Open Recommendations

We recommend that the FWS address the questioned costs related to unfunded retirement and retiree health totaling $386,763 (Federal share) in consultation with appropriate U.S. Department of the Interior offices to determine if the costs are allowable pursuant to Federal regulations and award terms and conditions.

We recommend that the Massachusetts Department of Health and Human Services remediate the three security control findings OIG identified.

We recommend that the Massachusetts Department of Health and Human Services assess the effectiveness of all required NIST SP 800-53 controls according to theorganization's defined frequency.

We recommend that the Massachusetts Department of Health and Human Services assess and adjust if necessary, vulnerability management procedures to ensure anypertinent publicly disclosed computer security vulnerabilities are assessed for risk and remediated promptly, if necessary.

The U.S. Mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in coordination with the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs and the Foreign Service Institute, should develop and implement a training program on how NATO works and how to negotiate in NATO committees.

CMS should monitor the use of buprenorphine and share information, as appropriate, with Departmental partners.

CMS should inform providers about buprenorphine use and the low risk of diversion to encourage providers to treat more Part D enrollees who have opioid use disorder.

CMS should take steps to inform providers about the availability of buprenorphine combination products in Part D, which can minimize the risk of misuse and diversion.

After conducting the risk assessment from Recommendation 8 above, if necessary, ensure the Director, Office of Human Resources, incorporates the Contracting Officer Representatives’ duties and responsibilities into their individual performance plans.

For any of the 3,024 loans found to be subject to the temporary policy or otherwise ineligible for insurance, require the lenders to execute indemnification agreements covering a period of at least 5 years or reimburse HUD for any claims to put up to $26,840,071 to better use by protecting HUD against potential losses. For any indemnification agreements executed, HUD should properly store the agreements and record the agreement data.

Continue to provide training and collaborate with program office staff, as needed, to ensure the timely and complete reconciliation of the population of transactions used for estimating improper payments to the general ledger is performed.

Continue to provide training and collaborate with program office staff, as needed, to ensure the timely and complete reconciliation of the population of transactions used for estimating improper payments to the general ledger is performed.

Collaborate with the responsible staff involved in the payment integrity reporting process to ensure timely and complete reconciliations are performed on the populations subject to sampling for improper payment reviews.

Formally document and implement appropriate preventative and monitoring controls prior to approval of 7(a) loan guaranty purchases.

Exercise effective management review controls over the statistician’s work by verifying that the documentation of the sampling and estimation methodology plans comprehensively outlines the details of the implemented sampling and extrapolation methodology, while maintaining statistical validity.

Design and document adequate review procedures to ensure that the results of the sample meet the PIIA objectives.

We recommend that the Administration for Children and Families work with State agencies to ensure compliance with Federal requirements to report missing children episodes to law enforcement for entry into the NCIC database in a timely manner.

Coordinate with the Information Technology organization to explore adding Taxpayer Relations inventories into the CII, so that all Accounts Management inventory is located in the same inventory management system.

Review the four $200,000 Indemnity Reviews identified for CY 2020 in California and Florida, and if adequate support is not provided, recover $1,082,604 in indemnity payments.

To strengthen HHS' enterprise-wide cybersecurity program, based on our reviews across the Department, we recommend that HHS continue to work with the OpDivs to implement automated CDM solutions to increase awareness and improve mitigation efforts across all of HHS.

To strengthen HHS' enterprise-wide cybersecurity program, based on our reviews across the Department, we recommend that HHS confirm that the OpDivs contingency plan testing is being performed within the timeframe required by HHS policy.

We recommend that the HHS OCIO work with the OpDivs to ensure that all OpDivs implement the capability to deny access to mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, from connecting to the network if the device's software is outdated.

We recommend that the HHS OCIO work with the OpDivs to ensure that all OpDivs complete its discovery of all information systems and maintain an up- to-date inventory of systems, software, and licenses.

We recommend that the HHS OCIO work with the OpDivs to ensure that all OpDivs complete its discovery of all information systems and maintain an up- to-date inventory of systems, software, and licenses.

We recommend that the HHS OCIO work with the OpDivs to ensure that all OpDiv's SCRM policies and procedures are being consistently implemented across the organization and ensure their execution.

We recommend that the HHS OCIO work with the OpDivs to ensure that all OpDivs finalize and implement draft policies and procedures to include the review of suppliers or contractors for risks to the organization's systems and system components.

We recommend that the HHS OCIO work with the OpDivs to ensure that all OpDivs implement the requirement to resolve high and critical vulnerabilities within 30 and 15 days respectively and create POA&Ms to monitor and resolve the weakness in a timely manner.

We recommend that the HHS OCIO work with the OpDivs to ensure that secure configuration settings are being maintained as defined by existing policy.

We recommend that the HHS OCIO work with the OpDivs to ensure that all operational systems have multifactor or an alternative strong authentication mechanism (PIV or an Identity Assurance Level (IAL)3/Authenticator Assurance Level (AAL) 3 credential) for both privileged and non-privileged users.

We recommend that the HHS OCIO work with the OpDivs to ensure that policies and procedures for identity and access management are being consistently implemented and proper safeguards (i.e., logging, monitoring, review of privileged user activity) are developed across the Department to ensure their execution.

Rec. 2.a.1: The DoD OIG recommended that the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment review and update DoD Directive 4705.01E to update the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment's oversight responsibilities over the Executive Agent to include that the assessment of the Executive Agent's effectiveness required in Enclosure 2, paragraph 2c, be produced in writing.

Rec. 2.a.2: The DoD OIG recommended that the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment review and update DoD Directive 4705.01E to update the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment's oversight responsibilities over the Executive Agent to include written communication to the DoD Executive Agent and DoD Components when nonperformance of responsibilities is identified.

Rec. 2.b: The DoD OIG recommended that the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment review and update DoD Directive 4705.01E to correct the internal references in Enclosures 2 and 3.

Rec. 2.c.1: The DoD OIG recommended that the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment review and update DoD Directive 4705.01E to update the Joint Water Resources Management Action Group Charter within DoD Directive 4705.01E to clarify the roles and responsibilities of the Joint Water Resources Management Action Group. Specifically, the updates should identify the specific DoD Components that should attend the Joint Water Resources Management Action Group and instruct those Components to issue guidance designating an office of primary responsibility for attending and communicate those designations to the Executive Agent.

Rec. 2.c.2: The DoD OIG recommended that the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment review and update DoD Directive 4705.01E to update the Joint Water Resources Management Action Group Charter within DoD Directive 4705.01E to clarify the roles and responsibilities of the Joint Water Resources Management Action Group. Specifically, the updates should remove the requirement for the Joint Water Resources Management Action Group to develop and maintain an improved, expanded, and automated water resources intelligence database for the rapid retrieval of selected data, as it is already a requirement for the Executive Agent to ensure this responsibility is…

Rec. 3.a: The DoD OIG recommended that the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment develop and issue a DoD Instruction to supplement the DoD Directive 4705.01E with overarching procedures for implementing the policy. At a minimum, the Instruction should include and update definitions for terms used throughout the Directive, such as "prioritized force materiel requirements," to ensure a common understanding across DoD Components.

Rec. 3.b: The DoD OIG recommended that the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment develop and issue a DoD Instruction to supplement the DoD Directive 4705.01E with overarching procedures for implementing the policy. At a minimum, the Instruction should, in coordination with the Executive Agent for land?based water resources, identify the specific documents, information, and support that DoD Components must provide to the Executive Agent as well as deadlines for their provision.

Rec. B.3.a: The DoD OIG recommended that the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Procurement) to develop and implement a requirement to provide periodic training on the DoD Instruction 7640.02 reporting requirements to contracting officials involved in Contract Audit Followup system reporting with an emphasis on: 1. Describing the DoD contracting officer's responsibility to maintain Contract Audit Followup records. 2. Entering accurate data in the Contract Audit Followup system data fields, including the Questioned Costs Sustained, Resolution Date, Disposition Date, and Status data fields. 3. The importance of timely dispositioning audit reports within 12 months of the audit report date.

Rec. C.3.a: The DoD OIG recommended that the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Procurement), develop and implement a requirement to provide periodic training to termination contracting officers that covers the requirement to estimate funds needed for settling the termination and recommend the release of excess funds.

Rec. C.3.b: The DoD OIG recommended that the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Procurement), develop and implement a requirement to provide periodic training to termination contracting officers that covers the requirement to document prenegotiation objectives in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 15.406-1(b).

On November 29, 2022, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration recommended that the Director and Deputy Director, Submission Processing, Wage and Investment Division, protect the identity of IRS employees signing manually generated tax processing correspondence by removing their first name and replacing it with the employee’s title, Mr., Ms., or a gender-neutral title, in accordance with Chief Counsel Notice N(30)000-317.

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should ensure that all tax processing correspondence is revised to remove the signing IRS employee’s first name and replace it with the employee’s title.

Reconsider the National Personnel Records Center’s definition of medical emergency, make any necessary changes to internal policy, communicate the definition to veterans and stakeholders, and implement procedures for how medical emergency requests are made and how they are validated.

Conduct a study to expand Access to Financial Institutions searches between the Supplemental Security Income initial application and subsequent eligibility redeterminations.

Develop a specific, multiyear plan for how the BOP will evaluate its ongoing and proposed changes to the employee discipline process, as well as key performance indicators, by year, to decrease the backlog of its employee misconduct cases and adjudications.

Develop and implement a reliable method to calculate appropriate staffing levels at the enterprise and institution levels. Such a method should seek to baseline appropriate staffing levels for the current inmate population and be flexible to account for future population changes overall and among institutions, as well as other factors (e.g., institution security level and layout) that determine appropriate staffing levels. Once such a method is developed, communicate the need to align funding levels with appropriate staffing levels to executive and legislative branch stakeholders.

(U) Rec. 4.a.1: The DoD OIG recommended that the Principal Director of Defense Pricing and Contracting, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment direct the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council to revise Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement Procedures, Guidance, and Information Part 201, "Federal Acquisition Regulation System," Subpart 201.6, "Career Development, Contracting Authority, and Responsibilities," to require contracting officers to conduct an initial review of the contracting officer's representative file within a set timeframe, such as within 6 months, of designating a contracting officer's representative to ensure that the contracting officer's representative is complying with the designation…

(U) Rec. 4.a.2: The DoD OIG recommended that the Principal Director of Defense Pricing and Contracting, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment direct the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council to revise Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement Procedures, Guidance, and Information Part 201, "Federal Acquisition Regulation System," Subpart 201.6, "Career Development, Contracting Authority, and Responsibilities," to require contracting officers to, after the initial review, establish a contracting officer's representative file review frequency not less than once annually, based on the contracting officer's assessment of the risks, complexity, and value of the contract.

(U) Rec. 4.a.3: The DoD OIG recommended that the Principal Director of Defense Pricing and Contracting, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment direct the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council to revise Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement Procedures, Guidance, and Information Part 201, "Federal Acquisition Regulation System," Subpart 201.6, "Career Development, Contracting Authority, and Responsibilities," to require contracting officers to provide comments to the contracting officer's representative and requiring activity within 30 days of a review on the contracting officer's representative's level of compliance with designation letter requirements and require the contracting officer's representative to take corrective…

(U) Rec. 4.b: The DoD OIG recommended that the Principal Director of Defense Pricing and Contracting, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment revise DoD Instruction 5000.72, "DoD Standard for Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) Certification," March 26, 2015 (Incorporating Change 2, November 6, 2020), to align with the updated contracting officer's representative file review requirements in Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement Procedures, Guidance, and Information Part 201, "Federal Acquisition Regulation System," Subpart 201.6, "Career Development, Contracting Authority, and Responsibilities."