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Open Recommendations (71 total)

Telecommunications: Agencies Need Better Controls to Achieve Significant Savings on Mobile Devices and Services

GAO-15-431
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce To help the department effectively manage spending on mobile devices and services, the Secretary of Commerce should ensure a reliable department-wide inventory of mobile service contracts is developed and maintained.
Open
In January 2024, the Department of Commerce Office of the Chief Information Officer stated that the department did not have an inventory of mobile service contracts and described steps it was taking to develop one. We will continue to monitor the department's efforts.

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 issue a progress report on the department's environmental justice efforts each year. (Recommendation 11)
Open – Partially Addressed
In April 2023, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the U.S. Digital Service published the first phase of a publicly available Environmental Justice (EJ) Scorecard, as directed by the February 2021 Executive Order 14008, "Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad." Additionally, 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 as well as Executive Order 14008. Executive Order 14096 directs agencies to develop an EJ strategic plan and submit to CEQ and make public an EJ assessment that evaluates the plan's effectiveness within two years, based on additional guidance to be provided by CEQ. This EJ assessment would fulfill the Executive Order 12898 requirement for agencies to submit annual EJ progress reports, and be included among other items in the EJ Scorecard. As of September 2023, the department is developing an EJ strategic plan, has published baseline information on the EJ Scorecard, and has prepared but not yet publicly posted two annual EJ progress reports. We will continue to review the department's baseline information, actions, and provide updated information.

2010 Census: Key Efforts to Include Hard-to-Count Populations Went Generally as Planned; Improvements Could Make the Efforts More Effective for Next Census

GAO-11-45
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce
Priority Rec.
To help improve the effectiveness of the Bureau's outreach and enumeration efforts, especially for HTC populations, should they be used again in the 2020 Census, and to improve some of the Bureau's key efforts to enumerate HTC populations, the Secretary of Commerce should require the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs as well as the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau to evaluate the extent to which each special enumeration activity improved the count of traditionally hard-to-enumerate groups and use the results to help inform decision making on spending for these programs in 2020.
Open
The Department generally agreed with this recommendation. In 2012, the Bureau reported on assessments of many 2010 special enumeration activities such as the Service-Based Enumeration and the Be Counted/Questionnaire Assistance Center Programs. These assessments revealed the number of persons counted and spending for the special enumeration activities. Separately, the Bureau issued results of the 2010 Census Coverage Measurement Program that described census coverage of various traditionally undercounted populations generally, although these did not attribute coverage to specific enumeration activities. From 2015-2019, the Bureau issued annual updates of its 2020 Census Operational Plans, which did not provide descriptions of the evidence on which planned spending decisions were made for specific special enumeration activities. The Bureau did not take sufficient action to implement this recommendation for the 2020 Census. In March 2022, Bureau officials described various strategies they were considering for including this information in operational plans for the 2030 Census later in the decade. In March 2024, we discussed with Bureau officials how decennial management was exploring ways to standardize crosswalks from 2030 Census research results to justifications for elements of their forthcoming 2030 census operational plan. To fully implement this recommendation, the Bureau needs to demonstrate, in support of its forthcoming design for the 2030 Census, the evidence it has considered on how various special enumeration activities may have contributed to census cost and accuracy in the 2020 Census.

Steel and Aluminum Tariffs: Commerce Should Update Public Guidance to Reflect Changes in the Exclusion Process

GAO-22-104564
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should ensure that the Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security creates a policy to regularly assess and update its public guidance to ensure that it is consistent and accurately reflects the time the agency takes to decide exclusion requests. (Recommendation 2)
Open
The Department of Commerce agreed with this recommendation and stated that it will work to update published average timeframes for decisions as part of an overarching review of existing public guidance regarding the Section 232 Exclusion Process. As of November 2023, Commerce officials stated that they planned to issue guidance in 2024 addressing the issues that GAO has raised. GAO will continue to monitor Commerce's efforts to implement this recommendation.

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

GAO-23-104624
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2 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce Commerce's Chief Financial Officer/Assistant Secretary for Administration should create performance measures and a process for evaluating the WCF's overall management, such as measuring the billing error rates or the reliability of cost information. These performance measures should be aligned with Commerce's strategic goals to help determine if the WCF is operating effectively. (Recommendation 3)
Open
In its comments on our report, Commerce agreed with this recommendation. In June 2023, Commerce stated that it plans to survey Working Capital Fund (WCF) customers annually to collect feedback on services provided through the WCF. WCF managers also plan to work with Commerce's Performance Office to develop additional performance measures. Commerce expects to complete these actions by December 2023. When we confirm what actions Commerce has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
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 – Partially Addressed
In its comments on our report, Commerce agreed with this recommendation and stated that it planned to document a policy for managing the Working Capital Fund's (WCF) balances in the next WCF Handbook. In February 2023, Commerce updated its WCF Handbook and documented its goal of maintaining the WCF's year-end carry-over balance at four percent of the annual final operating budget. However, the WCF Handbook does not document Commerce's policy for managing the fund's obligated balance. We sent follow-up questions to Commerce about that policy in July 2023, but as of December 2023, Commerce had not responded to those questions. We will provide updated information when we receive Commerce's responses.

Telecommunications: Agencies Need Better Controls to Achieve Significant Savings on Mobile Devices and Services

GAO-15-431
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce To help the department effectively manage spending on mobile devices and services, the Secretary of Commerce should ensure procedures to monitor and control spending are established department-wide. Specifically, ensure that (1) procedures include assessing devices for zero, under, and over usage; (2) personnel with authority and responsibility for performing the procedures are identified; and (3) the specific steps to be taken to perform the process are documented.
Open
In January 2024, the Department of Commerce Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) stated that the department does not have documented procedures for assessing device usage. The OCIO also stated that the process is not complex enough to warrant a Standard Operating Procedure. However, as we stated in our report, an executive order on promoting efficient spending directed agencies to establish controls to ensure that they are not paying for unused or underused devices or services. In addition, internal control standards call for agencies to ensure government resources are efficiently and effectively used. Internal control standards also state that the internal control environment should clearly define key areas of authority and responsibility, and that the procedures should include an audit trail so someone not familiar with the procedures could understand the process.

2010 Census: Census Bureau Has Made Progress on Schedule and Operational Control Tools, but Needs to Prioritize Remaining System Requirements

GAO-10-59
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce To improve the Bureau's use of its master schedule to manage the 2020 decennial census, the Secretary of Commerce should require the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau to include estimates of the resources, such as labor, materials, and overhead costs, in the 2020 integrated schedule for each activity as the schedule is built, and prepare to carry out other steps as necessary to conduct systematic schedule risk analyses on the 2020 schedule.
Open
Commerce neither agreed nor disagreed with this recommendation. Regarding GAO's 2013 assessment of the Bureau's schedule (GAO-14-59), Bureau officials stated that they hoped to begin identifying the resources needed for each activity in their schedules by early 2014. Bureau officials announced they had completed the 2020 Census schedule in July 2016, and have since periodically described their intent to link resources to activities within their schedules. However, as of May 2018, the Bureau had not taken these steps. Senior Bureau officials stated that it would require additional staffing in order to plan for and implement this recommendation. In July 2018 (GAO-18-589) we reported again on the status of the Bureau's scheduling, stating that when the Bureau has resource loaded its schedule, it will be able to use the schedule more effectively as a management tool. The Bureau took steps toward assigning resources to its master activity schedule for the 2020 Census, but effectively ran out of time to do so. Assigning resources to large complex schedules is easier to do early in the schedule development process, as we recommended the Bureau do in 2009 for its 2020 Census schedule. As of March 2024, this recommendation remains open. To implement this recommendation the Bureau will need to develop its 2030 schedule with the appropriate resources linked to it.

2020 Census: Lessons Learned from Planning and Implementing the 2020 Census Offer Insights to Support 2030 Preparations

GAO-22-104357
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce
Priority Rec.
The Secretary of Commerce and the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau should develop a plan to improve resiliency of its 2030 Census research and testing activity in response to Bureau-identified budget uncertainty, including but not limited to specifying the tests and projects that are most important to conduct. (Recommendation 1)
Open
The Census Bureau agreed with our recommendation, and in September 2022, provided numerous documents describing and demonstrating actions the Bureau was taking to improve its budget development, execution, and oversight. The Bureau has also identified two program risks to the 2030 Census related to budget uncertainty and reported drafting contingency plans for those risks. In February 2023, Bureau officials confirmed this as a priority they were working to address. As of March 2024, we are monitoring how risks to implementation of the Bureau's testing plan are accounted for in forthcoming operational planning documents. In order to fully address this recommendation, the Bureau will need to demonstrate how its 2030 Census tests and projects that are most important to conduct are protected from budget uncertainty.

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 coordinate with OSFM and WCF service providers to create and document a process to regularly review the results of WCF performance measures. (Recommendation 4)
Open
In its comments on our report, Commerce agreed with this recommendation. In June 2023, Commerce stated that the Office of the Secretary Financial Management (OSFM) plans to work with Commerce's Performance Office to document a process to regularly review Working Capital Fund (WCF) performance measures. OSFM also plans to communicate the results of those measures to WCF service providers and customers. Commerce expects to complete these actions by December 2023. When we confirm what actions Commerce has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
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