Open Recommendations

OIG recommends that the Bureau of Administration, in coordination with the Bureau of Consular Affairs, develop and implement procedures to ensure that Contracting Officer's Representatives who oversee Consular Systems Modernization program task orders complete and submit reports in the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System within the required 120 days.

OIG recommends that the Bureau of Consular Affairs update the Consular Systems and Technology Procurement Guide to add requirements for acquisition planning, including the contents of written acquisition plans, as specified in Federal Acquisition Regulation 7.103 and 7.105.

Develop and implement policy and protocol revisions recommended in the assessment.

Explore more efficient options for DSN scheduling, such as maintaining a list of DSN users by priority that is updated in real-time and accessible to all users.

Ensure completion of the DAEP's remaining antennas and transmitters and finalize requirements for the LEGS project.

Finalize international agreements, obtain appropriate clearances for installing the remaining 80 kW transmitters, and establish mechanisms to allow for greater oversight of DAEP project sites.

Explore options for utilizing commercial and international partners networks to offload excess demand from the DSN and to serve as backups in the event of network overages or outages.

Ensure vulnerabilities are remediated within established time frames.

Ensure network infrastructure equipment is properly installed.

We recommend that Excellus Health Plan, Inc. identify, for the high-risk diagnoses included in this report, similar instances of noncompliance that occurred before or after our audit period and refund any resulting overpayments to the Federal Government.

We recommend that Excellus Health Plan, Inc. continue its examination of its existing compliance procedures to identify areas where improvements can be made to ensure that diagnosis codes that are at high risk for being miscoded comply with Federal requirements (when submitted to CMS for use in CMS's risk adjustment program) and take the necessary steps to enhance those procedures.

We recommend that Excellus Health Plan, Inc. refund to the Federal Government the $3,103,290 of estimated overpayments.

Embassy Chisinau should comply with the requirements for bilateral progress reviews of the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement programming in the 2001 Letter of Agreement between the United States and Moldova and any amendments.

Embassy Chisinau should install signage at the Consular Section’s entrance with all information required in Department guidance.

Embassy Chisinau should close out procurement files in accordance with Department standards.

Embassy Chisinau should use standard time and attendance forms or seek approval for locally created forms in accordance with Department standards.

Embassy Chisinau should require the embassy employee association board to conduct its oversight responsibilities in accordance with Department standards.

The Bureau of Information Resource Management, in coordination with Embassy Chisinau, should remediate the network and telephone cabling issues at the embassy, in accordance with Department standards.

(U) Rec. 1: The DoD OIG recommended that the Director of the Defense Health Agency work with the Program Executive Officer of the Program Executive Office, Defense Healthcare Management Systems to document and implement the process for identifying and collecting patient health data of DoD patients in the Military Health System in current and future registries within their purview in a written document, such as a standard operating procedure. The procedure should identify, at a minimum, the internal controls throughout the process, the relevant data sources, data fields, and diagnostic codes used in the computer scripts, and should be reviewed…

(U) Rec. 4.a: The DoD OIG recommended that the Director of the Defense Health Agency work with the Chief of the Joint Trauma System establish and implement a process for selecting Coronavirus Disease-2019 events for entry into the Coronavirus Disease-2019 Registry to limit selection bias.

(U) Rec. 5.a: The DoD OIG recommended that the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) establish and implement a policy for developing and populating patient registries that aligns with the Department of Health and Human Services best practices, "Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Registries for Evaluating Patient Outcomes: A User's Guide," current edition.

(U) Rec. 5.b: The DoD OIG recommended that the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) conduct a review of all patient registries in the Military Health System to verify the reliability of data in each registry and implement corrective actions, as necessary.

Embassy Cotonou should comply with the requirements of the 2013 letter of agreement (and subsequent amendments) between the United States and Benin.

Embassy Cotonou should manage asylee files in accordance with Department guidance.

Embassy Cotonou should update and reissue its motor vehicle policy to adhere to Department requirements for other authorized use of U.S. government vehicles.