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Open Recommendations (67 total)

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 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. In response to our recommendation, they plan to build on their review of staff allocations, update these procedures, and include them in the Director General's regular review cycle. We will continue to monitor their progress.

Environmental Justice: Federal Efforts Need Better Planning, Coordination, and Methods to Assess Progress

GAO-19-543
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should update the department's environmental justice strategic plan. (Recommendation 1)
Open
In April 2023, the White House issued Executive Order 14096, "Revitalizing Our Nation's Commitment to Environmental Justice for All." Executive Order 14096 builds on the foundational 1998 environmental justice Executive Order 12898 and reiterates a requirement for each federal agency to submit an environmental justice (EJ) strategic plan, to the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) within 18 months of the April 2023 order and every 4 years thereafter. According to the order, each EJ strategic plan shall outline the agency's vision, goals, priority actions, and metrics to address and advance environmental justice, among other directives, based on guidance to be provided by CEQ. As of August 2023, the department agrees with our recommendation and has stated that it plans to complete updates to its EJ strategic plan by the end of December 2023. We will continue to review the department's actions and provide updated information.

Telecommunications: Agencies Should Fully Implement Established Transition Planning Practices to Help Reduce Risk of Costly Delays

GAO-20-155
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should ensure that the agency's Chief Information Officer completes efforts to identify future telecommunications needs using a complete inventory of existing telecommunications services; conducts and documents a comprehensive strategic analysis at all bureaus to identify areas for optimization and sharing of telecommunications resources; evaluates the costs and benefits of implementing new telecommunications technology and alternative options at all bureaus; and fully aligns Commerce's telecommunications needs with its long-term IT plans and enterprise architecture. (Recommendation 2)
Open
Commerce concurred with this recommendation. Commerce officials stated that many of the department's bureaus plan to or have already transitioned services to a comparable service. However, as of January 2024, it did not provide evidence to demonstrate its efforts to identify future telecommunications needs using a complete inventory of existing telecommunications services; conducting and documenting a comprehensive strategic analysis at all bureaus to identify areas for optimization and sharing of telecommunications resources; evaluating the costs and benefits of implementing new telecommunications technology and alternative options at all bureaus; and fully aligning Commerce's telecommunications needs with its long-term IT plans and enterprise architecture We will continue to follow-up on the department's efforts to implement this recommendation.

Economic and Commercial Diplomacy: State and Commerce Could Build on Efforts to Improve Coordination and Effectiveness

GAO-22-105860
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of State should ensure Commerce and State articulate and agree to a process for making and enforcing program decisions in their Memorandum of Understanding for the Partner Post Program. (Recommendation 3)
Open
The Department of Commerce provided an action plan in January 2023. The plan indicates that in collaboration with the Department of State, the MOU was revised to include a new performance review process; specifies the role of the Program Managers and leadership in this process; and designates the Regional Senior Commercial Officer (RSCO) as the decision-maker for their region. As of April 2023, we continue to monitor Commerce's actions in response to this recommendation.

Economic and Commercial Diplomacy: State and Commerce Could Build on Efforts to Improve Coordination and Effectiveness

GAO-22-105860
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2 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of State should ensure that Commerce and State indicate how they will use client feedback on client experiences in their Memorandum of Understanding for the Partner Post Program. (Recommendation 4)
Open
The plan indicates that both the Department of Commerce and the Department of State have agreed to update the Partner Post Program's standard operating procedures to incorporate client feedback/experiences as a review element in the Partner Post Annual Tier Review to continuously improve partner post service delivery. This action is expected to be completed no later than Q4 FY 2023. In addition, the plan indicates that no later than Q2 FY 2024, the Departments will revise the MOU to include indicating how to use client feedback. As of April 2023, we continue to monitor Commerce's actions in response to this recommendation.
Department of Commerce The Secretary of State and the Secretary of Commerce should ensure their agencies indicate a method to evaluate outcomes or a way to track or monitor progress toward goals for the program in their guidance cables for the Deal Team Initiative. (Recommendation 5)
Open
The Department of Commerce provided an action plan in January 2023 indicating its readiness to assist the Department of State in applying best practices in identifying performance measures and will continue to engage State at the working level on determining performance measures that will help State assess and report on its collaborative measures under the Deal Team Initiative (DTI) program, consistent with but not necessarily duplicative of Department of Commerce metrics. Action supporting the Department of State issuance of guidance cables addressing performance measures is expected to be completed no later than Q4 FY 2023. As of April 2023, we continue 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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2 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
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. They plan to use the Office of Personnel Management's workforce planning model to serve as a best practice guide and template for GM's efforts to prepare, draft and finalize a comprehensive workforce plan. We will continue to monitor their progress.
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. In November 2023, they reported that staffing vacancies we identified had been filled or had hiring actions underway. We have requested documentation of these actions and will continue to monitor their progress.

Cybersecurity: Agencies Need to Fully Establish Risk Management Programs and Address Challenges

GAO-19-384
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should update the department's policies to require (1) an organization-wide cybersecurity risk assessment and (2) the use of risk assessments to inform POA&M prioritization. (Recommendation 5)
Open
The Department of Commerce did not state whether or not it concurred with this recommendation. As of March 2024, we had not received information pertaining to planned actions for this recommendation. Once the department states that it has taken action, we plan to verify whether implementation has occurred.

Telecommunications: Agencies Should Fully Implement Established Transition Planning Practices to Help Reduce Risk of Costly Delays

GAO-20-155
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should ensure that the agency's Chief Information Officer finalizes the responsibilities related to the information security management role during the telecommunications transition, and assigns the roles for providing legal expertise during the transition, as well as for managing human capital, telecommunications assets, and information security during the transition, to staff members; describes how changes and disruptions related to the transition will be communicated to end users at all bureaus and identifies the key local and regional agency transition officials responsible for disseminating information about the transition to employees and working with the vendor to facilitate transition activities in Commerce's transition communications plan; and establishes and implements configuration and change management processes for its transition. (Recommendation 3)
Open
Commerce concurred with this recommendation. Commerce officials stated that the bureaus are reaching out to all subject matter offices to help with the EIS transition, general counsel offices are helping with contracts, and cyber security professionals to support all transition activities. Further, the department stated that one of its bureaus has fully implemented the role of the Chief Information Security Office in the EIS transition. However, as of January 2024, it did not provide evidence of addressing this recommendation. We will continue to follow-up on the department's efforts to implement this recommendation.
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