Open Recommendations

Work with ARC to resolve the questioned costs totaling $52,289 for non-ARC matching equipment costs.

Develop and implement policies and procedures to review federal and matching grant expenses for compliance with applicable laws, regulations and ARC grant requirements.

Work with ARC staff to correct the 2024 ARC grant financial report and resolve questioned costs.

Develop and implement policies and procedures to ensure ARC grant matching requirements are met in full.

Work with ARC staff to correct and resolve the 2024 ARC grant match deficiency.

Develop and implement policies and procedures to ensure grant reports are submitted on time as required by ARC.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau develop and implement procedures for maintaining documentation of testing, the issues identified, and the resolution of errors identified.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau develop and implement a process to monitor and evaluate the quality of the data during the data collection phase.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau establish and implement oversight to ensure that issues identified during the data collection phase are resolved and documentation is maintained.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau develop and implement a process to conduct recurring tests of ARC responses to ensure that the bureau’s systems are processing data as intended.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau develop and implement recurring ACS training for FRs to ensure that vacant HUs are correctly identified and coded.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau update policies and procedures to include controls to ensure that FRs make personal visits to HUs when required, know when to contact a recommended contact and know what information should be included in an interview note.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau Update policies and procedures and implement controls to ensure that field supervisors review interview notes for vacant HU interviews and request FRs to reclassify interviews and obtain additional information to support the vacant status for HUs, when necessary.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau update policies and procedures and implement controls to monitor supervisory reviews of noninterview cases and ensure that notes include sufficient information and follow-up actions when Type A cases are submitted.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau reevaluate and update timelines and training for supervisory review of noninterviews to ensure that all noninterview procedures are implemented and cases are reviewed by supervisors before closeout.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau develop and implement procedures to track and monitor supervisory review within ROSCO to ensure that approval of noninterview procedures were followed before closing out a case for supervisory review in ROSCO.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau develop and implement recurring testing of system controls in ROSCO to ensure that noninterview cases are reviewed by a supervisor before being closed out.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau reevaluate and update the design of the reinterview operation to meet the bureau’s goal of detecting and deterring falsification, considering (1) staffing and funding constraints, (2) FR behavior and experience, and (3) respondents’ reluctance to respond to reinterviews.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau evaluate and determine the extent to which FR data falsification occurs during resident-level GQ interviews and revise the reinterview operation to include GQ residents, as appropriate.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau develop and implement controls to ensure that reinterviews are conducted for remote Alaska cases in a timely manner.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau develop and implement FR Data Tool policies and procedures that require supervisors to respond within 2 weeks of the initial inquiry.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau update policies and procedures to ensure that field supervisors and regional survey managers are notified of response deadlines for inquiries developed through the FR Data Tool and implement controls to ensure that they respond within 2 weeks.

Resolve the $25,036 in questioned travel, fringe benefit, long-term visa, participant
payment, and summer salary expenses for which Cornell has not agreed to
reimburse NSF and direct Cornell to repay or otherwise remove the sustained
questioned costs from its NSF awards. Additionally, based on Cornell’s formal response to the audit report, we alsosuggest that NSF consider whether Cornell appropriately tracked and used all
funds awarded for participant support when resolving the $809 in questioned costs for REDACTED.

Direct Cornell to provide documentation supporting that it has repaid or otherwise
credited the $39,608 in questioned publication, travel, fringe benefit, and
promotional material expenses for which it has agreed to reimburse NSF

Direct Cornell to strengthen its procedures for ensuring that it only charges
allowable costs to NSF awards. Cornell’s updated procedures should:
Require Cornell to verify that research publications acknowledge the NSF
funding source(s) to be charged before charging the publication expenses to the
NSF award(s). Address how to properly review travel, participant, and promotional material
expenses to identify unallowable costs