Open Recommendations

5. We recommend that the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and the Director of NIST revise MEP's economic impact reports for FYs 2020 through 2023 to (1) accurately reflect NIST's return on investment and (2) clearly articulate that total federal invistment does not include other federal funding sources that may contribute to reported ecomonic impacts.

6. We recommend that the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and the Director of NIST establish procedures for NIST personnel to ensure future economic impact reports accurately reflect NIST's return on investment.

7. We recommend that the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and the Director of NIST direct MEP to immediately remove from NIST reporting guidelines statements that currently direct Centers to write the expection of completing the MEP survey into contracts.

8. We recommend that the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and the Director of NIST direct MEP to immediatley direct Centers and their subrecipients to remove contract clauses requiring clients to take the MEP survey.

We recommend that CBP’s Office of Facilities and Asset Management establish and implement a CBP-wide policy to include designated roles and responsibilities for managing and overseeing the facility condition assessment program.

We recommend that CBP’s Office of Facilities and Asset Management establish and implement a CBP-wide process for conducting facility condition assessments that aligns with DHS’ policy; identifying, prioritizing, and resolving deficiencies identified during facility condition assessments; and reporting and monitoring deficiencies.

We recommend that CBP’s Office of Facilities and Asset Management implement a quality control process to ensure facility condition assessment data within TRIRIGA is accurate and complete.

Develop its own internal program to recover unclaimed assets instead of remaining dependent upon Fiscal Service.

We recommend the Senior Vice President, Generation Projects and Fleet Services, work with Power Operations to confirm that all Tennessee Valley Authority specifications (1) are included in solicitation documentation, (2) have been updated, and (3) are applicable to the type of project being bid.

We recommend the Senior Vice President, Generation Projects and Fleet Services and Vice President, Supply Chain, work with Transmission Planning and Power Operations personnel to (1) assess the Cumberland and Kingston procurement for cybersecurity risk and take appropriate actions, if necessary, and (2) establish and/or clarify responsibilities related to Supply Chain cybersecurity compliance with standards for equipment covered in procurements.

Should the Navigator program continue, establish performance targets to assess recipient’s progress towards assisting underserved small business owners and entrepreneurs.

Should the Navigator program continue, enhance guidance for grant recipients to use acceptable methods to collect more complete client information reported to program officials.

Enhance the data validation procedures to ensure program officials check for accuracy and completeness of the performance data grant recipients upload to the system.

Establish and implement a risk-based process to compare performance results for Navigator program grant recipients and partner organizations that are also SBA resource partners to ensure performance is separate and discrete.

Should the Navigator program continue, update the programmatic compliance checklist to include a separate step to identify changes in partner organizations and ensure the grant recipient received proper prior approval; and implement procedures to promptly update the public website for approved partner organization changes.

Establish measurable targets and timeframes for all performance measures to ensure compliance with GPRAMA and OMB Circular A-11 requirements.

Perform an analysis of data and develop an approach to identify intended outcomes for the Climate Hubs’ goals. Based on this approach, develop outcome-based measures to adequately assess the Climate Hubs’ progress in meeting its strategic goals.

Develop KPI(s) that clearly align(s) with the strategic goals to encompass the Climate Hubs’ performance measures.

Revise the performance reporting process to follow Federal requirements on informing stakeholders how the Climate Hubs’ strategic goals are accomplished.

Lower the $400 resource level tolerance for Access to Financial Institutions application use to $0 to help ensure more accurate Supplemental Security Income resource determinations when processing initial claims, pre-effectuation review contacts, and redeterminations.

We recommend that the PBS Commissioner establish supplemental policies, training, and oversight procedures to ensure contractors comply with federal regulations when using drones on federal buildings, grounds, and property, regardless of funding sources.

We recommend that the PBS Regional Commissioner for the Northeast and Caribbean Region implement controls and training to ensure that PBS contracting staff use proper contract vehicles to procure construction contracts so that the Competition in Contracting Act is not violated.

We recommend that the PBS Regional Commissioner for the Northeast and Caribbean Region ensure that the PBS contracting staff are trained on their responsibilities with respect to: documenting and supporting independent government estimates and price reasonableness determinations; and segregating duties performed in making price reasonableness determinations.

We recommend that the PBS Regional Commissioner for the Northeast and Caribbean Region ensure that the PBS contracting staff responsible for the administration of construction contracts and task orders are trained on their responsibilities with respect to: acquisition planning; evaluating contractor’s experience and past performance prior to awarding a contract to ensure the contractor is qualified to perform the work; establishing and obtaining a construction warranty and performance and payment bonds for construction contracts; and entering accurate and complete contract information in FPDS-NG.

We recommend that the PBS Regional Commissioner for the Northeast and Caribbean Region establish controls to ensure compliance with GSA environmentally preferable material standards and report accurate information to the taxpayers.