Open Recommendations

Implement a tool to closely track the timely completion and review of an annual Disaster Recovery Exercise/Contingency Plan Test conducted to account for all information systems. (New)

Develop and implement standard operating procedures for Disaster Recovery Exercise/Contingency Plan Test coverage of external vendors systems including Administrative Resource Center Financial System. (New)

Enhance and implement core and specialized training programs targeted at the Authorizing Official, System Owner, and Information System Security Officer to develop competencies in contingency planning for external vendor systems. (New)

Complete the three steps in accomplishing Business Impact Analysis in accordance with NIST SP 800-34, Revision 1 and ensure the application adheres to the minimum requirements. (New)

Develop a contingency plan and perform Business Impact Analysis for Administrative Resource Center Financial System. (New)

This recommendation contains sensitive information that should not be made public. Therefore, we are not including the wording for this recommendation.

This recommendation contains sensitive information that should not be made public. Therefore, we are not including the wording for this recommendation.

We recommend the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training work with Oregon, Louisiana, Delaware, and Mississippi to ensure the appropriate return of approximately $105.1 million in TFFF reimbursements for first-week regular UI compensation paid that were associated with ineligible weeks.

We recommend the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training establish a deadline by which states are required to perform a timely review of past drawdowns and provide evidence that drawdowns were for reimbursement of eligible first-week regular UI compensation paid by the state for claim weeks that fell within the TFFF program period.

We recommend the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training reassess the eligibility of all states with waiting week provisions according to their state laws to ensure that the waiting week was not in effect when states accessed TFFF funds prior to December 31, 2020.

We recommend the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training ensure that any state drawdowns of the remaining almost $5 billion ($4,948,811,006) in TFFF funds are only for the reimbursement of first-week regular UI compensation paid by the state that fall within the TFFF program period (March 27, 2020, through September 6, 2021).

We recommend the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training establish written procedures and deadlines for the timely return of funding for TFFF and future similar programs and consult with OMB and Treasury officials to execute the proper return of unused funds that remain within states’ accounts.

We recommend the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training capture lessons learned from the TFFF program and use the information to develop effective internal control procedures to ensure states meet program requirements, including eligibility, and have sufficient infrastructure in place to pay claimants’ UI benefits without delay for similar temporary emergency UI programs that may be established in the future.

We recommend the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training capture lessons learned from the TFFF program and use the information to develop and implement controls to ensure the methodology and procedures are documented and maintained for estimating allotments and subsequent adjustments for similar temporary emergency UI programs that may be established in the future.

We recommend the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training: Develop and implement risk tolerance for the amount of participants being served under the WIOA Adult, Youth, and Dislocated Workers program.

We recommend the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training: Regularly monitor Bergen Community College’s performance and provide the necessary assistance to ensure $7.2 million in remaining funds are used as intended by the completion of the one-year extension period

We recommend the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training: Resolve the $265,040 in questioned costs associated with ineligible participants and ineligible payments

We recommend the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training: Establish and implement a plan to improve monitoring activities to ensure grantees and sub-recipients are properly documenting eligibility.

We recommend the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training: Resolve the $6.9 million in questioned costs associated with unaccounted expenditures and assist the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development in expediting the closure of corrective action related to its accounting system.

Develop a plan to include proposed quantities, projected cost, and actionable milestones to fully deploy the eArrow lock and high security mailbox initiatives, and include measures to assess their effectiveness.

Improve vulnerability management processes to ensure system changes occur within organization timelines.

Develop and approve an authorization to operate for the special-purpose systems.

Include system personnel during the security categorization process to ensure that all necessary information types are considered when determining the security categorization for special-purpose systems.

Implement the appropriate physical security controls to restrict and monitor access to the facility, its server room, communication closets, and generators.

Complete a Master Plan to address all of the buildings’ needs for the next 10-20 years or more, beyond the current project-specific “Facilities Management Master Plan,” and use the Master Plan to prioritize projects.