Open Recommendations

Revise policies and procedures to ensure that supervisors are reviewing employee timesheets at a level of precision that ensures that leave requests have been submitted and approved for all leave hours taken.

Perform its annual physical inventory at a higher level of precision, including identifying and following up on items that have been reported as lost or stolen or for which the stated location is not accurate.

Correct and then regularly update all listings of STB's assets to enable the agency to quickly and accurately locate all items issued to STB personnel.

Work with the service provider to identify, at least quarterly, upward adjustments that have been offset by downward adjustments in the general ledger or perform an independent review of the general ledger activity of both accounts so that manual adjustments can be recorded to properly state the ending balances of both accounts, if needed.

Design and implement policies and procedures which enhance the internal review process for upward and downward adjustment transactions and include a reconciliation of the undelivered orders balances with the supporting documentation to ensure that transactions have been recorded correctly.

Perform a review of all employees' leave balances to ensure they are accurate and comply with 5 U.S. Code 6304 requirements.

Enforce standard operating procedures to require a second Human Resources Specialist or the Human Resources Director to review all employee transfer and onboarding documents to ensure that the documentation is complete and agrees with the information that was entered into the payroll and personnel system before the information is submitted to the payroll service provider.

Perform and document STB's assessment of the recoverability of excess taxes that were paid in error by the agency in matching Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance and Medicare contributions and the conclusion that was reached.

Research the impacted employee's payroll records to confirm the error and determine why the error occurred. Appropriate action should then be taken to identify any other affected employees and to correct the root cause of the error.

FHWA management enforce the FHWA Configuration and Change Management Process to ensure that approvals and documentation related to application changes ae completed in accordance with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 800-53, DOT and system requirements.

FHWA management enforce the change management requirements per the DOT Compendium and the FHWA Configuration and Change Management Process policy to ensure testing and approvals are appropriately performed and documented for each change.

User access application management implement and enforce the password complexity requirements in accordance with NIST 800-53, Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) Cybersecurity Compendium Workbook, and the application's System Security Plan (SSP).

OCIO management enforce required policies and procedures to ensure that roles and permissions are clearly identified, documented and approved within a new access request form/ticket prior to provisioning administrator access within grant management system's operation system.

FHWA and OCIO management implement a quarterly access review of user access configured within the FHWA grant management system and user access application databases and the FHWA grant management system operating system in accordance with the DOT OCIO, Cybersecurity Compendium Workbook.

FTA management implement a quarterly access review process over all integrated Appian platform access reviews in accordance with the DOT Compendium.

FHWA management further refine and enhance their estimation methodology to ensure it remains responsive to future expense fluctuations, including conducting a timely comprehensive risk assessment as a result of their quarterly lookback process.

FTA enhance and finalize the FTA Grant Accrual Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to more clearly outline the historical day calculation methodology used in the accrual calculation.

FTA ensure the review process is sufficient to identify any deviations from the outlined policy.

FTA communicate the finalized SOP to preparers of the grant accrual workbook to ensure appropriate understanding of the enhanced methodology and review requirements.

The Facility Director ensures the Mental Health Executive Council includes veteran representation.

The Associate Chief of Staff, Mental Health ensures a minimum of four hours of recovery-oriented, interdisciplinary programming on weekends on the inpatient mental health unit.

The Facility Director develops and implements written processes to monitor and track compliance with state involuntary commitment requirements.

The Facility Director directs staff to comply with VA S.A.V.E. training requirements and monitors for compliance.

The Facility Director directs inpatient unit staff, volunteers, and Interdisciplinary Safety Inspection Team members to comply with Mental Health Environment of Care Checklist training requirements and monitors for compliance.

Facility leaders direct staff to conduct a risk assessment on liquid nitrogen storage, to include the small devices stored in examination rooms, and implement changes if needed.