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As of May 29, 2024, there are 5144 open recommendations that still need to be addressed. 411 of these are priority recommendations, those that we believe warrant priority attention. Learn more about our priority designation on our Recommendations page.

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161 - 180 of 5144 Recommendations, including 411 Priority Recommendations

Federal Maritime Commission: Improved Use of Data on Shippers' Complaints Could Enhance Oversight

GAO-24-106368
Andrew Von Ah
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4 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Federal Maritime Commission The Chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission should develop an outreach plan for communicating information about FMC's various complaint processes to shippers. Such a plan should align with leading practices for effective outreach. (Recommendation 1)
Open

In its written response to this report, FMC neither agreed nor disagreed with this recommendation. FMC acknowledged the importance of outreach and described initiatives it had undertaken, which we summarized in our report. However, we found that FMC did not have a documented plan for these efforts that defined its outreach goals, analyzed any gaps in knowledge among its stakeholder groups, or determined appropriate messages to address those gaps. In addition, in 2022 FMC issued its own study which reported that shippers were generally unfamiliar with FMC's complaint mechanisms and had
Federal Maritime Commission The Chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission should review the CADRS complaint form to ensure it is collecting specific information on shippers' challenges. (Recommendation 2)
Open

In its written response to this report, FMC neither agreed nor disagreed with this recommendation. As noted in our report, FMC has not updated the CADRS form since 2019, prior to the enactment of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022, which codified CADRS in statute and directed FMC to appoint additional staff to assist with investigations. Given that FMC noted in its comments that it is receiving more complaints than in years past, we believe that collecting more specific information on the form is even more important to effectively monitor and respond to concerns in the maritime industry. We
Federal Maritime Commission The Chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission should update the procedures for FMC's CADRS and BEIC offices to ensure they include all actions staff can take in response to shippers' concerns, such as analyzing complaint data, and establish requirements for future reviews and updates. (Recommendation 3)
Open

In its written response to our report, FMC neither agreed nor disagreed with this recommendation. In our report, we found that FMC's procedures for the CADRS and BEIC offices did not reflect the full range of actions that staff can take to manage and use data from CADRS cases. By updating its procedures to include all actions staff can take in response to shippers' concerns, including handling potential violations of the Shipping Act, FMC will have greater assurance that its staff are consistently following its procedures. Establishing requirements for future updates to these procedures could
Federal Maritime Commission The Chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission should develop a strategy to guide FMC's efforts to modernize how it collects and manages data such that FMC can better monitor shippers' challenges and trends in the maritime shipping industry. (Recommendation 4)
Open

In its written response to our report, FMC neither agreed nor disagreed with this recommendation. FMC's written response stated that it is taking action to modernize its data processes using its information technology modernization plan. However, FMC did not provide us with this plan, nor did officials mention such a plan in our interviews. As a result, we cannot verify that the plan encompasses planned updates to the CADRS or BEIC data. We also cannot verify that the plan includes key information identified in leading practices-such as goals and intended outcomes, planned actions and

Southwest Border: Additional Guidance and Monitoring Needed to Improve CBP's Handling of Personal Property

GAO-24-106540
Rebecca S. Gambler
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3 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
United States Customs and Border Protection The Chief of Border Patrol should issue clarifying guidance for the handling of personal property that defines key terms and concepts, including addressing the amount of property that sectors and facilities should collect and store, the types of property that may or may not be discarded, and steps for transferring and returning property. (Recommendation 1)
Open

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
United States Customs and Border Protection The Chief of Border Patrol should develop a mechanism to monitor how sectors and facilities implement guidance for the handling of personal property. (Recommendation 2)
Open

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
United States Customs and Border Protection The Commissioner of CBP should ensure that upon release from CBP custody, individuals are provided written instructions explaining how to retrieve any lost or left behind personal property, including information specific to the facilities in which they were held. (Recommendation 3)
Open

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Single Audits: Improving Federal Audit Clearinghouse Information and Usability Could Strengthen Federal Award Oversight

GAO-24-106173
James R. Dalkin, Taka Ariga
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13 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Congress Congress should consider amending the Single Audit Act to require the Director of OMB to initiate a government-wide single audit quality review at a regular interval, such as the 6 years that the Uniform Guidance recommends. (Matter for Consideration 1)
Open

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Congress Congress should consider amending the Single Audit Act to require the Director of OMB to submit a report on the findings from each government-wide single audit quality review to the appropriate committees of Congress. (Matter for Consideration 2)
Open

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Congress Congress should consider amending the Single Audit Act to require the federal awarding agencies to work with the Director of OMB on a government-wide single audit quality review. (Matter for Consideration 3)
Open

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
General Services Administration The Administrator of GSA should develop a process to regularly identify, analyze, and respond to FAC data reliability issues that may affect federal oversight, such as establishing edit checks to mitigate issues related to data accuracy, consistency, and completeness. (Recommendation 1)
Open

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
General Services Administration The Administrator of GSA should, in coordination with federal agencies and professional audit organizations, identify and prioritize features to enhance the usefulness of FAC data for federal oversight in accordance with federal data standards. (Recommendation 2)
Open

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
General Services Administration The Administrator of GSA should, in coordination with federal agencies, develop proposed funding and timelines for implementing the identified and prioritized features to enhance the usefulness of FAC data for federal oversight through interagency agreements or other methods. (Recommendation 3)
Open

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Office of Management and Budget The Director of OMB should, after consultation with federal agencies, implement the government-wide single audit quality review by naming a federal agency to lead the review as required by the Uniform Guidance. (Recommendation 4)
Open

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Office of Management and Budget The Director of OMB should ensure that each of the federal agencies responsible for single audit oversight (cognizant and oversight agencies for audit) collects and reports to GSA a list of the recipients of its federal awards that should have submitted a single audit report for audit year 2023 and did not. (Recommendation 5)
Open

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Office of Management and Budget The Director of OMB should work with the Administrator of GSA to establish formal guidance implementing an annual process for each of the federal agencies to collect and report to GSA a list of its federal award recipients that should have submitted a single audit report and did not and to then communicate the guidance to federal agencies for single audits in 2024 and beyond. (Recommendation 6)
Open

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Office of Management and Budget The Director of OMB should work with the Administrator of GSA to develop a method for determining federal award recipients that did not submit a single audit report but should have based on their combined funds received from multiple federal agencies and communicate this method to federal awarding agencies. (Recommendation 7)
Open

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
General Services Administration The Administrator of GSA should, upon consulting with professional audit organizations, provide additional training to auditors and recipients to help ensure that they complete FAC data collection forms accurately, completely, and consistent with the audit report. (Recommendation 8)
Open

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Office of Management and Budget The Director of OMB should consult with federal agencies, CIGIE, and relevant OIGs to discuss methods to help ensure that single audit report reviewers are verifying that the information in a single audit report aligns with the summary information entered on the FAC data collection form. These methods could include adding a procedure to conduct a final quality check in CIGIE's Guide for Desk Reviews of Single Audit Reports. (Recommendation 9)
Open

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Office of Management and Budget The Director of OMB should work with GSA and agency key management single audit liaisons to develop a strategy to use FAC data to identify government-wide risks to federal award funds, such as single audit reports that contain findings that are severe or have remained unresolved for multiple years. This strategy should include steps to analyze and respond to significant risks identified. (Recommendation 10)
Open

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Note: the list of open recommendations for the last report may continue on the next page.

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