Open Recommendations

We recommend that the FEMA Administrator resolve questioned costs totaling an estimated $24,438,662 for expenses deemed ineligible by FEMA’s Individual Assistance Program and Policy Guide and determine the amount of any debts owed by recipients for erroneous payments.

We recommend that the FEMA Administrator ensure that future iterations of the Individual Assistance Program and Policy Guide and supporting procedures (a) provide consistent guidance on eligibility of funeral expenses for all future disaster declarations; and (b) allow for reimbursement of only necessary expenses and serious needs, consistent with the law.

We recommend that the FEMA Administrator ensure that FEMA provides its COVID-19 Funeral Assistance call center contractor the guidance and training necessary to meet the quality control and production monitoring metrics as prescribed by its agreement with the contractor.

We recommend that the Office of Insular Affairs work with the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Finance to revise the Department of Finance Standard Operating Procedure 604 to include all methods of allocating compensation costs by documenting responsibilities and procedures for determining the allocation.

We recommend that the Office of Insular Affairs work with the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Finance to develop and implement written procedures for determining cost allowability and for reviewing drawdown requests.

The OIG recommended the under secretary for benefits modify policies and procedures for full-file loan reviews to include detailed steps for loan specialists to conduct reviews, as well as the risk factors and methodology for loan selection.

The OIG recommended the under secretary for benefits develop and update policies and procedures to ensure invoices or bills are obtained for all third-party charges and lenders report itemized closing costs at the lowest level of detail.

The OIG recommended the under secretary for benefits develop and update policies and procedures for the state deviation process and requirements, assess the extent of missing VA authorizations on the schedule of state deviations and obtain the necessary documentation, and obtain a legal opinion from the VA’s Office of General Counsel on the allowability of state deviation charges in excess of the state-published amounts, and then review the potential overcharges identified in the audit sample to determine if action is needed to make the borrowers whole.

The OIG recommended the under secretary for benefits modify policies and procedures for full-file loan reviews to include detailed steps for loan specialists to conduct reviews, as well as the risk factors and methodology for loan selection. 9. Update policies and procedures to ensure the borrower is reimbursed for any overcharges identified during regional loan center quality reviews.

Ensure compliance with DEA policy by no longer hiring applicants for the four core series positions (Special Agent, Intelligence Research Specialist, Diversion Investigator, and Forensic Chemist) who have not fully and successfully completed the pre-employment polygraph examination.

Mitigate the risks associated with having hired individuals identified in Recommendation 2, including ensuring all such DEA personnel satisfy the polygraph examination requirement when applying for positions within DEA, in accordance with DEA policy.

Ensure DEA Task Force Officers who have not successfully completed the pre-employment polygraph examination are returned to their parent law enforcement agency, in accordance with DEA policy.

Implement clear policy designed to prevent inappropriate influence and potential conflicts of interest in the DEA's pre-employment polygraph process, including a prohibition on anyone with a direct or indirect connection to a candidate for employment contacting the polygraph examiner during the employment process.

We recommend the Executive Associate Director for Homeland Security Investigations develop and implement a work plan detailing prioritized upgrades to the Repository for Analytics in a Virtualized Environment, Data Analysis & Research for Trade Transparency System, estimated funding requirements for those upgrades, and timelines for implementing the upgrades. The upgrades should include processes to achieve program objectives and respond to program risks such as capabilities to facilitate identifying trade-based money laundering transactions.

We recommend the Executive Associate Director for Homeland Security Investigations conduct an analysis of the Trade Transparency Unit workforce to determine the number of full-time staff needed to accomplish the unit’s mission and convey those requirements to the Office of the Chief Financial Officer for future funding consideration.

(U) Rec. 1.a: Recommendation is Classified.

(U) Rec. 1.b: Recommendation is Classified.

Document Priority Mail Express delays in the Mail Arrival Quality/Plant Arrival Quality system and coordinate with the Louisiana District Manager to resolve the Priority Mail Express issues.

USDA OIG has determined that this recommendation contains sensitive information and will not be publicly released due to privacy concerns.

USDA OIG has determined that this recommendation contains sensitive information and will not be publicly released due to privacy concerns.

USDA OIG has determined that this recommendation contains sensitive information and will not be publicly released due to privacy concerns.

USDA OIG has determined that this recommendation contains sensitive information and will not be publicly released due to privacy concerns.

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services instruct MACs to implement edits in their claims processing systems to prevent an OTP from being paid for: (1) a weekly bundle with a service date that was within a contiguous 7-day period of another weekly bundle's service date for the same enrollee at the same OTP or (2) two weekly bundles with the same service date for the same enrollee at the same OTP.

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services work with MACs to determine whether claims billed by OTPs for OUD treatment services complied with Medicare requirements.

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services work with MACs to provide education on proper billing of intake activities to the 8 OTPs that billed 14 or more intake activity claims per enrollee during our audit period.