Open Recommendations

Rec. 3: The DoD OIG recommended that the Director of the Defense Health Agency annually provide the Director of Morale, Welfare, Recreation, and Resale Policy with data of beneficiaries prescription opioid use from military treatment facilities.

Rec. 4: The DoD OIG recommended that the Director of Morale, Welfare, Recreation, and Resale Policy, who reports to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, apply the beneficiaries prescription opioid use data provided annually by the Director of the Defense Health Agency to develop and implement a plan with milestones to make naloxone products available for online and in-store purchases, as appropriate.

Rec. 5.a: The DoD OIG recommended that the Secretary of the Army, in coordination with the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, develop and implement a plan for tracking, identifying trends of, and analyzing data related to the illegal use of fentanyl in accordance with the requirements of section 706 of the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.

Rec. 5.b: The DoD OIG recommended that the Secretary of the Navy, in coordination with the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, develop and implement a plan for tracking, identifying trends of, and analyzing data related to the illegal use of fentanyl in accordance with the requirements of section 706 of the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.

Rec. 5.c: The DoD OIG recommended that the Secretary of the Air Force, in coordination with the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, develop and implement a plan for tracking, identifying trends of, and analyzing data related to the illegal use of fentanyl in accordance with the requirements of section 706 of the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.

Ensure an approach for managing GTAs that have been canceled, unfulfilled, modified, or
realigned is formalized in HLS Program policy.

Ensure an approach for decrementing costs for GTAs submitted after contract proposal,
including a timeline for recovery, is formalized in HLS Program policy.

Update the Use of Government Resources clause in both the SpaceX and Blue Origin contracts
to reflect GTA policy changes.

Consult with the Commercial Crew Program to review post-variance acceptance risk assessment
findings related to its manual control waiver for lessons that can be applied prior to HLS
certification.

Update crew survival analyses, including decision packages, to include strategies for extended
crew survival.

Ensure that DRVT develops, documents, and implements policies and procedures to capture, record, and report performance data so that the reported level of services provided is accurate and complete.

Ensure that DRVT develops and implements written programmatic policies and procedures for prorating performance for clients who are served by more than one funding source.

Ensure DRVT implements adequate controls to ensure unique usernames and passwords are required for each employee that accesses its accounting system.

Ensure that DRVT designs and implements budget management controls that ensure (1) subaward-funded expenditures recorded in its accounting system do not exceed approved budgets and (2) corrections made within its accounting system ensure the accuracy and completeness of expenditures and programmatic accomplishments for the subaward.

Remedy $42,612 in unallowable indirect costs.

Ensure DRVT has adequate policies, procedures, and controls for the appropriate handling of G&A costs.

Develop and implement policies and procedures to review federal and matching grant expenses for compliance with applicable laws, regulations and ARC grant requirements.

Work with ARC staff to correct the 2024 ARC grant financial report and resolve questioned costs.

Develop and implement policies and procedures to ensure ARC grant matching requirements are met in full.

Work with ARC staff to correct and resolve the 2024 ARC grant match deficiency.

Develop and implement policies and procedures to ensure grant reports are submitted on time as required by ARC.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau develop and implement procedures for maintaining documentation of testing, the issues identified, and the resolution of errors identified.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau develop and implement a process to monitor and evaluate the quality of the data during the data collection phase.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau establish and implement oversight to ensure that issues identified during the data collection phase are resolved and documentation is maintained.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau develop and implement a process to conduct recurring tests of ARC responses to ensure that the bureau’s systems are processing data as intended.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau develop and implement recurring ACS training for FRs to ensure that vacant HUs are correctly identified and coded.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau update policies and procedures to include controls to ensure that FRs make personal visits to HUs when required, know when to contact a recommended contact and know what information should be included in an interview note.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau Update policies and procedures and implement controls to ensure that field supervisors review interview notes for vacant HU interviews and request FRs to reclassify interviews and obtain additional information to support the vacant status for HUs, when necessary.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau update policies and procedures and implement controls to monitor supervisory reviews of noninterview cases and ensure that notes include sufficient information and follow-up actions when Type A cases are submitted.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau reevaluate and update timelines and training for supervisory review of noninterviews to ensure that all noninterview procedures are implemented and cases are reviewed by supervisors before closeout.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau develop and implement procedures to track and monitor supervisory review within ROSCO to ensure that approval of noninterview procedures were followed before closing out a case for supervisory review in ROSCO.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau develop and implement recurring testing of system controls in ROSCO to ensure that noninterview cases are reviewed by a supervisor before being closed out.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau reevaluate and update the design of the reinterview operation to meet the bureau’s goal of detecting and deterring falsification, considering (1) staffing and funding constraints, (2) FR behavior and experience, and (3) respondents’ reluctance to respond to reinterviews.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau evaluate and determine the extent to which FR data falsification occurs during resident-level GQ interviews and revise the reinterview operation to include GQ residents, as appropriate.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau develop and implement controls to ensure that reinterviews are conducted for remote Alaska cases in a timely manner.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau develop and implement FR Data Tool policies and procedures that require supervisors to respond within 2 weeks of the initial inquiry.

We recommend that the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau update policies and procedures to ensure that field supervisors and regional survey managers are notified of response deadlines for inquiries developed through the FR Data Tool and implement controls to ensure that they respond within 2 weeks.

Resolve the $25,036 in questioned travel, fringe benefit, long-term visa, participant
payment, and summer salary expenses for which Cornell has not agreed to
reimburse NSF and direct Cornell to repay or otherwise remove the sustained
questioned costs from its NSF awards. Additionally, based on Cornell’s formal response to the audit report, we alsosuggest that NSF consider whether Cornell appropriately tracked and used all
funds awarded for participant support when resolving the $809 in questioned costs for REDACTED.

Direct Cornell to provide documentation supporting that it has repaid or otherwise
credited the $39,608 in questioned publication, travel, fringe benefit, and
promotional material expenses for which it has agreed to reimburse NSF

Direct Cornell to strengthen its procedures for ensuring that it only charges
allowable costs to NSF awards. Cornell’s updated procedures should:
Require Cornell to verify that research publications acknowledge the NSF
funding source(s) to be charged before charging the publication expenses to the
NSF award(s). Address how to properly review travel, participant, and promotional material
expenses to identify unallowable costs

Direct Cornell to update its policies to no longer permit personnel to charge
unallowable costs to NSF awards. These updated policies should not permit Cornell
to: Apply fringe benefits to stipend payments when paying stipends to Cornell
employees. Charge H-1B long-term immigration visa costs to NSF awards. Charge summer salaries at amounts that exceed the employee’s IBS at the time
the employee earned the summer salary

Resolve the $24,584 in questioned inadequately supported service, participant,
health insurance, travel, and salary expenses and direct Cornell to repay or
otherwise remove the sustained questioned costs from its NSF awards

Direct Cornell to provide documentation supporting that it has repaid or otherwise
credited the $7,544 in questioned service and participant expenses for which it has
agreed to reimburse NSF.

Direct Cornell to strengthen its procedures or other internal controls for obtaining
and maintaining documentation to support costs charged to NSF awards. The
updated procedures or controls should ensure:
Vendors submit service invoices that contain sufficient detail to support that the
costs invoiced are: (i) allowable per applicable federal, NSF, and Cornell policies;
and (ii) consistent with the approved quotation or purchase order.

Principal Investigators, or other appropriate personnel, capture all participant
payment information required per the Human Research Participant Payment
policy in Cornell’s Buying Manual.

Travelers submit airfare receipts that identify the airfare class purchased.
Charges for salary paid…

Resolve the $17,330 in questioned inappropriately allocated publication expenses
for which Cornell has not agreed to reimburse NSF and direct Cornell to repay or
otherwise remove the sustained questioned costs from its NSF awards.

Direct Cornell to provide documentation supporting that it has repaid or otherwise
credited the $4,991 in questioned publication, travel, and recruitment expenses for
which it has agreed to reimburse NSF

Direct Cornell to strengthen its policies and procedures and internal controls
related to allocating expenses to sponsored projects. The updated procedures
should ensure Cornell allocates:
Publication expenses to NSF awards consistent with the benefits received by the
acknowledged funding and appropriately documents its allocation methodology.

Travel that benefits multiple projects in a manner that is consistent with agreed upon allocation methodologies.

Recruitment expenses to NSF awards in a manner that is consistent with
recruited employees’ certified effort reports

Resolve the $593 in questioned indirect costs for which Cornell has not agreed to
reimburse NSF and direct Cornell to repay or otherwise remove the sustained
questioned costs from its NSF awards.

Direct Cornell to provide documentation supporting that it has repaid or otherwise
credited the $2,295 in questioned indirect costs for which it has agreed to
reimburse NSF.

Direct Cornell to strengthen its policies, procedures, and internal control processes
for applying its indirect cost rates to ensure it applies appropriate indirect cost
rates, including rates established in NSF budgets, to only those direct costs that it
should include in its Modified Total Direct Cost base per its applicable Negotiated
Indirect Cost Rate Agreement(s).