Open Recommendations

OIG recommends that the Bureau of Counterterrorism and Countering Violent Extremism, in coordination with the Office of the Legal Adviser, provide written guidance for developing and implementing programs and projects intended to rehabilitate and reintegrate former violent extremists into society in a manner consistent with U.S. laws prohibiting material support to terrorists and terrorist organizations.

Develop and implement electronic checks in the EPA's Emissions Collection and Monitoring Plan System or through an alternative mechanism to retroactively evaluate emissions and quality assurance data in instances where monitoring plan changes are submitted after the emissions and quality assurance data have already been accepted by the EPA.

We recommend that FDA ensure that its registered entities verify and maintain documentation to assure that employees who are required to have select agent training understand the training received.

We recommend that FDA update its registered entities' security plans to include procedures for notifying FSAP if a select agent package is received damaged to the extent that a release of the select agent may have occurred.

We recommend that FDA update its registered entities' security plans to include procedures for notifying FSAP if a select agent transfer authorization becomes void because the facts supporting the authorization changed.

We recommend that FDA Update its policies for shipping inactivated select agents to require that its registered entities record a description of the viability testing protocol used, the names of the personnel who inactivated the select agent, and the location of the inactivation.

We recommend that FDA update its registered entities' security plans to include procedures for notifying FSAP if a select agent shipment is not received within 48 hours after the expected time of delivery.

We recommend that FDA update its registered entities' security plans to include procedures for notifying FSAP if a select agent shipment will not be completed within 30 calendar days after transfer authorization issuance.

Issue guidance to PHAs to ensure any applicant for or tenant of public or assisted housing whose name appears on the SAM excluded parties list are reviewed by PHAs to determine eligibility in a manner consistent with the regulations in 2 CFR 180 and 2424 so that ineligible applicants or tenants are not admitted or recertified to put up to $13.7 million to better use.

Complete the actions and milestones identified in the Office of Pesticide Programs' PRIA Maintenance Fee Risk Assessment document and associated plan regarding the fee payment and refund posting processes.

We recommend the Under Secretary for Management ensure the designated entity implement a formal reporting process, with documented procedures for handling and reporting all misconduct allegations.

We recommend the Under Secretary for Management require that the designated misconduct oversight entity conduct a comprehensive assessment of components' policies to establish a baseline for handling allegations and disciplinary actions that promotes quality and consistency across components.

We recommend the Chief Human Capital Officer work with the Under Secretary for Management to require the designated misconduct oversight entity: a. identify all offices that receive misconduct allegations or identify potential misconduct; and b. establish a system of record and process to routinely capture, manage, and monitor components' management of misconduct.

Put $417,113 in unspent NSP1 funds associated with three activities to better use by reprogramming the funds to other subrecipients using an appropriate method or return the funds to HUD.

Support or reimburse its NSP1 grant $1,300,000 from non-Federal funds for the unsupported reallocation of grant funds.

Support or reimburse the appropriate NSP grant $1,186,105 from non-Federal funds for the unsupported subrecipient and administrative expenditures.

Update the NSP program income information in HUD's grant tracking system and quarterly performance reports and reconcile with the Department's records.

Establish and implement written procedures and provide adequate training to staff associated with administering the NSP grant to help ensure accurate reporting of program income.

We recommend that the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office direct the Chief Information Officer to ensure PIV card technology compatibility with on-going and future system development for USPTO next-generation applications, and switch PIV enforcement to a per-user basis, when technically feasible.

Implement methods to accurately and completely track all foreign national sponsorship information for individual foreign nationals, including expiration dates.

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Resolve the questioned costs described in this report and ensure that appropriate incurred cost audits are conducted prior to official contract closeout.

Resolve the questioned costs described in this report and ensure that appropriate incurred cost audits are conducted prior to official contract closeout.

We recommend that CMS instruct the MACs to recover the portion of the $56,668 in identified net overpayments that are within the 4-year reopening period.

FDA should further communicate to hospitals the importance of obtaining NPS compounded drugs from outsourcing facilities

FDA should take appropriate followup action with the unregistered compounding facilities on the list that we provided

We recommend that Retirement Services develop and implement additional cost effective corrective actions, aimed at the root cause(s) of improper payments, in order to further reduce the improper payments rate.

We recommend that the Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education require the Commissioner Nominee of the Virgin Islands DOE to finalize its monitoring and internal control plan and implement fiscal and programmatic monitoring processes for the Restart program that provide reasonable assurance that the Virgin Islands DOE will spend Restart program funds within the required 24 months and conduct effective programmatic monitoring of the Restart program.

We recommend that the Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education require the Commissioner Nominee of the Virgin Islands DOE to update its monitoring and internal control plan once an external evaluator is contracted to include the role the external evaluator will ultimately have in assisting the Virgin Islands DOE in monitoring the Restart program and information about how the Virgin Islands DOE will oversee the contractor to ensure contract deliverables are met.

We recommend that the Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education require the Commissioner Nominee of the Virgin Islands DOE to staff its Internal Audit Division at planned levels and develop and implement standard operating procedures to provide reasonable assurance that it will fulfill its responsibilities.

We recommend that the Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education require the Commissioner Nominee of the Virgin Islands DOE to assess the risk of fraud in the Restart program and develop and implement control activities to prevent, detect, and respond to potential fraud.

We recommend that the Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education require the Commissioner Nominee of the Virgin Islands DOE to develop and implement a fraud reporting mechanism and display in public places the U.S. Department of Education Office of Inspector General hotline contact information, as required by Section 9203 of the Every Student Succeeds Act.

Develop and implement controls to ensure that the data entered into PMS and IFS is accurate and consistent with CPSC policies and procedures.

Develop procedures to review applicable regulations and laws on an annual basis in order to ensure the property management policies and procedures remain accurate and complete.

Establish and implement POA&M management procedures to ensure that all identified security weaknesses, including PMS application-specific and inherited control weaknesses, are fully documented and tracked.

Establish and implement POA&M management procedures to ensure that changes to estimated completion dates should be documented and reflected in the POA&M tracker.

Estimated completion dates should be documented and reflected in the POA&M tracker.

Upon a justifiable determination of PMS’s system categorization, design and implement standard procedures for requesting and approving user access to roles and resources in PMS.

Perform and document a risk analysis to identify SoD conflicts that may exist between PMS and other CPSC systems.

Upon completion of the risk analysis, develop and implement procedures to ensure that CPSC users do not have unmonitored conflicting access across multiple systems.

Perform and document a risk analysis to identify potential SoD conflicts within PMS.

Upon the completion of the risk analysis noted above, management should develop and implement procedures that ensure PMS users do not have sufficient access to allow the unmonitored execution of incompatible transactions.

Require that SGC provide Sanctuary with the requirements of an adequate financial management system and ensure that Sanctuary implements an adequate system. The documentation provided should include guidance on how to determine the allowability of grant costs claimed and accounting for both Federal and match costs.

Require Serve Guam Commission to submit an updated Financial Federal Report for the 14AH award that removes the $18,761 of questioned match costs.

Require SGC, as part of its subgrantee monitoring processes, to perform periodic testing of subgrantees’ other direct costs to ensure that they incurred and claimed all costs in accordance with grant provisions, laws, and regulations.

We recommend that HUDs Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs require the State to provide documentation to support the appraised fair market values of the 14 properties sampled to ensure that $5,920,097 in settlement costs was supported. This recommendation includes but is not limited to providing support to show that appraisals contained accurate and verified information for the subject and comparable properties, time adjustments were supported, and other adjustments were supported.

We recommend that HUDs Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs require the State to provide documentation to support the appraised fair market values of the 942 other properties included in our sampling universe to ensure that $361,465,173 in settlement costs was supported. This recommendation includes but is not limited to providing support to show that appraisals contained accurate and verified information for the subject and comparable properties, time adjustments were supported, and other adjustments were supported.

We recommend that HUDs Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs require the State to strengthen controls over the property valuation process for its program to ensure that up to $93,350,616 not yet disbursed is put to better use.

We recommend that HUDs Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs require the State to provide documentation to show that $3,119,209 paid for appraisals and poststorm addenda performed by its contractor was reasonable, supported, and for services that were performed in accordance with applicable requirements or reimburse any unsupported costs from non-Federal funds.