Open Recommendations

Design and implement effective communication processes with other relevant offices, including the Office of General Counsel, to ensure subsequent events are timely identified and reported completely and accurately.

Improve training plans to ensure individuals responsible for financial reporting functions are adequately prepared to respond to the occurrence of events or transactions that may require financial reporting considerations, including subsequent events, under generally accepted accounting principles.

Reassess existing policies to ensure they are supported by quality information stemming from an effective control environment that reviews the root causes of borrower delinquency prior to charge-off and referral to Treasury. Perform a regular review of the implemented policies to ensure they are responding to relevant risks of noncompliance for the current fiscal year.

Design, implement, and document appropriate monitoring controls to address compliance with DCIA.

Reevaluate the operational infrastructure to address relevant risks of noncompliance and ensure that borrowers are notified timely of delinquency, and if applicable, subsequently referred to Treasury timely.

Update the risk assessment regarding the evaluation of internal controls to ensure it includes all significant programs, key processes, and other material line items on the consolidated financial statements.

In conjunction with relevant program offices, perform and document the internal control evaluation for significant programs or processes affecting the financial statements. This should include entity level controls, manual controls, general information technology controls, and system application controls covering key financial statement line items and risks.

Update the existing policy and implement adequate controls to ensure that the statement of assurances provided by the program offices are adequately documented and reviewed for completeness and accuracy to provide a sufficient basis to support the Administrator’s statement of assurance.

Address the control deficiencies over transactions arising from the implementation of the CARES Act and related legislation by working with the Office of Capital Access and the Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience to implement the recommendations in Appendix I – Material Weaknesses.

Develop a plan to improve the Office of the Chief Financial Officer processes for headquarters program offices and regional offices to deobligate unneeded funds in a timely manner by the end of the fiscal year, as required.

We recommend the DHS OCFO, in coordination with the OCIO, the OCISO, and component IT and financial management, develop, implement, and monitor internal manuals and corrective action plans. PTS

We recommend that DHS perform an analysis to assess the risks of the migration to a new general ledger system, and implement processes and controls to ensure all necessary journal entries are completely recorded each period.

We recommend that DHS enforce accountability of personnel responsible for performing controls over actuarially derived insurance liabilities.

We recommend that DHS obtain additional resources to remediate known control deficiencies.

We recommend that DHS communicate internally to establish and implement policies related to transfers and adjustments of seized and forfeited property.

We recommend that DHS communicate externally to establish agreement with third parties that receive transfers requiring such parties to provide sufficient data elements to achieve DHS objectives.

We recommend that DHS monitor the consistent implementation of policies to validate that they achieve DHS's objectives.

We recommend that DHS develop and maintain a complete listing of temporary storage areas that hold seized and forfeited property.

We recommend that DHS enforce consistent security measures at temporary storage areas that hold seized and forfeited property.

KPMG recommends that FHWA management consider the increased IIJA funding and subsequent increase in expenses and develop an estimation methodology responsive to fluctuations in future expenses.

KPMG recommends that FHWA management review and update accounting policies and operating procedures to capitalize costs for the construction and procurement of non-heritage fixed assets on behalf of FLMA partners.

KPMG recommends that FHWA management establish and maintain communications channels with FLMA partners and establish protocols for communicating asset-level detail for projects required by each agency's property accountants.

KPMG recommends that FHWA management perform an assessment of costs expensed for completed fixed asset construction projects to determine materiality and record correcting accounting entries as needed.

KPMG recommends that DOT management perform procedures to consistently approve and document new or modified user account and recertification requests and timely remove separated users as required by internal policy and standards for effective internal control systems.

KPMG recommends that DOT management update policies and procedures to assign backup responsibilities for control operators.