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Open Recommendations (141 total)

DHS Acquisitions: Opportunities Exist to Enhance Risk Management

GAO-23-106249
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Homeland Security The Secretary of Homeland Security should ensure that when the Office of Program Accountability and Risk Management updates its risk management guidance for briefing the Acquisition Review Board on risks, that it (1) include additional direction on including as-of dates for risk information, and (2) clarify how programs should communicate on risks that have arisen or changed since the as-of date. (Recommendation 7)
Open – Partially Addressed
DHS agreed with this recommendation. In December 2023, the Office of Program Accountability and Risk Management updated its risk management guidance. The update included how programs should communicate on risk status to the Acquisition Review Board if changes have occurred since a briefing was submitted for review, but did not include direction for programs to include as-of dates for the overall risks.

Immigration Detention: Additional Actions Needed to Strengthen DHS Management of Short-Term Holding Facilities

GAO-16-514
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Homeland Security To strengthen the transparency of the complaints process, the Secretary of Homeland Security should direct CBP and ICE to develop and issue guidance on how and which complaint mechanisms should be communicated to individuals in custody at holding facilities.
Open – Partially Addressed
In May 2016, we reported on the Department of Homeland Security's management and oversight of short-term holding facilities. We found, for example, that only 4 of 17 Border Patrol holding facilities posted information on how individuals can contact the DHS OIG to file general complaints, and the remaining facilities did not have information posted on any complaint mechanisms, such as the Joint Intake Center or CBP INFO Center. In December 2016, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) sent a broadcast to ICE field offices stating that posters should be visible at all of ICE ERO temporary holding facilities. This broadcast directed ICE ERO Field Office staff to immediately post copies of the Detention Reporting and Information Line poster, both in English and in Spanish, in temporary confinement areas or other areas so that it is visible to individuals in custody at ICE ERO temporary holding facilities. Regarding CBP, in July 2022, CBP told us that CBP's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) is working with the CBP Office of Information Technology (OIT) on the requirements for a public-facing website and complaint form for reporting allegations of misconduct and other issues of concern. CBP added that given the importance of the web-based complaint form in improving mechanisms for reporting allegations of misconduct and abuse, CBP developed and implemented the public-facing website and complaint form for reporting allegations of misconduct and other issues of concern. This website went live in June 2023 in English, and August 2023, in Spanish. CBP OPR continues to support the consolidation of CBP/DHS Oversight posters within CBP short-term holding facilities as part of a working group led by the Commissioner's Office. The working group has consolidated a list of information currently posted in CBP holding facilities and determined which are oversight versus other health and safety postings. The goal is to consolidate all oversight posters into one poster, focusing on how to report to the correct oversight entity, removing confusion among those being held, while also ensuring consistent messaging across all CBP short-term holding facilities. CBP OPR expects the completion date by July 31, 2024.

Federal Contracting: Senior Leaders Should Use Leading Companies' Key Practices to Improve Performance

GAO-21-491
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Homeland Security
Priority Rec.
The Secretary of Homeland Security should ensure the DHS Chief Procurement Officer uses a balanced set of performance metrics to manage the department's procurement organizations, including outcome-oriented metrics to measure (a) cost savings/avoidance, (b) timeliness of deliveries, (c) quality of deliverables, and (d) end-user satisfaction. (Recommendation 9)
Open – Partially Addressed
DHS did not concur with the recommendation, stating that while the department supports the use of outcome-oriented metrics, it disagreed that the specific metrics included in our recommendation necessarily captured the most relevant aspects of procurement organizations' performance. However, DHS also stated the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer (OCPO) would review its current metrics to determine whether they appropriately measure outcomes. We agree DHS could identify additional outcome-oriented metrics that are tailored to its needs. We also continue to believe DHS should address the recommendation by using the four types of metrics we identified because the corporate procurement leaders we interviewed emphasized the importance of using these four types of outcome-oriented metrics. In June 2023, the OCPO provided evidence that that it was using an outcome-oriented metric to measure cost savings/avoidance achieved through category management activities, which are intended to improve how agencies procure common goods and services. DHS officials provided an update in February 2024 showing that in fiscal year 2023 the department used category management activities for about 80 percent of their common goods and services expenditures ($18 billion of $22.5 billion) and had tracked savings of $502 million. To address the timeliness of deliveries and quality of deliverables metrics, the OCPO noted that by June 2024 they plan to review marginal and unsatisfactory data from the Contractor Performance Reporting System. This analysis will then determine what additional steps are needed. To address the end-user satisfaction metric, the OCPO stated it supplemented its Acquisition 360 data by surveying procurement personnel and stakeholders, including end-users, in order to improve the procurement experience for their workforce and end-users. OCPO officials stated that if performance gaps related to end-user experiences are identified, they will work to develop metrics, as needed. In order to fully close this recommendation, DHS will need to provide evidence that it has implemented all the performance metrics to manage the department's procurement organization. Using a balanced set of performance measures, including both process- and outcome-oriented measures can help federal agencies identify improvement opportunities, set priorities, and allocate resources.

Federal Real Property: DHS and GSA Need to Strengthen the Management of DHS Headquarters Consolidation

GAO-14-648
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Homeland Security
Priority Rec.
In order to improve transparency and allow for more informed decision making by congressional leaders and DHS and GSA decision-makers, before requesting additional funding for the DHS headquarters consolidation project, after revising the DHS headquarters consolidation plans, the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Administrator of the General Services Administration should work jointly to develop revised cost and schedule estimates for the remaining portions of the consolidation project that conform to GSA guidance and leading practices for cost and schedule estimation, including an independent evaluation of the estimates.
Open – Partially Addressed
The Department of Homeland Security Headquarters Consolidation Accountability Act of 2015 (Pub. L. No. 114-150) was enacted on April 29, 2016. Among other things, the act requires DHS, in coordination with GSA, to submit information to Congress about DHS headquarters consolidation efforts not later than 120 days of enactment. Required information includes a comprehensive assessment of property and facilities utilized by DHS in the National Capital Region, and an analysis that identifies the costs and benefits of leasing and construction alternatives for the remainder of the consolidation project. However, this report did not contain sufficient cost and schedule information for us to perform a comprehensive analysis to assess reliability. In July 2023, GSA provided us with a report from a planning and funding reset for the project, and in December 2023, DHS provided us with updates for its estimates. As of February 2024, we continue to collect documentation from GSA and DHS that supported the updated cost and schedule estimates. Once we obtain all available documentation related to the leading practices for cost and schedule estimation, we will determine the extent to which GSA and DHS have adhered to these leading practices. Continued DHS and GSA attention to following leading practices for capital planning and cost and schedule estimation is critical given the project's multi-billion dollar cost and impact on future departmental operations.

COVID-19 Contracting: Opportunities to Improve Practices to Assess Prospective Vendors and Capture Lessons Learned

GAO-21-528
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Homeland Security The Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Secretaries of Defense and Health and Human Services, should ensure that input from contracting officials on interagency contracting lessons learned in response to COVID-19 is collected and shared as part of government-wide efforts to collect, analyze, and report on lessons learned. (Recommendation 10)
Open – Partially Addressed
DHS agreed with this recommendation, and as of January 2022, DHS had identified several interagency contracting lessons learned that DHS officials stated they had collected from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and DHS had shared those with DOD and HHS to develop a consolidated list of interagency lessons learned. As of April 2024, all three agencies had identified their lessons learned and are meeting to discuss strategies to document and share them with each other.

Southwest Border: Actions Needed to Improve DHS Processing of Families and Coordination between DHS and HHS

GAO-20-245
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Homeland Security
Priority Rec.
The Secretary of Homeland Security, jointly with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, should collaborate to address information sharing gaps identified in this report to ensure that ORR receives information needed to make decisions for UAC, including those apprehended with an adult. (Recommendation 8)
Open – Partially Addressed
Since our report, DHS and HHS have taken a number of steps to share information on unaccompanied children. For example, DHS's U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in coordination with HHS and other agencies, has implemented the Unified Immigration Portal (UIP). The UIP provides authorized users a means to view and access certain immigration-related data from each of the respective agencies from a single interface. The UIP also provides real time data, including biographic information, to help track unaccompanied children from the time of DHS apprehension to their referral and placement in HHS-funded facilities. In addition, HHS's Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is continuing to implement its case management system, the UC Portal, which is integrated with UIP. This helps officials retrieve data regarding a child's status in a more automated manner. However, as of March 2024, the information gaps we highlighted in our report continue to exist. In particular, according to ORR officials, they do not consistently receive information from DHS components about the adults and, as applicable, the other children who arrived with unaccompanied children, which would help ORR make placement and release decisions. ORR officials stated that this includes information on the individuals within a family unit, whether a family separation occurred, and details of any such separation. Additionally, these officials stated they are not consistently receiving the necessary biographical information about unaccompanied children, or their parents/legal guardians. In the fall of 2023, DHS and ORR reported that they are working on a new interagency agreement to govern information sharing. As part of the new agreement, ORR stated the agencies are working to define exact data elements to be shared. DHS stated it anticipates concluding work on the new agreement by August 2024. To fully address this recommendation, DHS and HHS should collaborate to address the information-sharing gaps identified in our report to ensure that HHS receives information needed to make decisions for unaccompanied children, including those apprehended with an adult.

Law Enforcement: Federal Agencies Should Improve Reporting and Review of Less-Lethal Force

GAO-22-104470
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Homeland Security The Secretary of Homeland Security should develop standards for its component agencies on the types of information that must be reported on each use of force incident. (Recommendation 4)
Open – Partially Addressed
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) provided documentation of some standards for information that must be reported related to use of force but did not create standards for other kinds of information that should be reported so that component agencies can determine whether the use of force was conducted in accordance with policy. In June 2023, DHS officials stated that the DHS Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans (DHS Policy) led a working group under the Law Enforcement Coordination Council that developed a baseline set of data points and a reporting template for all DHS law enforcement components and offices. These data are to be reported to DHS Policy, which will use the data for inclusion in Federal Bureau of Investigation's use of force data collection and public-facing website, as well as other internal DHS reporting. DHS Policy provided copies of the template, which includes required fields, such as the type of injuries and force used. However, the template and its related requirements do not include standards for what information must be reported by each component for the purpose of determining whether the use of force incident was conducted in accordance with policy. For example, the template does not include required information on the reason for the use of force. Further, on the basis of our review of DHS's 2023 Use of Force Policy, this policy also does not include additional standards for its component agencies on the types of information that must be reported on each use of force incident.In August 2023, DHS officials stated that it is the responsibility of component agencies to develop their own standards for what information must be reported for the purpose of determining whether the use of force incident was conducted in accordance with policy. However, as we reported in December 2021, we found that all four of the DHS agencies in our review had use of force reports that were missing basic information that would be needed to determine if the force was used in accordance with policy, such as who used the force and why. Further, we found that while DHS's policy states that uses of force are to be documented and investigated pursuant to agency policies, the departmental policy does not include standards for agencies on the types of information that must be reported, including whether the circumstances for each use of force must be reported. We continue to believe that developing such department-wide standards on the types of information that should be required in use of force reporting will help ensure that officers develop reports with all of the needed basic information, which will allow management across DHS to help oversee officers' use of force.

Agile Software Development: DHS Has Made Significant Progress in Implementing Leading Practices, but Needs to Take Additional Actions

GAO-20-213
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2 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Homeland Security The Secretary should ensure that the CIO, in collaboration with the Chief Procurement Officer, through the Homeland Security Acquisition Institute, establish Agile training requirements for senior stakeholders. (Recommendation 5)
Open – Partially Addressed
As of September 2022, DHS has not yet fully addressed this recommendation. In September 2022, DHS stated that a detailed catalog of Agile courses is available in the DHS Learning Management System. DHS added that the availability of these courses has been communicated to all learning management leads across DHS. However, DHS stated that, after consultation with the DHS Chief Learning Officer's Council, the department has not made the courses mandatory. Nevertheless, DHS stated that its Agile Center of Excellence will continue to highlight and recommend the courses for introductory or non-acquisition personnel and senior executives in accordance with these recommendations.
Department of Homeland Security The Secretary should ensure that the CIO, in collaboration with the Chief Procurement Officer, through the Homeland Security Acquisition Institute, establish Agile training requirements for staff outside of the acquisition workforce but assigned to Agile programs. (Recommendation 7)
Open – Partially Addressed
As of September 2022, DHS has not yet fully addressed this recommendation. In September 2022, DHS stated that a detailed catalog of Agile courses is available in the DHS Learning Management System. DHS added that the availability of these courses has been communicated to all learning management leads across DHS. However, DHS stated that, after consultation with the DHS Chief Learning Officer's Council, the department has not made the courses mandatory. Nevertheless, DHS stated that its Agile Center of Excellence will continue to highlight and recommend the courses for introductory or non-acquisition personnel and senior executives in accordance with these recommendations.

Law Enforcement: Federal Agencies Should Improve Reporting and Review of Less-Lethal Force

GAO-22-104470
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Homeland Security The Secretary of Homeland Security should oversee the quality, consistency, and completeness of use of force reporting across all DHS components, such as through a department-wide use of force oversight body or regular evaluations of use of force reporting. (Recommendation 5)
Open – Partially Addressed
As of April 2024, DHS established a working group to coordinate the collection of use of force data across DHS, and undertook one effort to improve the quality, consistency, and completeness of use of force reporting across all DHS components. In February 2023, DHS issued an updated Use of Force policy, which states that the Law Enforcement Coordination Council is to provide a forum by which components can share lessons learned regarding use of force policies, training, law enforcement administrative matters, and oversight. DHS officials stated that the DHS Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans (DHS Policy) led a working group under the council to coordinate the collection of use of force data across DHS. Related to this effort, DHS Policy officials stated that they coordinated with the Office of Homeland Security Statistics (formerly the Office of Immigration Statistics) and DHS Chief Information Officer (CIO) Data Team to analyze the use of force data collected, including the quality, consistency, and completeness of the data. In December 2023, DHS officials stated that the office's efforts led to the revision of its data collection to help close gaps in data quality, consistency, and completeness, such as by eliminating redundant fields. While the creation of the working group and coordination with the Office of Homeland Security Statistics are positive steps, we continue to believe that establishing ongoing monitoring mechanisms to ensure that reporting information is consistent and complete will enhance DHS's ability to oversee the use of force across its agencies. As of March 2024, we have requested additional evidence of the Office of Homeland Security Statistics' efforts as well as evidence on the extent to which the Law Enforcement Coordination Council is responsible for overseeing the quality, consistency, and completeness of use of force reporting across all DHS components.
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