Open Recommendations

Develop and implement a policy and procedures for storing, safeguarding, and reporting
accurate partnership information such as memorandums of understanding and progress
reports to comply with the partnership process.

Develop guidance for evaluating potential partnerships based on strategic need and opportunity.

Develop and implement a contingency planning process in the event that not all pledged funding from a partner is received.

Develop and provide training on the policy and procedures for the strategic partnership process.

Update the USADF Manual System to clarify conflicting guidance for grant administration and grantee reporting and project development requirements for grants awarded under partnerships.

Develop a policy and procedures for the use of the Grants Information System for Evaluation and Learning that is aligned with USADF's Manual System, Federal requirements, and USADF's strategic partnership management.

Develop and provide recurring training to officials on the revised USADF Manual System and Grants Information System for Evaluation and Learning policy.

Develop a process for periodically reviewing and evaluating policies to ensure their relevance and effectiveness to current practices in USADF's grant administration.

We recommend that the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of USPTO direct the Commissioner for Patents to update agency-wide policies and procedures explicitly requiring SPEs to (1) take necessary actions to correct OPQA-identified quality errors and (2) coach patent examiners on the errors.

We recommend that the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of USPTO direct the Commissioner for Patents to develop requirements for TCs to monitor (1) actions taken by SPEs to correct OPQA-identified quality errors and (2) coaching that SPEs provide to patent examiners on the errors.

We recommend that the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of USPTO direct the Commissioner for Patents to develop policy that requires supervisory reviews of compliant OPQA quality findings and that the results of these reviews be documented and evaluated to ensure compliant findings are accurate.

We recommend that the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of USPTO direct the Commissioner for Patents to develop and document a methodology for OPQA consistency audits that ensures quality reviewers with low levels of noncompliant findings are identified and evaluated.

We recommend that the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of USPTO direct the Commissioner for Patents to ensure results of OPQA’s random and robust quality reviews, including double patenting errors, are included in USPTO’s annual performance reports.

We recommend that the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of USPTO direct the Commissioner for Patents to regularly evaluate OPQA quality review results to ensure pertinent patent examination quality information is included in USPTO’s annual performance reports.

Reiterate policies to ensure refunds and voids are warranted and unit management is reviewing the Postal Service Form 1412 and supporting documentation.

Update to ensure the Retail Systems Software receipts used to support the amount of voided postage include the dollar amount of the postage that was voided.

Verify and ensure retail unit management is properly performing the monthly arrow key certification.

Reiterate to unit management the policies for providing adequate security for all accountable items.

FHFA’s SAOP in coordination with the System Owner, should conduct a review of all current privileged user accounts in the FHFA.gov production environment to ensure that each privileged user account has documented access requests and approvals.

FHFA’s SAOP in coordination with the System Owner, should update FHFA’s FHFA.gov Customer Controls to document account management requirements for non-privileged users to include account creation and authorization procedures.

FHFA’s SAOP in coordination with the System Owner, should evaluate and implement additional FHFA.gov audit logging capabilities to ensure the FHFA.gov audit logs captures access and deactivation events for all user accounts.

Develop and implement formal written policies and procedures to ensure all subaward agreements fully comply with federal requirements, including the inclusion of the Federal Award Identification Number. These procedures should also require that subrecipients provide final written certification to the federal awarding agency or pass-through entity at the conclusion of each federal award, confirming that the project or activity was completed or that the agreed-upon level of effort was expended.

Provide staff training on these policies and procedures, and establish a process for periodic internal reviews or monitoring to verify compliance.

Establish and implement policies and procedures to ensure timely preparation and submission of financial and progress reports in accordance with the Uniform Guidance and ARC grant agreement requirements.

Develop an automated process to validate the accuracy of monthly recycling reports, invoices, and checks submitted by contractors, including a process to validate supporting documentation maintained by contractors.