newly mined U.S. gold in the Federal Register. Furthermore, the Mint needs to update its website for accuracy and its BOAs and operating procedures to ensure that these…

Review the two loans in our sample that did not receive appropriate servicing and take administrative actions if appropriate.

We recommend that the Chief Financial Officer for the Department develop and implement procedures to ensure that thesampling populations of drawdowns are complete for the basis of calculating the improper payment and unknown paymentestimates.

We recommend that the Chief Financial Officer for the Department ensure changes made for the query design concerningthe use of three filters, are implemented in subsequent years for programs that are required to produce an improper paymentestimate.

We recommend that the Chief Financial Officer for the Department, for programs that require them, design and implementimproper payment and unknown payment sampling and estimation plans that are appropriate for the sampling of paymentsbased on accurate sampling populations and result in reliable estimates. The improper payment and unknown paymentsampling and estimation plans should also include language stating why sampling populations in Stage 1 may not matchsampling population in Stage 2 and explain the statistical impact on the estimates.

We recommend that the Chief Financial Officer for the Department implement its quality assurance checklist to ensure theproper details from the drawdown population are accurately included on the extrapolation sheet.

We recommend that the Chief Financial Officer for the Department, in conjunction with the acting Chief Financial Officer forFSA, develop sampling and estimation plans for the Pell and Direct Loan programs that will produce reliable estimates.Specifically, the plan should (a) produce appropriate and accurate confidence intervals around a statistically valid pointestimate; (b) consistent with 31 U.S.C. section 3352(c)(1)(A), produce an estimate that is otherwise appropriate using amethodology approved by the Director of OMB; or (c) consistent with OMB Circular A-123 Appendix C, Part II, B(2), include adetailed explanation as to why it is not possible to produce a statistically-valid point…

The Office of the Chief Management Officer and Security Services Office assign the staffing and resources necessary to conduct pending reinvestigations.

The Security Services Office develops and implements adequate internal policies and standard operating procedures.