Open Recommendations

We recommend the Coast Guard's Assistant Commandant for Prevention Policy take action to more clearly define the applicable facilities that have certain dangerous cargo in bulk and which must implement the use of electronic TWIC readers as an access control measure.

We recommend the Coast Guard's Assistant Commandant for Prevention Policy revise and strengthen the Coast Guard TWIC Verification and Enforcement Guide. At a minimum, the policy should: - streamline guidance for oversight of the TWIC program by consolidating requirements from other interim Coast Guard policy documents; - include more specific procedures for recording the results of electronic TWIC verifications in the Marine Information for Safety and Law Enforcement system, such as updating the reference to the appropriate user guide and requiring inspectors to add a narrative explanation when card readers are not used for verifications; - define Coast Guard facility…

Implement a change to regulations at 24 CFR Part 203 to require curtailment of preforeclosure interest and other costs that are caused by lender servicing delays, resulting in $413,513,975 in funds to be put to better use. This should include updating or seeking statutory authority to update HUD's regulations as necessary and coordinating with HUD's Office of Finance and Budget, well before any changes go through departmental clearance, to ensure that planned curtailment requirements can be consistently enforced through the claims process.

We recommend that HUDs Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs require the City to provide documentation to show that the $594,012 disbursed due to the use of multipliers was for eligible, reasonable, necessary, and supported costs or reimburse its program from non-Federal funds.

We recommend that HUDs Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs require the City to provide documentation to show that the $2,689 disbursed due to a higher than required overtime rate was supported by documentation from the trade unions or reimburse its program from non-Federal funds.

We recommend that HUDs Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs require the City to reimburse its program $1,198 from non-Federal funds for overpaid wages due to billing and payroll errors.

We recommend that HUDs Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs require the City to pay $544 in unpaid wages to the subcontractors of the affected employees and submit evidence that these employees have been paid.

We recommend that HUDs Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs require the City to provide documentation showing that payments made under the Rockaway Boardwalk construction management services contract complied with Davis-Bacon and Related Acts requirements and that restitution is made to affected workers for any underpayments identified.

We recommend that the Director of HUD's Newark Office of Public Housing require the Authority to provide documentation to show that the $252,000 paid to the Long Branch Housing Authority was for eligible, reasonable, necessary, and allocable costs or reimburse its Operating and Capital Fund programs from non-Federal funds for any amount that it cannot support or that is not considered reasonable.

We recommend that the Director of HUD's Newark Office of Public Housing require the Authority to provide documentation to show that the $161,600 paid for legal, fee accounting, and auditing services was for prices that were reasonable and that the costs were properly allocated among the Authority's programs or reimburse its Operating and Capital Fund programs from non-Federal funds for any amount that it cannot support or is not considered reasonable

We recommend that the Director of HUD's Newark Office of Public Housing require the Authority to provide documentation to show that $172,538 paid for goods and services was reasonable or reimburse its Operating and Capital Fund programs from non-Federal funds for any amount that it cannot support or that is not considered reasonable.

(U) Rec. 2: Recommendation is Classified.

We recommend the Under Secretary for Management assign responsibility for the management and oversight of all misconduct allegations across support components and evaluate the best method to ensure that items a through g are completed: a) establish and implement a centralized oversight process for misconduct allegations; b) determine which support components identify or receive misconduct allegations; c) provide written guidance and training on the handling of misconduct allegations; d) develop a formal mechanism to communicate and collaborate regularly about misconduct allegations; e) establish a comprehensive system of record or database to manage and track allegations of misconduct; f) develop and…

FHFA should develop, document, and implement control activities to ensure that (a) only currentFHFA employees are receiving transportation benefits, (b) no employee is improperlyparticipating in both transportation benefit programs, (c) TBS has arecord/certification for each employee who receives a transportation benefit, and(d) SmarTrip® cards are physically controlled. Such control activities include periodicreconciliation of approved transit subsidy recipients in TBS to FHFA transit subsidyrecipients listed on WMATA Monthly Activity Reports, periodic reconciliation ofapproved transit subsidy recipients to active parking permit recipients, and periodicinventory counts of SmarTrip® cards registered to FHFA and undistributed parkingpermits.

FHFA should ensure that TBS has accurate and up-to-date records of, and current certifications for,each FHFA employee who receives a transportation benefit.

(U) Rec. 1.a: The DoD OIG recommended that the Director of Military Sealift Command Engineering Directorate update the technical drawings and manuals for its prepositioning fleet.

We recommend that the Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Information and Technology (OIT) and the Executive Assistant Commissioners for Field Operations and Operations Support jointly establish a process to (redact) arriving international air mail received from USPS, scanned by CBP, and returned to USPS.

We recommend that the Executive Assistant Commissioners for Field Operations and Operations Support update CBP's International Mail Operations and Enforcement Handbook to reflect all types of arriving international mail.

We recommend that the Executive Assistant Commissioners for Field Operations and Operations Support jointly update the Seized Asset Management and Enforcement Procedure Handbook and the International Mail Operations and Enforcement Handbook to outline all of the precautions necessary to safeguard suspicious mail prior to formal seizure.

Coordinate with the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Finance and Budget to board 350 manually paid partial claims that were not boarded into SMART, resulting in funds to be put to better use in the amount of $2,297,706.

Obtain the missing mortgage documents for 33 loans and the missing note documents for 40 loans, totaling $644,767 in partial claim notes, and require any unrecorded mortgage documents to be recorded at the appropriate county's office to ensure that HUD's interests are protected. For any missing documents that cannot be obtained, the Deputy Assistant Secretary should require the lender to reimburse HUD for the partial claim note.

Coordinate with the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Finance and Budget to record lender payments to update the balances for 139 loans in SMART, resulting in funds to be put to better use in the amount of $1,055,113.

We recommend the USCIS Chief of the Regulatory Coordination Division for the Office of Policy and Strategy develop stricter ineligibility requirements for civil surgeon designations, which could include standards used by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, and implement processes to strengthen the vetting process of physicians and active civil surgeons.

We recommend the Associate Director for Field Operations Directorate establish a process to track civil surgeon medical form errors to identify areas that need improvement. The process should include: a. tracking civil surgeons' accuracy in complying with CDC's Technical Instructions for Panel Physicians and Civil Surgeons; b. tracking the completeness of the forms; and c. establishing a system to ensure civil surgeons understand and follow the CDC's Technical Instructions for Panel Physicians and Civil Surgeons and to ensure civil surgeons who fail to fulfill their responsibilities face prompt revocation.

The Commissioner, Small Business/Self-Employed Division, should analyze the current selection criteria used by the WHCS to determine if the taxpayers identified for systemic lock-in letter issuance are the best use of limited resources. This would include potentially identifying taxpayers with multiple years of underwithholding and the percentage of inventory that includes nonfilers.

Pursue the collection of the $5,690,000 in surplus proceeds that HUD was entitled to receive from 2017 loan terminations.

Implement a policy to require servicers to send surplus proceeds notifications to the HUD Secretary-held assets servicing contractor and establish procedures to improve HUD's surplus proceeds collection efforts.

Redesign the partial claim program to eliminate its weaknesses and ensure that partial claims benefit from a stronger lien position to put $6,770,000 to better use.

Develop and implement a plan to pursue more nonglobal fraudcases as civil matters, and revise the MOU with MFD to includeguidance for handling such cases

Conduct face-to-face interviews of all MNUP beneficiaries to establish a baseline of individuals who are alive.

We recommend that the Acting Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health develop formal guidance and train staff on how to detect and prevent underreporting of fatalities and severe injuries.

ACF should develop a comprehensive strategy to improve States’ compliance with requirements related to treatment planning and medication monitoring for psychotropic medication

Ensures that AMTRAK complies with the equipment and real property management requirements.

Rec. No. 2: CNCS VISTA should develop a standard for capturing capacity building and measuring sustainability during and after the VISTA project is completed.

Rec No. 5: VISTA should specifically measure the effectiveness of the policy allowing VISTA members to take classes while serving in the VISTA program. CNCS VISTA should build performance measures into all policy/procedure changes as a means to evaluate overall effectiveness of the change and allow for continuous process improvement.

Ensures that the Commonwealth complies with the equipment and real property management requirements.

We recommend FTA recovers $30,641 from the Authority, if applicable.

Ensures that the State complies with the special tests and provisions requirements.

Recovers $24,080,771 from the City and County, if applicable.

Ensures that the City complies with reporting requirements.

Ensures that the City complies with subrecipient monitoring requirements.

Ensures that the Tribe complies with the cash management requirements.

Recovers $3,077,574 from the Tribe, if applicable.

Ensures that the Tribe complies with the activities allowed/allowable costs and cost principles requirements.

Recovers $22,691 from the Tribe, if applicable.

Ensures that the Tribe complies with the equipment and real property requirements.

Ensures that the Tribe complies with the period of performance requirements.

Ensures that the Tribe complies with the special tests and provisions requirements.

OIG recommends that the Bureau of Administration, Office of Logistics Management, Office of Acquisitions Management, develop and implement procedures to verify that Contracting Officers are monitoring Contracting Officers Representatives files in accordance with Procurement Information Bulletin No. 2014-10.