Open Recommendations

Identify the factors contributing to employees not properly recording and monitoring the collection of restitutions and implement appropriate corrective actions.

Direct ODJFS to review the identified questionable SNAP participant data anomalies to determine whether monthly benefits of $13.3 million are unallowable and recover benefits, as appropriate.

Direct ODJFS to ensure its Death Master File subscription remains active and properly interfaces with its SNAP benefit eligibility system.

Direct ODJFS to determine whether its review of the identified SNAP participant data anomalies identified any other control weaknesses and, if so, resolve them.

Direct ODJFS to ensure its SNAP participant data review process detects and resolves the identified anomalies, as appropriate.

Direct ODJFS to conduct training to prevent recurrence of the identified anomalies, as appropriate.

Include an assessment of ODJFS’s SNAP participant data review process as part of FNS Midwest Regional Office relevant oversight activities.

Establish written policies and procedures to prepare a reconciliation of the state’s general ledger detail to actual grant and state matching expenses reported on the FFR.

Update grant financial management policies and procedures to include consistently using unique grant identification number when recording grant and state matching expenditures.

Review the federal grant, interest and state match unsupported questioned costs, totaling $7,543,215.76 and either provide adeduate supporting documentation or make the necessary adjustments to the reported matching and federal expenditures.

Implement procedures to ensure that all federal and state matching expenditures are supported by appropriate documentation and retained in accordance with federal record-keeping requirements.

Revise policies and procedures for financial reporting to ensure GL costs are reconciled with supporting documents to reflect accurate reporting of financial information.

Work with ARC to resolve the questioned costs of $85,745 for non-ARC matching personnel, fringe benefits, contractual, and indirect costs.

Revise their policies and procedures to ensure the timely preparation and submission of financial and progress reports in accordance with the Uniform Guidance and ARC grant agreement requirements.

We recommend that the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology instruct the ITL Director to create a strategic plan for the NVD that reflects the NVD’s role in the overall vulnerability management ecosystem, establishes priorities, and ensures long term sustainability of processing capacity.

We recommend that the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology instruct the ITL Director to establish a backlog management plan that includes (1) an analysis of constraints and capacity, (2) a target date for resolving the backlog, (3) milestones to meet that goal, and (4) processes that prioritize critical vulnerabilities.

We recommend that the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology instruct the ITL Director to define in policy a strategy to minimize NIST’s efforts to calculate severity scores. Implementing this recommendation can put approximately $800,000 to better use.

We recommend that the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology instruct the ITL Director to ensure that the NVD has an efficient method for external parties to contribute to the enrichment of CPE applicability statements.

We recommend that the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology instruct the ITL Director to immediately begin coordinating with CISA to avoid duplicate enrichment activities and ensure the best use of government resources. Implementing this recommendation will prevent duplicate efforts that have already led to $200,000 in waste.

We recommend that the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology instruct the ITL Director to develop a communication strategy to keep stakeholders informed and instill confidence in the NVD.

Develop a time-phased plan to implement a process to monitor servicing timeframes and alert officials of upcoming deadlines.

Develop and implement a time-phased plan to establish procedures that can be accomplished with current resource levels. These procedures need to include follow-up actions for when: (1) borrowers do not respond to physical inspection results, and (2) projects have unresolved physical deficiencies.

Implement interim procedures to follow-up with any borrowers that have not responded to inspection results or addressed unresolved deficiencies.

Develop and implement a process to oversee that relevant servicing documentation is uploaded to a project’s electronic customer file.

Coordinate with impacted Operating Administrations to develop a corrective action plan to resolve and close the findings highlighted in this report.

Determine the allowability of the questioned transactions and recover $1,732,107, if applicable.

Work with the Federal Highway Administration to determine the allowability of questioned tribal transactions and recover $971,676, if applicable.

The Chief, Taxpayer Services, should develop an electronic case management system and associated internal controls to collectively manage unidentified payments, hardcore payment tracer referrals, and other inventory streams, across the IRS’s Accounting Operations.

The Chief, Taxpayer Services, should establish evaluative metrics for unidentified payments and hardcore payment tracer referrals that will help assess the efficiency and effectiveness of these programs. This should include, but not be limited to, establishing evaluative metrics associated with receipts, rejections, closures, and timeliness, nationwide and for each Tax Processing Center.

The Under Secretary for Health ensures the third-party administrator and community care breast imaging providers are informed of the expectations and processes for provision of breast images to the referring VA facility, addresses any barriers identified, and follows up to ensure compliance.

The VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System Director ensures that facility community care staff comply with Veterans Health Administration requirements for requesting medical records, including images, from community providers and documentation of the receipt of medical records, including images, and follows up to ensure compliance.

The VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System Director reviews processes, to ensure community care images are uploaded timely; assesses identified barriers, including staffing; and follows up to ensure compliance.

The VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System Director reviews facility policy and standard operating procedures to ensure sufficient guidance and resources for compliance with Veterans Health Administration requirements for breast cancer screening, follow-up, and care coordination, and takes action as warranted.

The VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System Director assesses the scope of the lack of tracking of breast cancer screening and follow-up for patients with a BIRADS 0, 3, 4, 5, or 6 from at least February 2024 forward to ensure all patients receive appropriate notification and timely follow-up of findings, and takes action as indicated.

The VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System Director ensures credentialing and privileging staff complete primary source verification of credentials, and monitors for compliance.

The VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System Director makes certain that clinical service chiefs follow processes for review of supporting documentation during the credentialing and privileging process, and follows up to ensure compliance.

The VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System Director ensures that the radiology service chief initiates focused professional practice evaluations timely, as required, and monitors for compliance.

Help CIAC customize a reliable methodology within the system to identify or prorate victim service metrics reported in the quarterly performance reports.

Verify that CIAC establishes and implements internal controls to help ensure subaward transactions are accurately, completely, and timely tracked in its accounting system.

Ensure that CIAC establishes controls to allocate costs to its subawards based on a consistent, equitable, and documented methodology.

Remedy the $1,275 in unsupported gift card expenses.

Remedy the $467,712 in unsupported shared administrative and other direct costs that do not have a documented cost allocation methodology.

Ensure that CIAC documents the basis for determining the accountant's hourly rate was reasonable and executes a signed agreement to define the work to be performed by the accountant, as well as establishes an agreement that defines the work to be performed by the accountant.

Ensure that USP Canaan makes improvements in its processes involving the application of inmate restraints, through actions including: (a) retraining USP Canaan employees as soon as possible on the safe application of restraints, as well as the requirements for both conducting and documenting medical checks of restrained inmates, and (b) implementing enhanced supervisory review to monitor and ensure compliance with BOP restraint application policies and document requirements.

Assess USP Canaan's use of restraints, including: the frequency of their use, the method by which they have been applied, and the duration of their use. Such an assessment should be performed by a medical doctor and other correctional experts not assigned to USP Canaan. The BOP should use the results of this assessment to inform the training and supervision provided to USP Canaan employees and determine whether any other operational changes are necessary.

Ensure that USP Canaan Executive Leadership and relevant Central Office Correctional Programs Division officials discuss the scope of USP Canaan's Special Housing Unit capacity issues and identify inmate management and space utilization techniques that can mitigate USP Canaan's need to restrict inmate movement.

Implement controls to ensure that USP Canaan employees consistently follow BOP policy on securing potentially dangerous medical equipment and supplies.

Ensure that USP Canaan's procedures and processes for single-cell Special Housing Unit inmate placements align with BOP policy, including all required coordination before, during, and after placement.

Review and update existing USP Canaan post orders to: (a) clarify expectations for Correctional Officers to conduct and document "frequent irregular rounds" in general population housing units, including when there are significant disruptions to normal operations, and (b) require supervisory review of round documentation to ensure rounds are being conducted.

When possible, place single-celled inmates who meet the BOP's increased suicide risk criteria with a cellmate if it is anticipated that inmate movement will be limited for an extended period in USP Canaan general population housing units. Further, facilitate for those inmates the same access to mental health treatment as would be available to similarly situated inmates housed in the Special Housing Unit.