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Open Recommendations (73 total)

Cybersecurity: Federal Agencies Made Progress, but Need to Fully Implement Incident Response Requirements

GAO-24-105658
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should ensure that the agency fully implements all event logging requirements as directed by OMB guidance. (Recommendation 2)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Steel and Aluminum Tariffs: Agencies Should Ensure Section 232 Exclusion Requests Are Needed and Duties Are Paid

GAO-23-105148
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should ensure that the Under Secretary for Industry and Security, in consultation with CBP, explores the development of a data transfer process that reduces the potential for inconsistencies between the two respective agency systems. (Recommendation 2)
Open
In commenting on the report, Commerce concurred with this recommendation. The comments noted the known challenges in administering the Section232 Exclusions Portal and that prior and ongoing work was being taken proactively by Commerce - begun prior to the release of the report - to improve the transfer of information with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.. GAO continues to monitor Commerce's actions in response to this recommendation.

Steel and Aluminum Tariffs: Agencies Should Ensure Section 232 Exclusion Requests Are Needed and Duties Are Paid

GAO-23-105148
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should ensure that the Under Secretary for Industry and Security fully assesses the effectiveness of the quantity certification requirement BIS put in place and takes further actions, as needed, to improve the Section 232 exclusion request process. (Recommendation 1)
Open
In commenting on the report, Commerce concurred with this recommendation. The comments noted the known challenges in administering the Section232 Exclusions Portal and that prior and ongoing work was being taken proactively by Commerce - begun prior to the release of the report - to limit the amount of unutilized and underutilized exclusions in the Section 232 Exclusions Process.. GAO continues to monitor Commerce's actions in response to this recommendation.

Export Promotion: Commerce Should Improve Workforce Planning and Management of Its Global Markets Unit

GAO-23-105369
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3 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should ensure that the Director General of Global Markets fully documents how to use the staffing models and the process for updating the models, including changes to the variables and weights. (Recommendation 1)
Open
The Department of Commerce, the International Trade Administration (ITA), and Global Markets (GM) concurred with our recommendations. Officials said that, in addition to establishing internal control to memorialize current procedures and regularize justification reviews, GM will codify the ORAM and DRAM data model processes in a way that fully describes the relationships between the data models and how they relate to the staffing and resource allocation decision making process. We will continue to monitor their progress.
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should ensure that the Director General Global Markets regularly reviews the allocation of Foreign Commercial Service Officers and U.S. Field staff, including the justifications of positions that continue to exceed modeled projections for domestic and overseas posts. (Recommendation 2)
Open
The Department of Commerce, the International Trade Administration (ITA), and Global Markets (GM) concurred with our recommendations. Officials said the process for updating GM's staff allocation models began in earnest in May of 2021, but that they still had work to do. They said they conducted an internal study on how to bridge human capital gaps across GM and transformed GM's staffing plan into a table of organization that would help them link budget to staffing and sharpen their understanding of how to measure productivity enhancements. They reported that a cross-organizational approach would be an intense and ongoing multi-year effort. We will continue to monitor their progress.
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should ensure that there is a workforce plan that comprehensively and strategically considers GM's entire overseas and domestic workforce and describes leadership action to improve diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. (Recommendation 3)
Open
The Department of Commerce, the International Trade Administration (ITA), and Global Markets (GM) concurred with our recommendations. They said that GM must manage the relationships between its three workforce segments to ensure the systemic linkages between them remain in balance and have upward productivity gains, aligned with their ongoing desire to invest in technology enhancements. They believed this work will allow GM to deliver a comprehensive, iterative workforce plan, which they will map out this fiscal year. In the process, they planned to document linkages with ITA-level efforts related to employees hired using Title 5 authorities. They reported recent success in standardizing and linking its position descriptions for almost all client-facing Civil Service and Locally Employed Staff overseas as a notable starting point. In addition, ITA and GM are working on an ITA wide table of organization which will maintain position information and employee data that will provide a complete picture of filled and vacant positions across ITA. We will continue to monitor their progress.

Export Promotion: Commerce Should Improve Workforce Planning and Management of Its Global Markets Unit

GAO-23-105369
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should ensure that the Director General of Global Markets takes steps to address staffing vacancies in the Office of Global Talent Management. (Recommendation 4)
Open
The Department of Commerce, the International Trade Administration (ITA), and Global Markets (GM) concurred with our recommendations. Officials responded that addressing staff vacancies in the Office of Global Talent Management has been a priority for the organization, as they recognize the need to have a solid backbone of support for officers and staff overseas. GM officials reported they have made progress filling these vacancies and are now 87% staffed (with 4 remaining vacancies) toward the authorized target of 30 FTE. Officials said they will continue to fill the remaining vacancies, budget permitting. If funding resources are unavailable, they plan to document the vacancies in their staffing plan as unfunded. We will continue to monitor their progress.

2020 Census: A More Complete Lessons Learned Process for Cost and Schedule Would Help the Next Decennial

GAO-23-105819
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should ensure that the Director of the Census Bureau document and take steps during the 2030 Census to evaluate the Bureau's comprehensive lessons-learned process. (Recommendation 1)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

2020 Census: A More Complete Lessons Learned Process for Cost and Schedule Would Help the Next Decennial

GAO-23-105819
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should ensure that the Director of the Census Bureau include steps in its 2030 schedule management plans for learning lessons from systematic ex-post evaluation of the Bureau's extensive decennial and related schedule data. (Recommendation 2)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Commerce Working Capital Fund: Policy and Performance Measure Enhancements Could Help Strengthen Management

GAO-23-104624
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce Commerce's Chief Financial Officer/Assistant Secretary for Administration should document a policy for managing the WCF's balances—including the end-of-year unobligated and obligated balances—that describes how fund managers should evaluate, use, and maintain the balances over time. (Recommendation 2)
Open
In its comments on our report, Commerce agreed with this recommendation and stated that it plans to document a policy for managing the Working Capital Fund's (WCF) balances in the next WCF Handbook. When we confirm what actions Commerce has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
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