Open Recommendations

Ensure that borrowers develop and implement a financial management system in accordance with HUD requirements to ensure that program funds can be traced to a level that ensures that such funds have not been used in violation of the restrictions and prohibitions of applicable statutes.

Ensure that all Section 108 loan proceeds deposited at commercial banks are properly collateralized with Government obligations.

Conduct monitoring reviews of all Section 108 projects and ensure that borrowers comply with all loan agreement provisions and HUD regulations.

We recommend that the Director of HUD's New York Office of Public and Indian Housing require Authority officials to provide supporting documents for the proper use of $1,250,417 in sale proceeds from the scattered-site properties. Any amounts not supported or found to be improperly used should be repaid to the homeownership program from non-Federal funds.

We recommend that HUD's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs instruct City officials to provide documentation to justify the $183 million in unsupported salary and fringe benefits and associated expenses charged to the CDBG-DR program. If documentation provided does not support the costs, this amount should be repaid from non-Federal funds.

Rec. 2.a: The DoD OIG recommended that the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness publish guidance requiring suicide event boards to establish a multidisciplinary approach for obtaining the data necessary to make comprehensive Department of Defense Suicide Event Report submissions. For each suicide death, this board should: 1) be a locally (command or installation level) chartered board with defined task, purpose, and outcome for each suicide death review; 2) include participation by unit leadership, medical/mental health organizations, and Military Criminal Investigative organizations; and 3) articulate the requirement to appropriately share information (for example, medical and law enforcement reports)…

Rec. 3.a: The DoD OIG recommended that the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, in accordance with Recommendation 2.a, publish guidance requiring a suicide event board to enable a multidisciplinary approach for obtaining the data required to make a comprehensive Department of Defense Suicide Event Report submission.

Rec. 4.a: The DoD OIG recommended that the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness authorize senior commanders to produce unit/installation reports to better understand suicide trends, make informed local suicide prevention policy, and relate their trends to Service and DoD trends.

We recommend that Coast Guard: Continue to implement controls over the transfer of completed construction in progress assets to in-use and accurately recording leasehold improvements, asset impairments, and construction in progress activity.

We recommend that Coast Guard: Continue to implement controls over the transfer of completed construction in progress assets to in-use and accurately recording leasehold improvements, asset impairments, and construction in progress activity.

We recommend that Coast Guard: Establish new, or improve existing, processes to identify and evaluate lease agreements to ensure they are appropriately classified as operating or capital, and are properly reported in the financial statements and related disclosures

We recommend that Coast Guard: Identify and employ additional skilled resources

We recommend that FEMA: Implement improved review procedures for budgetary funding transactions recorded in the general ledger including properly training personnel, conducting regular quality control reviews, and performing reconciliations between the budgetary and general ledger systems

We recommend that ICE: Improve process over the validation of obligations to ensure sufficient time is available for all contracts to be reviewed prior to period-end

We recommend that ICE: Improve processes over non-contract obligations to ensure sufficient supporting documentation is maintained to support transactions recorded in the general ledger

We recommend that MGMT: Develop and implement improved controls over budgetary accounting to ensure timely recording of obligations and timely deobligations of invalid obligations

We recommend that MGMT: Develop and implement controls to ensure all possible instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations are reported to the appropriate individuals and investigated timely

We recommend that NPPD: Improve processes with program offices to ensure the timely recording of obligations

We recommend that NPPD: Improve controls over identification and processing of contracts for close-out to ensure outstanding obligations that need to be closed out are processed timely and the funds de-obligated

We recommend that Coast Guard: Adopt policies, procedures, and accounting treatments documented in ad hoc technical accounting research papers into official financial reporting guidance that is distributed agency wide; and refine financial reporting policies and procedures to prescribe process level internal controls at a sufficient level of detail to ensure consistent application to mitigate related financial statement risks

We recommend that Coast Guard: Identify and employ additional skilled resources

We recommend that Coast Guard, Establish new or improve existing policies, procedures, and related internal controls to ensure that: Environmental liability schedules are updated, maintained, and reviewed

We recommend that Coast Guard, Establish new or improve existing policies, procedures, and related internal controls to ensure that: Underlying data used in the estimation of environmental liabilities is complete and accurate

We recommend that Coast Guard, Establish new or improve existing policies, procedures, and related internal controls to ensure that: Accrual decisions and/or calculations as well as the validation of prior year accrual amounts are properly reviewed

We recommend that the Department continue its corrective actions to address internal control deficiencies, in order to ensure full compliance with FMFIA and its OMB Circular No. A-123 approved plan in FY 2015. We also recommend that the Department conduct timely validation and verification procedures to demonstrate remediation in the fiscal year in which remediation occurred.

We recommend that NPPD: Improve controls to ensure transactions are recorded to the proper vendor and trading partner

We recommend that the Department related to IT, controls to monitor compliance with requirements for security awareness training and role-based training for personnel with significant information security responsibilities should always be consistently implemented, and documentation of individuals subject to role-based training requirements should not be incomplete. Additionally, required background investigations should be consistently completed prior to granting access to key financial systems.

We recommend that FEMA improve existing procedures to ensure cash on hand analyses are completed consistently and correctly for all FEMA grantees

KPMG recommends that the OPM Director in coordination with the CIO and system owners, including the Chief Financial Officer and system owners in Program offices, ensure that resources are prioritized and assigned to document and map access rights in OPM systems to personnel roles and functions, following the principle of 'least privilege.'

We recommend that BIA develop and implement internal policies and procedures directing the Agency to verify companies' allowances for royalty calculations, orrestrict or disallow such allowances.

We recommend that BIA develop and implement internal policies and procedures for the Agency to oversee, identify, and verify non-arm's-length sales transactions.

We recommend that BIA make certain that lessees pay oil and gas royalties based on market price according to the current regulation, 25 C.F.R. 226.11

We recommend that BIA develop and implement supplemental Agency guidance to 25 C.F.R. part 226 to help identify and verify companies' allowances for royalty calculations.

We recommend that BIA develop and implement Agency policies and procedures to verify that companies properly report volumes on flared gas and pay appropriate royalties.

We recommend that BIA reconcile oil and gas exceptions to independent or third-party sources of information, and follow up and resolve any identified differences in a timely manner.

We recommend that BIA develop and implement Agency sampling thresholds and follow up on any identified discrepancies in a timely manner.

Rec. 4: The DoD OIG recommended that the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness establish policy that assigns responsibilities to Commanders and medical authorities to manage medical histories and line of duty documentation for deployed or temporary duty Reserve Component service members in a standardized manner across all Services so that both are complete and available to their units in a timely manner.

Require the Authority to take action to reclaim its properties valued at $2,032,266 to improve its financial position, decrease its reliance on HUD program funding, and address its comingling issues.

Require the Authority to determine how much of the $243,442 in salaries for individuals assigned to work at multiple properties was improperly paid with Federal funds and repay the amounts to the appropriate programs from non-Federal funds. If the Authority is unable to accurately determine the amount due to and due from each program or support that the funds charged to the Federal programs were appropriate, the full $243,422 should be repaid to HUD.

Require the Authority to determine whether the Authority improperly used Federal funds totaling $40,600 to make lease payments on the parking lot it already owned. If Federal funds were improperly used, the Authority should repay $40,600 from non-Federal funds to its Federal program accounts. If the Authority is unable to accurately determine the amount due to and due from each program or support that the funds charged to the Federal program were appropriate, the full $40,600 should be repaid to HUD.

Require the Authority to determine whether the Authority improperly used Federal funds totaling $11,833 which were used to cancel an existing phone system and purchase a new one. If Federal funds were improperly used, the Authority should repay $11,833 to its Federal program accounts from non-Federal funds. If the Authority is unable to accurately determine the amount due to and due from each program or support that the funds charged to the Federal program were appropriate, the full $11,833 should be repaid to HUD.

Require the Authority to determine whether the Authority improperly used Federal funds totaling $50,000 which were used to pay unnecessary severance contract costs. If Federal funds were improperly used, the Authority should repay $50,000 to its Federal program accounts from non-Federal funds. If the Authority is unable to accurately determine the amount due to and due from each program or support that the funds charged to the Federal program were appropriate, the full $50,000 should be repaid to HUD.

We recommend the Assistant Secretary for Employee Benefits Security provide additional formal guidance to plan administrators to identify and adequately support the fair value of plan assets.

Rec. D.2.a-b: The DoD OIG recommended that the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics include guidance for both accompanied and unaccompanied housing within the Overseas Environmental Baseline Guidance Document for: a) control and remediation of mold; and b) radon evaluation and mitigation.

Take additional steps to ensure aged auxiliary beneficiaries without a Social Security number are alive.

Work with the state of California to obtain and process death information for the 64,193 non-beneficiary numberholders or process the death information contained in the California Department of Public Health data files used for the audit.

Rec. 1.b: The DoD OIG recommended that the Brooke Army Medical Center Commander review, research, and pursue collections on the remaining open delinquent medical service accounts.

We recommend that the Director of HUD's New York Office of Community Planning and Development instruct Palladia officials to provide documentation to justify that the $1,615,057 in unsupported costs is associated with eligible program activities. Any unsupported costs determined to be ineligible should be reimbursed from non-Federal funds.