Open Recommendations

Establish a process for conducting periodic reviews of travel charge card accounts to strengthen oversight and monitoring of individually billed accounts and help ensure adherence to the credit limits defined in the NRC Plan.

Develop and implement procedures for periodic reviews of the credit limits for centrally billed travel accounts and adjust these limits, as necessary, for the anticipated operational need.

Determine if the $47,791 in questioned costs for first and business class travel are allowable and provide the corrective actions taken on any costs deemed disallowed.

(U) Rec. 1.a: The DoD OIG recommended that the Commander of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center direct the C?17 System Program Manager to develop controls to ensure the accuracy of Chief Financial Officer reports.

(U) Rec. 1.b: The DoD OIG recommended that the Commander of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center direct the C-17 contracting officer to require Boeing to notify the contracting officer of price increases of 25 percent or higher than the proposed price.

(U) Rec. 1.c: The DoD OIG recommended that the Commander of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center require that the C?17 contracting officer reviews spare parts prices throughout the execution of the C?17 performance?based logistics contract, determine whether price increases of 25 percent or above occurred, and obtain justification of the price increase from Boeing.

(U) Rec. 1.d: The DoD OIG recommended that the Commander of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center direct the C?17 contracting officer to review or delegate the review of invoices to determine whether spare parts prices are allowable and reasonable before payment.

(U) Rec. 1.e: The DoD OIG recommended that the Commander of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center direct the C-17 contracting officer to assess and determine whether overpayments were made on the 12 spare parts we determined not to have fair and reasonable prices and implement available options to seek recovery, including voluntary refunds of at least $992,856, in accordance with Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement 242.71.

(U) Rec. 2: The DoD OIG recommended that the Director of the Defense Contract Management Agency review Service Parts Management to validate the accuracy of the forecasting demands for spare parts and if accuracy issues are identified during the review, require that corrective actions are taken.

(U) Rec. 3.a: The DoD OIG recommended that the Principal Director of Defense Pricing, Contracting, and Acquisition Policy instruct the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council to initiate changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulation to clarify requirements for the contracting officer to require a technical analysis on the bill of materials or the forecasting system that generated the types and quantities of materials used for proposals in Federal Acquisition Regulation 15.404 1(e).

(U) Rec. 3.b: The DoD OIG recommended that the Principal Director of Defense Pricing, Contracting, and Acquisition Policy instruct the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council to initiate changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulation to clarify requirements for the contracting officer to review or delegate the review of invoices to ensure that prices are allowable and reasonable before payment in Federal Acquisition Regulation 52.216-7.

Recover costs of $909,240 for participants served that lacked adequate documentation to support eligibility.

Recover $17,273 in costs not allocable to the grant.

The Under Secretary for Health ensures that consideration to reactivate the heart transplant program at the Richmond VA Medical Center includes a comprehensive analysis of transplant referral volume, leadership competency, and transplant team proficiency.

The Under Secretary for Health ensures that VA Mid-Atlantic Health Care Network and Richmond VA Medical Center leaders conduct a rigorous surveillance of quality measures if the heart transplant program is reactivated and emphasize safely meeting program target volumes to maintain clinical experience.

The VA Mid-Atlantic Health Care Network Director develops a process for ensuring VA Mid-Atlantic Health Care Network staff provide timely and complete responses to facility leaders’ requests for clinical care reviews.

Ensure that JFCS develops and implements written policies and procedures related to grant financial management to comply with the DOJ Grants Financial Guide and federal award requirements.

Ensure that JFCS develops and implements a procedure that consists of a review and reconciliation process of VOCA subaward expenditures prior to posting in its accounting records.

Ensure that JFCS enhances its fiscal policies and procedures to include a process or control (e.g., checklist or reconciliation) that facilitates a more robust review of expenses to ensure allowability with VOCA Guidelines.

Require Arizona DPS to complete its review of documents provided by JFCS that support corrective actions for FY 2022 and 2023 fringe benefit transactions and take remedial action if necessary.

Require that the Arizona DPS executes its single audit monitoring responsibilities to verify that the JFCS FY 2021 and 2022 VOCA-related single audit report findings, including any questioned costs, have been remedied.

1. We recommend that the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office direct the Commissioner for Trademarks to develop controls to ensure that pendency targets and revisions to the targets are clearly documented and included in any public materials.

2. We recommend the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office direct the Commissioner for Trademarks to adopt a long-term pendency goal that accounts for stakeholder needs to allow for timely business decisions, particularly for international trademark applications subject to the Madrid Protocol.

3. We recommend the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office direct the Commissioner for Trademarks to set targets for the trademark pendency-related KPIs in the 2022-2026 Strategic Plan.

5. We recommend that the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office direct the Commissioner for Trademarks to formalize a methodology for estimating and validating efficiency gains in the trademark production model.