Open Recommendations

OIG recommends that the Bureau of Administration, in coordination with the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, take the following actions: (1) determine whether the questioned costs of $173,720, which were considered unallowable, for six requests for equitable adjustment for the New Embassy Compound Tegucigalpa, Honduras, construction contract (19AQMM19C0223) were allowable and (2) recover any costs determined to be unallowable, as shown in Table B.5.

OIG recommends that the Bureau of Administration, in coordination with the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, (1) review all contract modifications for the New Embassy Compound Tegucigalpa, Honduras, construction contract (19AQMM19C0223) to identify all costs associated with violations of the cost principle requirements in Federal Acquisition Regulation 31.203, which govern the selection of a distribution base for allocating indirect costs, and (2) recover any costs determined to be unallowable.

OIG recommends that the Bureau of Administration, in coordination with the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, (1) review all contract modifications for the New Embassy Compound Beirut, Lebanon, construction contract (SAQMMA17C0079) to identify all costs associated with violations of the cost principle requirements in Federal Acquisition Regulation 31.203, which govern the selection of a distribution base for allocating indirect costs, and (2) recover any costs determined to be unallowable.

OIG recommends that the Bureau of Administration, in coordination with the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), take the following actions: (1) determine whether the questioned costs of $725,509, which were considered to be unsupported, for request for equitable adjustment 003 for the New Consulate Compound Hyderabad, India, construction contract (SAQMMA16C0274), were supported and (2) recover any costs determined to be unsupported, as shown in Table B.6.

Record correct death information on the Numident, terminate payments, and initiate collection of the overpayments or release the underpayments for the deceased beneficiaries in our populations.

Add death information to the Numident for the identified deceased non-beneficiaries.

Make improvements to the Death Information Processing System, such as adding a Numident match to assess Online Verification System discrepancies and resolving minor Social Security number discrepancies before rejecting a state death report.

Establish a process to periodically remind employees to complete Manager to Manager (M2M) requests within the initial 5-business days and provide interim replies if the requests cannot be completed in 5-business days.

Update policy to require that employees document interim communications and retain that documentation in a single location.

Update the M2M application to generate notifications when there is activity on requests, such as updates or resolution, and when requests are nearing the initial 5-business day timeframe or are overdue based on prescribed timelines.

Implement controls to ensure that PC employees complete all necessary actions before M2M requests are placed in “resolved” status.

Until recommendation 4 is implemented, remind PC employees of the requirement to complete all necessary actions to resolve the M2M request before clearing the Paperless records associated with M2M requests.

Engage with managers and employees who process M2M request to identify best practices or ways to further improve the M2M application.

We recommend the Vice President and Controller, Corporate Accounting, include specific training for expense approvers (managers and delegates) as a part of annual TVA One Card training or as a separate module to be completed periodically.

We recommend the Vice President and Controller, Corporate Accounting, consider creating a report in the expense management system that Expense Administration personnel can use to periodically test for split transactions.

We recommend the Vice President and Controller, Corporate Accounting, for exceptions identified during the audit, contact the approving managers and reinforce their responsibilities for ensuring TVA One Card expenses are appropriate.

We recommend the Vice President and Controller, Corporate Accounting, configure the expense management system to notify cardholders when purchases are still pending submission prior to 30 days.

Collaborate with ONDCP to determine the necessary adjustments to the CoC reporting methodology that ensures HUD reports annual numeric targets and actuals to ONDCP by the required November 1 due date.

Collaborate with ONDCP to determine the necessary adjustments to the RHP reporting methodology that ensures HUD reports numeric targets to ONDCP by the required November 1 due date.

Develop and execute a written agreement with ONDCP on the reporting methodology for the CoC annual numeric targets and actuals that would meet future reporting requirements and comply with the Strategy and timeframe for implementation.

Develop and execute a written agreement with ONDCP on the use of reporting annual numeric targets for the RHP performance measures that would meet future reporting requirements and comply with the Strategy and timeframe for implementation.

Establish and implement formal policies and procedures that include (1) the ONDCP reporting process between HUD's OCFO and CPD, (2) the process for reporting to ONDCP, (3) references to any written agreements between HUD and ONDCP, and (4) a requirement for periodic reviews of these written agreements to address any changes in administration, roles, responsibilities, reporting programs, reporting requirements, and reporting methodologies.

We recommend that USAID's Office of Acquisition and Assistance Cost, Audit and Support Division/Contract Audit Management Branch verify that Adventist Development and Relief Agency International corrects the one material weakness in internal control detailed on page 41 of the audit report.

We recommend that USGS communicate oversight procedures identified in the monitoring plan and details of substantial involvement developed in response to Recommendations 1 and 2 to the Colorado School of Mines.

We recommend that NPS develop and implement a policy that requires park units to respond to public health assessments, including planned corrective actions and interim mitigation of all level 4 and 5 deficiencies.