Open Recommendations

Ensure VDSS documents its desk monitoring process to communicate to its personnel expectations regarding the: (1) nature and scope of monitoring activities, (2) required frequency of monitoring, and (3) sufficient documentation to substantiate that monitoring occurred, as well as the results.

Ensure VDSS develops and implements a compliant process for subaward reimbursement that includes subrecipient autonomy over tracking expenditures to funding sources and adequate VDSS controls for ensuring subrecipients adequately account for transactions by funding source at the time of execution.

Ensure that VDSS develops and implements guidance to assist its personnel and its subrecipients through the administration of the new process for reimbursing subrecipient CACs in compliance with the DOJ Grants Financial Guide and the Uniform Guidance.

Remedy the $91,918 in unallowable costs resulting from the incorrect percentage applied by VDSS when reimbursing the CACs.

Ensure VDSS implements controls to verify that subrecipients' time and effort charges are based on actual amounts.

Remedy the $9,065 in unsupported personnel costs.

Ensure VDSS enhances its monitoring policies and procedures to include a process for reviewing the accuracy of performance data in PMT.

Ensure VDSS develops, implements, and distributes a written proration strategy to the CACs to ensure PMT data is complete, accurate, and reflects only VOCA-funded activities.

We recommend that the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information Administrator, in coordination with the Department’s Senior Procurement Executive and Director of Acquisition Management, direct FirstNet Authority’s Chief Executive Officer and Chief Procurement Officer to: Ensure that future NPSBN contracts and task orders sufficiently define performance standards and measurements of success for achieving requirements prior to their award to protect the government’s interest in accordance with the FAR.

We recommend that the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information Administrator, in coordination with the Department’s Senior Procurement Executive and Director of Acquisition Management, direct FirstNet Authority’s Chief Executive Officer and Chief Procurement Officer to: Ensure service availability requirements for the 5G network and Pacific territories are clearly defined within the contract.

We recommend that the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information Administrator, in coordination with the Department’s Senior Procurement Executive and Director of Acquisition Management, direct FirstNet Authority’s Chief Executive Officer and Chief Procurement Officer to: Modify the current NPSBN QASP to ensure that:

(a) The method for measuring service availability is designed to protect the government’s interest and ensure that services rendered by AT&T meet contract requirements and that the measurement provides a complete and accurate assessment of service availability.
(b) Surveillance methods are sufficiently defined and detailed to verify that AT&T’s performance meets service availability contract requirements…

We recommend that the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information Administrator direct FirstNet Authority’s Chief Executive Officer and Chief Procurement Officer to: Conduct sufficient surveillance of service availability prior to acceptance of contract deliverables, including obtaining appropriate data required for oversight, performing random audits, reviewing AT&T’s QCP results, and applying timely remediation procedures in instances of noncompliance, as directed in the QASP and the FAR.

We recommend the Vice President, Nuclear Engineering, evaluate probability of occurrence and financial impact to verify they are accurately reported.

We recommend the Vice President, Nuclear Engineering, take steps to ensure that risk information in the Enterprise Risk Management system of record is accurate.

The Commissioner, LB&I Division, should assess the compliance risk of **********2**********, and the viability of using Form 1099 data to identify Form 8938 nonfilers to improve the compliance efforts of Campaign 896.

The VA Fayetteville Coastal Healthcare System Director confirms full implementation of the VA Community Care Oversight and Consult Management Council.

The Under Secretary for Health reviews practices and procedures for managing consults to identify and prioritize appointment scheduling for patients with serious health conditions (high‑priority consults), such as cancer, and provide direction to the field on the process to use to make this determination.

The VA Fayetteville Coastal Healthcare System Director directs the development and implementation of community care service standard operating procedures to address identification and management of high-priority consults, timeliness of consult processing, and care coordination that aligns with direction provided by Veterans Health Administration’s Integrated Veterans Care program.

The VA Fayetteville Coastal Healthcare System Director ensures staff are trained in all newly developed community care standard operating procedures and that adherence to policy and practice is monitored.

The VA Fayetteville Coastal Healthcare System Director confirms completion of a review of quality management processes to ensure quality management staff, when reviewing patient safety events, consider potential system issues and, if present, recommend they be addressed using other quality management reviews.

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.

The VA Fayetteville Coastal Healthcare System Director confirms full implementation of the VA Community Care Oversight and Consult Management Council.

The Under Secretary for Health reviews practices and procedures for managing consults to identify and prioritize appointment scheduling for patients with serious health conditions (high-priority consults), such as cancer, and provide direction to the field on the process to use to make this determination.

The VA Fayetteville Coastal Healthcare System Director directs the development and implementation of community care service standard operating procedures to address identification and management of high-priority consults, timeliness of consult processing, and care coordination that aligns with direction provided by Veterans Health Administrations Integrated Veterans Care program.

The VA Fayetteville Coastal Healthcare System Director ensures staff are trained in all newly developed community care standard operating procedures and that adherence to policy and practice is monitored.

The VA Fayetteville Coastal Healthcare System Director confirms completion of a review of quality management processes to ensure quality management staff, when reviewing patient safety events, consider potential system issues and, if present, recommend they be addressed using other quality management reviews.

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.

Some or all of the recommendation is not publicly available due to concerns with information protected under the Freedom of Information Act.

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 OJP work with Alabama DECA to ensure that One Place establishes written policies and procedures related to program operations, including the intake of sexual assault cases and performance reporting, and distribute those among relevant officials and staff.

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

[Description omitted; DOJ has determined that this recommendation contains information that is limited official use or classified.]

Identify all required National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication (SP) 800-53 Rev 5 high baseline security controls that have not yet been selected and implemented, conduct a security impact analysis to document potential security ramifications from not implementing the identified controls, and develop plans of action and milestones.

Identify and update system documentation that has outdated NIST SP 800-53 security controls documented within the System Security Plan (SSP) and update all SSP documentation and appendices to reflect the current selection and implementation status of security controls.

Develop and implement a process to ensure that system vulnerabilities currently being tracked only in FAA's Security Management & Assessment Reporting Tool (SMART) system are fully tracked within Cyber Security Assessment & Management (CSAM), the Departmental system of record.

Update and track mitigation efforts for all identified NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 high baseline security controls that were assessed as either "other than satisfied" or with an implementation status as "not implemented;" and accurately document the controls implementation status within the SSP.

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.