Open Recommendations

The VA Fayetteville Coastal Healthcare System Director ensures local processes are in place, including assigned roles and responsibilities, to manage Office of Inspector General case referrals in compliance with VA Directive 0701, Office of Inspector General Hotline Complaint Referrals.

The Under Secretary for Health assesses the electronic health record reviews completed by the system in response to the community care backlog to determine if a more comprehensive review is warranted with appropriate disclosure to patients placed at risk or harmed as a result of a delay in action on their community care consult, and takes action accordingly.

We recommend the Vice President, Power Supply and Fuels explore options to amend the 2024 compliance report to reflect the accurate number of RECs to be carried forward.

We recommend the Vice President, Power Supply and Fuels take steps to ensure the accuracy of information provided in compliance reports.

We recommend that the NOAA Deputy Under Secretary for Operations ensure that OMAO establishes standard operating procedures to support the QAP for ship construction for the Class B program.

We recommend that the NOAA Deputy Under Secretary for Operations ensure that OMAO establishes a ship-specific surveillance plan in accordance with the QAP.

We recommend that the NOAA Deputy Under Secretary for Operations ensure that OMAO establishes an enterprise-wide acquisition knowledge management system to record and track programmatic, contracting, and technical lessons learned for the Class B program that can be implemented for subsequent classes of new ships or other major acquisitions.

We recommend that the NOAA Deputy Under Secretary for Operations ensure that OMAO conducts a workforce analysis that identifies the skills, certifications, and qualifications needed to support Class B ship construction in accordance with NOAA policy.

We recommend that the NOAA Deputy Under Secretary for Operations ensure that OMAO identifies and implements a means to record observations and track construction deficiencies through resolution.

The IRS Chief Human Capital Officer should establish debt for the 399 employees that did not comply with the terms
of their service agreement.

The IRS Chief Human Capital Officer should develop procedures to ensure that SLRP personnel promptly identify employees that do not comply with the terms of their service agreement and establish debts as necessary.

The IRS Chief Human Capital Officer should develop procedures to obtain an updated loan balance if there is a delay in payment beyond 45 days from the date of application.

The IRS Chief Human Capital Officer should develop procedures to obtain separation reports on a recurring basis to identify employees that have separated and ensure that debt is established timely.

The Chief Human Capital Officer should review the nine employees that had a period of non-pay status and extend their service agreements as needed.

We recommend the Social Security Administration (SSA) take appropriate actions for the 11 widow(er)s who were eligible for higher monthly benefits.

We recommend SSA take appropriate action for the remaining population of 54,773 widow(er)s who may be eligible for higher monthly benefits.

We recommend SSA establish controls to ensure employees evaluate claims for a widow(er)’s indexing (WINDEX) Primary Insurance Amount (PIA) when a widow(er) applies on the record of a wage earner who died before reaching age 62.

We recommend SSA enhance its systems to generate alerts reminding employes to (1) discuss filing options when a claimant lists a deceased spouse on the benefit application or files a widow(er) claim and a retirement claim with the same month of entitlement and (2) document the discussion as required.

Take appropriate actions to correct the remaining 31 critical payments.

To prevent future errors, implement a control in the Critical Payment System (CPS) to flag incorrect or mismatched manual payment entries based on the most current Payment History Update System (PHUS) entry (when available) before processing a critical payment.

To prevent future errors, establish a control that alerts processing center (PC) employees when manual action on a CPS output does not address an overpayment currently established on a beneficiary’s record.

To prevent future errors, establish a control in CPS to ensure employees consider any overpayments present on a beneficiary’s Recovery of Overpayments, Accounting and Reporting when issuing critical payments.

Update policy to guide PC employees in adjusting the CPS and overpayment records when they receive CPS outputs.

Update national procedure with processing instructions for adjustment to PHUS, depending on whether the replacement payment event is present or not.

Evaluate current CPS procedures and strengthen controls to ensure PC and field office employees follow established protocols, including steps to handle allegations of non-receipt of payments.