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DHS Office of Inspector General: Actions Needed to Address Long-Standing Management Weaknesses

GAO-21-316 Published: Jun 03, 2021. Publicly Released: Jun 03, 2021.
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Fast Facts

The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Office of Inspector General has faced work quality concerns, high leadership turnover, and more. This office is critical for ensuring independent and objective oversight of DHS.

Our work on the management and operations of this office identified long-standing management weaknesses, including:

  • It has operated for 4 of the last 6 years, including 2020, without a strategic plan.
  • It has not established roles and responsibilities for an organization-wide quality assurance program.
  • The time it takes to complete reports increased over the 4 fiscal years we assessed.

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Highlights

What GAO Found

Since fiscal year 2015, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) has not adhered to a number of professional standards for federal OIGs and key practices for effective management. Frequent leadership turnover and associated shifts in leadership priorities have contributed to DHS OIG's long-standing management and operational weaknesses and impeded efforts to address them. DHS OIG senior leaders acknowledge that various challenges have contributed to these weaknesses, and have taken steps to begin to address some of them, as follows:

  • Organizational performance management: DHS OIG has operated for 4 of the past 6 years without a strategic plan. This limits its ability to implement other organizational performance management activities, such as annual planning and performance assessment. In the absence of a strategic plan, GAO found that DHS OIG staff may not understand its oversight priorities and goals, which can negatively affect operations and staff performance. In 2020, DHS OIG contracted with a nonprofit academy of government experts to develop a strategic plan for fiscal years 2021–2025, with expected completion in June 2021.
  • Quality assurance: DHS OIG has not developed or implemented organization-wide roles and responsibilities for quality assurance. DHS OIG retracted some reports in recent years because they did not adhere to professional standards. Because there is no overarching system of internal quality assurance for audit, inspection, evaluation, and other work, DHS OIG cannot know if its internal processes ensure that its work (1) adheres to its policies and (2) meets established standards of performance.
  • Report timeliness: Project time frames have increased in recent years, and DHS OIG has not taken steps to understand the causes of such increases or determine how to address them. For example, in the Office of Audits, eight of 102 projects completed in fiscal year 2017 took more than 18 months, compared to more than half (35 of 67) of projects completed in fiscal year 2020. Without timely DHS OIG reports, DHS's ability to respond to such oversight efforts and Congress's ability to conduct effective oversight of DHS operations are limited.
  • Coordination with DHS: DHS OIG does not have a consistent process for coordinating with DHS components to receive and respond to technical and management comments on DHS OIG audit, inspection, and evaluation work. Further, DHS officials do not have confidence in DHS OIG's processes to (1) correct factual errors before finalizing reports and (2) redact sensitive but unclassified information before publicly issuing reports. As a result, the process by which DHS OIG resolves DHS's comments is at risk of miscommunication and misunderstandings.

These and additional weaknesses GAO identified are of particular concern given that OIGs need to maintain high standards of professionalism and integrity in light of their mission, according to quality standards for federal OIGs. Without addressing these and other long-standing management and operational weaknesses, DHS OIG is not well positioned to fulfill its oversight mission.

Why GAO Did This Study

DHS OIG plays a critical role in overseeing DHS, which encompasses multiple components and programs and has tens of billions of dollars in annual budgetary resources. However, DHS OIG has faced a number of long-standing management and operational challenges that have affected its ability to carry out its oversight mission effectively.

GAO was asked to review DHS OIG's management and operations. This report addresses the extent to which DHS OIG adheres to professional standards and key practices in its management and operations, among other objectives.

GAO reviewed DHS OIG management and operations from fiscal year 2015 through fiscal year 2020. GAO evaluated DHS OIG's processes against quality standards for federal OIGs, relevant federal standards for internal control, and human capital and organizational change leading practices. To do so, GAO reviewed DHS OIG documents, interviewed officials, and analyzed DHS OIG data and published reports.

Recommendations

GAO is making 21 recommendations to DHS OIG to address management and operational weaknesses related to performance management, quality assurance, reporting timeliness, and coordination with DHS, among others.

DHS OIG concurred with each of GAO's 21 recommendations.

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
DHS Office of Inspector General The Inspector General should follow key organizational transformation practices when implementing any future changes in its organizational structure. (Recommendation 1)
Closed – Implemented
DHS OIG agreed with this recommendation. In April 2023, in response to our recommendation that DHS OIG evaluate the structure of the organization (Recommendation 10), DHS OIG provided a report detailing its organizational structure and each office's alignment with strategic goals. That report proposed combining the Office of External Affairs with the Executive office to align external communications, and noted a final decision would be forthcoming after testing the realignment. Among other actions that align with key organizational transformation practices, the two offices jointly prepared strategic goals for fiscal years 2022 and 2023. The collective staff of the offices were involved in discussing how the units would achieve the goals and work together. DHS OIG finalized the realignment in November 2023 and communicated the change internally and externally. DHS OIG's actions sufficiently address our recommendation.
DHS Office of Inspector General The Inspector General should develop and implement a process to assess the nature, scope, and inherent risks of DHS programs as part of a risk-based planning system and to serve as the basis for its annual work plans and organizational performance management processes. (Recommendation 2)
Open – Partially Addressed
DHS OIG agreed with this recommendation. In October 2022, DHS OIG officials provided us with a demonstration of an internal dashboard tool that includes information connected to risk, such as budgetary information and past OIG work. OIG officials noted that the information is accessible to all staff to inform proposals for new work and that they plan to add more information to the dashboard in the future. Staff in the Office of Innovation work with leaders in the Office of Audits and the Office of Inspections and Evaluation to coordinate on how the information can be used for planning purposes. As of June 2023, officials said they are continuing work to incorporate additional risk information for the dashboard. We will continue to monitor DHS OIG's efforts to address this recommendation.
DHS Office of Inspector General The Inspector General should develop and implement an annual work planning process, as part of a risk-based planning system, that identifies the activities to audit, inspect, or evaluate. (Recommendation 3)
Open
DHS OIG agreed with this recommendation. DHS OIG has prepared annual work plans for Fiscal Years 2022, 2023, and 2024. In January 2022, OIG officials said they were developing documentation to institutionalize the process for future work plans. As noted in our recommendation, the annual work planning process should be part of a risk-based planning system, the first step of which is assessing the nature, scope, and inherent risks of DHS programs. We separately recommended that DHS OIG develop and implement such a risk assessment process (Recommendation 2). We will continue to monitor DHS OIG's efforts to address both of these recommendations and, in particular, how risk assessment informs DHS OIG's annual work planning process.
DHS Office of Inspector General The Inspector General should implement organizational performance management processes that are consistent with professional standards and leading practices. Such processes should include (1) developing a strategic plan that documents goals, objectives, and performance measures; (2) developing annual performance plans that translate strategic priorities into outcome-related goals, objectives, and performance measures; and (3) collecting and using data to assess progress as well as identify areas for improvements or corrective actions. (Recommendation 4)
Open – Partially Addressed
DHS OIG agreed with this recommendation. In June 2021, we reported that DHS OIG had a July 2019 directive about strategic planning, however DHS OIG had not been implementing the directive to develop strategic plans or other organizational performance management processes. Subsequently, through a contract with the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA), DHS OIG implemented a strategic planning process outlined by NAPA to produce its FY 2022-2026 strategic plan, issued in July 2021. In September 2021, DHS OIG finalized its FY 2022 annual performance plan, and officials subsequently aligned senior executive performance goals with these plans. In the fall of 2022, DHS OIG issued its FY 2022 annual performance report and provided us with its FY 2023 annual performance plan and a strategic implementation plan to cover FY 2023-2026. DHS OIG similarly issued an FY 2023 annual performance report, FY 2024 annual performance plan, and an update to its strategic implementation plan. DHS OIG has made progress in developing these key organizational performance management documents in recent years. In December 2022, DHS OIG officials told us that they plan to replace the July 2019 strategic planning directive. As of January 2024, DHS OIG officials said they are in the process of coordinating internal reviews for an updated strategic planning directive and manual. To fully address this recommendation, DHS OIG will need to ensure sustainment and consistent implementation of its organizational performance management processes-specifically through completing its plan to replace its existing directive so that its policy framework aligns with the agency's current approach. We will continue to monitor DHS OIG's efforts to address this recommendation.
DHS Office of Inspector General The Inspector General should develop and implement a workforce plan that translates DHS OIG's strategic priorities into skill sets and competencies and identifies strategies for meeting those workforce needs. (Recommendation 5)
Open
DHS OIG agreed with this recommendation. In July 2021, DHS OIG issued its FY 2022-2026 strategic plan. In October 2021, DHS OIG officials said that the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) will provide support and guidance in the development of a workforce plan for DHS OIG. In January 2022, DHS OIG officials said that through NAPA, they have conducted research to identify best practices and model succession plans in the OIG community and they had begun to draft a workforce plan. In September 2022, officials said they were reviewing a final gap analysis report from NAPA. As of April 2024, officials said they are assessing their workforce structure and needs as part of developing their workforce plan. We will continue to monitor DHS OIG's efforts to address this recommendation.
DHS Office of Inspector General The Inspector General should develop and implement a process to allocate human capital resources based on the organization's current and emerging strategic objectives and priorities, once DHS OIG establishes them in its strategic plan. (Recommendation 6)
Open
DHS OIG agreed with this recommendation. In July 2021, DHS OIG issued its FY 2022-2026 strategic plan. In March 2023, DHS OIG officials provided us with an overview of resource allocation steps. As of April 2024, officials said they are assessing their workforce structure and needs as part of developing their workforce plan, which would inform allocation of positions across the organization. When the workforce plan is complete, we will examine how it and the agency's priorities inform these resource allocation steps, such as how these priorities inform the shape distribution of the organization, particularly within divisions or other subject areas that align with the identified priorities.
DHS Office of Inspector General The Inspector General should develop and implement a process to develop succession plans to determine how critical leadership roles will be filled in the event of planned and unplanned vacancies. (Recommendation 7)
Open
DHS OIG agreed with this recommendation. In July 2021, DHS OIG issued its FY 2022-2026 strategic plan. In October 2021, DHS OIG officials said that they plan to address our recommendation regarding a workforce plan (Recommendation 5) prior to developing a succession plan. In May 2023, officials provided an overview of succession planning that included (1) professional development activities that support succession planning and (2) an overview of the recruitment and selection process for Senior Executive Service positions. As of May 2024, we are in the process of following up for additional information for information about advanced planning for potential vacancies, among other things, to assess the extent to which DHS OIG's actions address the intent of our recommendation.
DHS Office of Inspector General The Inspector General should develop and implement an updated performance management policy. (Recommendation 8)
Closed – Implemented
DHS OIG agreed with this recommendation. In November 2022, DHS OIG issued an updated performance management policy and an accompanying handbook, both of which the Inspector General emailed to all employees. Having a current performance management policy will better position DHS OIG to maintain a workforce that collectively possesses the core competencies needed to accomplish its mission.
DHS Office of Inspector General The Inspector General should develop and implement a process to provide regular training and support for staff and supervisors so that they can consistently apply the organization's performance management policy, once DHS OIG develops and implements an updated performance management policy. (Recommendation 9)
Closed – Implemented
DHS OIG agreed with this recommendation. In November 2022, DHS OIG issued an updated performance management policy that assigns the Director of OIG's Human Resources Talent Management Division responsibility for ensuring appropriate and ongoing training, including training in performance management processes, for supervisors and employees. DHS OIG also established this as an expectation in the performance plans for its human resource specialists. DHS OIG also established a schedule that includes training for (1) all staff on performance planning and end-of-year performance management and (2) supervisors on annual appraisals.
DHS Office of Inspector General The Inspector General should evaluate the structure of the organization and clearly define the responsibilities of each division and program office to ensure they are aligned with the OIG's strategic objectives and priorities, once DHS OIG establishes them in its strategic plan. (Recommendation 10)
Open – Partially Addressed
DHS OIG agreed with this recommendation. In August 2021, DHS OIG officials noted that the agency implemented organizational changes in April 2021 to ensure programs and offices were aligned to allow for efficiency and effectiveness in conducting the OIG's mission. However, the April 2021 changes preceded DHS OIG's efforts to identify strategic objectives and priorities, which were established in a subsequent FY 2022-2026 strategic plan. In April 2023, DHS OIG provided a report detailing its organizational structure, alignment with strategic objectives and priorities, and roles and responsibilities of each program office. Our June 2021 report identified potential operational gaps in some areas as well as overlap and duplication in others. DHS OIG's report on its organizational structure does not fully resolve those areas of concern. Thus, we are in the process of following up for additional information to assess the extent to which other DHS OIG actions may address the intent of our recommendation.
DHS Office of Inspector General The Inspector General should implement a process to identify, analyze, and determine the appropriate response to risks—that is, the internal and external risks to achieving the organization's goals and objectives—once DHS OIG establishes them in its strategic plan. (Recommendation 11)
Open
DHS OIG agreed with this recommendation. In September 2022, DHS OIG officials said they had developed a draft Risk Register focused on internal and external risks, including those we identified in our report. In June 2023, officials noted that they are also developing a Risk Profile to identify the highest priority risks. Both efforts are in development and pending leadership review. We will continue to monitor DHS OIG's efforts to address this recommendation.
DHS Office of Inspector General The Inspector General should implement a process for developing, reviewing, approving, and managing its organizational policies. (Recommendation 12)
Closed – Implemented
DHS OIG agreed with this recommendation. In June 2022, the Office of Innovation provided a catalog of organization policies and the corresponding responsible offices to responsible DHS OIG offices for review and comment to identify whether each policy should be archived, updated, or combined with another existing policy document. In March 2023, DHS OIG issued a directive and process manual that address managing organizational policies and emailed the directive to all employees. The directive establishes requirements to develop, review, issue, and archive DHS OIG-wide directives, manuals, charters, and supporting guidance and states that guidance is to be reviewed every three years for accuracy, relevance, and completeness. It also directs a program office within the Office of Innovation to publish and maintain OIG-wide directives and manuals on OIG's intranet. The process manual describes the process to (1) develop new directives; (2) review and revise existing directives; and (3) archive outdated directives, among other things. DHS OIG has also established a method for tracking when policies are due for review, and the Inspector General has communicated the status of the policy review process with all employees.
DHS Office of Inspector General The Inspector General should develop and implement a process to ensure that all DHS OIG reports include a compliance statement that identifies the appropriate professional standards to which the work in that report adhered. (Recommendation 13)
Closed – Implemented
DHS OIG agreed with this recommendation. In September 2021, DHS OIG provided us with updated guidance documents that address professional standards and compliance statements. Additionally, in February 2022, DHS OIG provided us with the checklist that internal quality control reviewers use to ensure draft reports contain a professional standards compliance statement. In response to our feedback, DHS OIG subsequently updated the checklist to reflect its current practice of conducting work in accordance with government auditing standards or CIGIE inspection and evaluation standards. We monitored reports issued from June 2021 through September 2022 and confirmed that all reports contained a compliance statement to identify the appropriate professional standards. Including these compliance statements in OIG reports will help ensure that the audience for DHS OIG's reports-including Congress, DHS, and the public-understand how the work was conducted.
DHS Office of Inspector General The Inspector General should develop and implement guidance to govern how Office of Audits or Office of Special Reviews and Evaluations work that does not adhere to (1) government auditing standards for audits or (2) CIGIE standards for inspections and evaluations is to be planned, completed, and reported. This guidance should describe how DHS OIG ensures that such work adheres to federal OIG standards of independence, due professional care, and quality assurance. (Recommendation 14)
Closed – Implemented
DHS OIG agreed with our recommendation. In November 2021, DHS OIG institutionalized this expectation by revising its project proposal form to include the proposed standards for the work, and the options on this form are limited to government auditing standards and CIGIE standards for inspections and evaluation. The Inspector General also communicated this expectation in an agency-wide email. These actions address the intent of our recommendation. By conducting work under these established standards, DHS OIG can ensure that its work adheres to federal OIG standards of independence, due professional care, and quality assurance.
DHS Office of Inspector General The Inspector General should develop and implement an organization-wide quality assurance program, including establishing a structure, responsibility, and authority for implementing quality assurance in all DHS OIG work. (Recommendation 15)
Open – Partially Addressed
DHS OIG agreed with this recommendation. In September 2023, DHS OIG issued a directive for its Quality Control and Quality Assurance Program. This directive outlined the roles and responsibilities for DHS OIG offices in quality control and quality assurance. We will continue to monitor how DHS OIG implements its program.
DHS Office of Inspector General The Inspector General should develop and implement a process to ensure that DHS OIG's internal quality assurance reviews are comprehensive and that these reviews regularly assess Office of Audits and Office of Special Reviews and Evaluations work that is conducted according to each of (1) audit; (2) inspection and evaluation; and (3) other standards or authorities. (Recommendation 16)
Open
DHS OIG agreed with this recommendation. In August 2021, DHS OIG officials said that they are developing a process to ensure that work from the Office of Audits and the Office of Inspections and Evaluations is regularly assessed and that such work is conducted according to the appropriate standards. As of September 2022, DHS OIG officials said they were in the process of developing a policy that would govern the Office of Integrity, which was established in April 2021 and includes the Audits and Inspections Quality Assurance division. Additionally, in response to our Recommendation 15, DHS OIG officials said they are developing a policy that would establish the organization-wide quality control and assurance program. As of June 2023, officials said they are continuing to work on their policy for quality assurance reviews. We will continue to monitor DHS OIG's efforts to address this recommendation.
DHS Office of Inspector General The Inspector General should develop and implement a process for assessing actual time frames against planned and target time frames for Office of Audits and Office of Special Reviews and Evaluations work. (Recommendation 17)
Closed – Implemented
DHS OIG agreed with this recommendation. In August 2021, DHS OIG officials said that the Office of Audits and Office of Inspections and Evaluations (formerly the Office of Special Reviews and Evaluations) have established target time frames and are assessing engagements against those time frames. In December 2021, DHS OIG's Office of Innovation showed us a newly developed online dashboard to allow DHS OIG to track project time frames. Officials demonstrated the dashboard's capabilities-such as visualizing comparisons of current project timelines against standardized goals based on project type (e.g., audit, inspection/evaluation). DHS OIG fully implemented the dashboard in March 2022, and in May 2022, DHS OIG officials told us that it implemented a timeliness performance metric for audit and inspection and evaluation managers. In October 2022, officials demonstrated new features in the dashboard and discussed plans for additional features. They demonstrated how the dashboard can be used to assess performance against DHS OIG's performance measure for the percentage of completed audits, inspections, and evaluations that adhere to established or agreed-upon time frames (a measure in DHS OIG's FY 2022 and FY 2023 annual performance plans). In January 2024, DHS OIG completed an assessment of actual time frames against target time frames for projects initiated since fiscal year 2022. Based on this assessment, DHS OIG made some modifications for its target time frames for fiscal year 2024. As a result of this assessment process, DHS OIG is better positioned to understand project time frames and take steps, as necessary, to produce more timely work.
DHS Office of Inspector General The Inspector General should develop and implement a process to ensure that program offices consistently use DHS OIG's data system to track project milestones. (Recommendation 18)
Closed – Implemented
DHS OIG agreed with this recommendation. In response, DHS OIG developed a dashboard tool to assist offices in using Project Tracking System data to monitor project milestones. DHS OIG has provided us with demonstrations of this dashboard, including ways that the dashboard identifies projects with potential data entry errors. DHS OIG leaders discussed the ways in which they utilize the dashboard for high-level and individual project management, and how their routine use of the dashboard prioritizes timely and consistent data entry. In addition to routine management, DHS OIG uses the data from the dashboard to assess OIG's performance against an annual performance measure for project timeliness. With the implementation of this dashboard, DHS OIG leaders are better positioned to understand project time frames and strategically target any efforts to shorten time frames, ensuring that DHS OIG's work contributes to timely oversight.
DHS Office of Inspector General The Inspector General should update its report review directive, including reviewer roles, responsibilities, and time frames, for draft and final reviews of Office of Audits and Office of Special Reviews and Evaluations work. (Recommendation 19)
Closed – Implemented
DHS OIG agreed with this recommendation. In January 2023, DHS OIG issued an updated report review directive. The directive includes reviewer roles, responsibilities and time frames for draft and final products (reports and management alerts). Implementing this directive, including tracking the time frames in each step, will provide DHS OIG information to help ensure their processes support timely report completion.
DHS Office of Inspector General The Inspector General should develop and implement a consistent process for DHS OIG program offices to coordinate with DHS to receive and respond to technical and management comments about Office of Audit and Office of Special Reviews and Evaluations work. (Recommendation 20)
Closed – Implemented
DHS OIG agreed with this recommendation. The Office of Audits and Office of Inspections and Evaluations established standardized process for responding to DHS technical comments; they noted that they shared their planned approach with DHS and incorporated DHS's feedback into the process. In January 2022, DHS OIG provided official notification to DHS of their implementation of the new process, and this notification included a template for how DHS OIG will document disposition of technical comments. The process includes providing DHS with a written disposition of each of DHS's technical comments and an opportunity to discuss the comments and response prior to final report issuance. This process has improved transparency and predictability to the process by which DHS and DHS OIG coordinate.
DHS Office of Inspector General As the Inspector General takes steps to implement recommendations in this report—and in doing so, transform the organization's management and operations—the Inspector General should follow key organizational transformation practices. These practices include (1) ensuring top leadership drives the transformation, (2) setting implementation goals and a timeline, (3) dedicating an implementation team to manage the transformation process, and (4) involving employees to obtain their ideas and gain their ownership for the transformation. (Recommendation 21)
Open – Partially Addressed
DHS OIG agreed with this recommendation. In early 2022, DHS OIG's Office of Innovation implemented a shared tracking tool for monitoring tasks related to our recommendations. The tool includes a dashboard for OIG leadership to oversee the status of actions to implement our recommendations. It also includes detailed data for each recommendation, including assigned executive sponsor, status details, estimated completion date, and tasks to complete toward recommendation implementation. These are positive steps to ensure timely progress in implementing our recommendations, particularly in terms of leadership involvement and goals/time frames. We will continue to monitor DHS OIG's efforts to address this recommendation.

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