Open Recommendations

We recommend that the DOI Deputy Secretary or designee define the enterprise risk management roles and responsibilities for DOI's leadership at the executive, bureau, and office level and ensure those roles and responsibilities are clearly communicated.

Develop and implement guidance for Clean School Bus Program personnel on reviewing Clean School Bus rebate recipients' use and management of rebate funds.

Direct U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) Program officials to work with appropriate USMMA IT officials to ensure that data collected and used for tracking claims and incidents of sexual assault and sexual harassment is secure in accordance with NDAA requirements.

Direct the Maritime Administration's Privacy Officer to complete a privacy impact analysis to ensure personally identifiable information used by the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR)'s Program is secure based on Federal requirements and verify completion.

Direct U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) Program officials to work with the USMMA's IT officials to implement the necessary security controls in the following areas: access control, encryption, audit logging, data exfiltration, data integrity, and backup, to mitigate possible cybersecurity risks to the SAPR Program's sensitive information in the interim to the extent possible until a new system is implemented and verify completion.

Treasury OIG should follow-up with Pennsylvania management if the transactions noted as unsupported or ineligible expenditures within the Grants greater than or equal to $50,000, Transfers greater than or equal to $50,000, Direct Payments greater than or equal to $50,000, and Aggregate Reporting less than $50,000 payment types can be supported. If support is not provided, Treasury OIG should recoup the funds or request that Pennsylvania management provide support for replacement expenses, not previously charged, that were eligible during the CRF period of performance. Further, based on Pennsylvania's responsiveness to Treasury OIG's requests and its ability to provide sufficient documentation…

Establish Supervision’s objectives for the onboarding process for transitioning depository institutions.

Establish clear roles and responsibilities at the headquarters level for overseeing Supervision’s onboarding process.

Develop and implement an officewide policy that describes management’s expectations for onboarding depository institutions that transition to the CFPB’s supervisory oversight. The policy should articulate
a. key onboarding steps that OSE should take before and after a depository institution transitions.
b. expected time frames for completing the key steps.
c. guidance on coordinating with the prudential regulator of the onboarding institution, including discussion topics; documentation needs; and the process for managing preexisting supervisory issues, such as MRAs and enforcement actions.

Develop methods to monitor OSE’s execution of the onboarding process, including
a. a tracking mechanism to determine whether the key onboarding steps have been completed.
b. a process for obtaining feedback from the depository institutions that transitioned regarding the effectiveness of the onboarding process.
c. a forum for the regional offices to share their experiences regarding the onboarding process to drive continuous improvement.

The Chief, Taxpayer Services, and Chief, Tax Compliance Officer, should update internal guidance and develop more robust training to ensure that employees perform adequate research of tax accounts to identify outstanding tax debt prior to initiating manual refunds or credit elects.

The Chief, Taxpayer Services, and Chief, Tax Compliance Officer, should request the necessary programming changes to ensure that the duplicate return freeze and the telephone excise tax freeze code function appropriately. In addition, request programming changes to ensure that overpayments from undelivered refunds and interest offset appropriately.

The Chief, Taxpayer Services, and Chief, Tax Compliance Officer, should analyze the 8,452 individual and 31,967 business cases that we identified and determine whether additional programming or procedural errors exist in the process of offsetting refunds and credit elects. Take appropriate corrective action to prevent erroneous refunds and credit elects in the future.

The Chief Information Officer should ensure that the requested programming changes are implemented by January 2026.

The Chief, Taxpayer Services, and Chief, Tax Compliance Officer, should remove the erroneous LLC indicator from the 76 sole proprietorship accounts.

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services instruct the SSAs to follow up with the five nursing homes (three nonprofit and two Government-owned) that may not have complied with Federal requirements to verify that they have taken corrective actions.

We recommend that the Health Resources and Services Administration require the OPTN IT system contractor to remediate the 22 vulnerabilities identified and verify that the 22 vulnerabilities identified were remediated.

We recommend that the Health Resources and Services Administration require the OPTN IT system contractor to improve network monitoring by implementing NIST SP 800-53, Revision 5, for the OPTN IT system, to include data loss prevention technology to prevent unauthorized exfiltration of information (Control SC-7(10)) and red-team exercises to simulate attempts by adversaries to compromise organizational systems (Control CA-8(2)).

We recommend that the Health Resources and Services Administration implement procedures to help ensure that the OPTN IT system contractor maintains compliance with federally required cybersecurity controls policies and standards on a continuing basis.

Update the DNA Accounting Manual to align with LSC requirements in 45 C.F.R. 1631.12(d) that prohibit giving or selling assets to DNA employees and/or Board members.

Update the current DNA Company Vehicle policy section on permissible use to:
Provide more detail on what constitutes personal use,
Clearly define commuting to/from work as personal use, and
Inform employees that the value associated with personal use will be accounted for as a fringe benefit in accordance with IRS regulations.

Implement controls to ensure that entries for transactions are adequately referenced in the general ledger, and source documents are traceable to the general ledger. Grant codes should be coded in the accounting system and included with supporting documentation.

Implement a process to ensure that only LSC-allowable expenses are allocated to LSC, in accordance with LSC requirements and guidance.

Update the DNA Accounting Manual to include procedures for obtaining LSC approvals when using more than $25,000 of LSC funds for contracts, purchases/leases of personal property, or capital improvements.

Establish and maintain a proper recordkeeping system that enables DNA to maintain contract files and perform regular backups of electronic records and systems stored offsite or in a virtual environment with easy-to-use restoration options.