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Open Recommendations (59 total)

Artificial Intelligence: Agencies Have Begun Implementation but Need to Complete Key Requirements

GAO-24-105980
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Interior The Secretary of the Interior should ensure that the department (a) reviews the agency's authorities related to applications of AI and (b) develops and submits to OMB plans to achieve consistency with the Regulation of AI Applications memorandum (M-21-06). (Recommendation 20)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Working Dogs: Federal Agencies Need to Better Address Health and Welfare

GAO-23-104489
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Interior The Secretary of the Interior should direct all of the Department of the Interior's agencies with contractor-managed working dog programs to ensure that all 18 issues GAO identified as important to the health and welfare of working dogs are addressed, as appropriate, in future contracts. (Recommendation 15)
Open – Partially Addressed
In March 2023, the Bureau of Reclamation issued a revised customer service package template that incorporate by reference the 18 issues GAO identified as important to the health and welfare of working dogs. We await information on actions taken by the other Interior entity with contractor-managed working dog programs: the National Park Service - Park Police. As of February 2024, this recommendation remains open.

Unauthorized Grazing: Actions Needed to Improve Tracking and Deterrence Efforts

GAO-16-559
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Interior To improve the effectiveness of BLM's efforts to track and deter unauthorized grazing, the Secretary of the Interior should direct the Director of BLM to record all incidents of unauthorized grazing, including those resolved informally.
Open
BLM is working with the Department of the Interior's (DOI) Office of the Solicitor and other stakeholders to revise the Unauthorized Grazing Use Handbook (H-4150-1). DOI has initiated an environmental impact statement (EIS) and rulemaking to revise 43 CFR Part 4100 - Grazing Administration - Exclusive of Alaska. Among other changes, the EIS considers several changes to modernize the regulations to address certain program trends and changes to the legal landscape that include provisions to address unauthorized grazing use through informal resolution of incidental, non-willful violations, as in recommendation 1 of GAO-16-559. If carried forward in the Final Rule, these changes would serve as the foundation to implement recommendations 2 and 3 of GAO-16-559. Because the rulemaking will likely change the regulations on which H-4150-1 is based, BLM has postponed further work until after the Final Rule is published. This is intended to ensure that DOI does not devote additional time and effort to revise H-4150-1, only for it to be out of conformance with the Final Rule, once published. Therefore, DOI is tracking a target date of December 14, 2023. We will follow-up with DOI in December 2023 about the status of this recommendation.

Disaster Contracting: Action Needed to Improve Agencies' Use of Contracts for Wildfire Response and Recovery

GAO-23-105292
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Interior The Secretary of the Interior should ensure the Director of the Bureau of Land Management revises the bureau's acquisition manual in a timely manner to reflect 2018 and 2022 changes to its policies regarding use of ordering officials. (Recommendation 4)
Open
The department concurred with our recommendation and established a goal of completing necessary coordination and policy revisions by June 2024.

Artificial Intelligence: Agencies Have Begun Implementation but Need to Complete Key Requirements

GAO-24-105980
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Interior The Secretary of the Interior should ensure that the department updates its AI use case inventory to include all the required information, at minimum, and takes steps to ensure that the data in the inventory aligns with provided instructions. (Recommendation 21)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Opportunities to Reduce Potential Duplication in Government Programs, Save Tax Dollars, and Enhance Revenue

GAO-11-318SP
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Interior The Department of the Interior should implement GAO's recommendations from prior reports addressing a variety of oil and gas measurement factors.
Open – Partially Addressed
As of March 2024, Interior implemented 24 of 26 recommendations that GAO made in reports from March 2010 and April 2015 for improving Interior's oversight, polices, and practices for oil and gas measurement. Interior continues efforts to update oil and gas measurement and site security regulations. Interior plans to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking in December 2024, with a final rule expected in March 2025.

Unauthorized Grazing: Actions Needed to Improve Tracking and Deterrence Efforts

GAO-16-559
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Interior To improve the effectiveness of BLM's efforts to track and deter unauthorized grazing, the Secretary of the Interior should direct the Director of BLM to revise the agency's Unauthorized Grazing Use Handbook to make it consistent with 43 C.F.R. pt. 4100 (2005).
Open
BLM is working with the Department of the Interior's (DOI) Office of the Solicitor and other stakeholders to revise the Unauthorized Grazing Use Handbook (H-4150-1). DOI has initiated an environmental impact statement (EIS) and rulemaking to revise 43 CFR Part 4100 - Grazing Administration - Exclusive of Alaska. Among other changes, the EIS considers several changes to modernize the regulations to address certain program trends and changes to the legal landscape that include provisions to address unauthorized grazing use through informal resolution of incidental, non-willful violations, as in recommendation 1 of GAO-16-559. If carried forward in the Final Rule, these changes would serve as the foundation to implement recommendations 2 and 3 of GAO-16-559. Because the rulemaking will likely change the regulations on which H-4150-1 is based, BLM has postponed further work until after the Final Rule is published. This is intended to ensure that DOI does not devote additional time and effort to revise H-4150-1, only for it to be out of conformance with the Final Rule, once published. Therefore, DOI is tracking a target date of December 14, 2023. We will follow-up with DOI in December 2023 about the status of this recommendation.

Tribal Programs: Actions Needed to Improve Interior's Management of Trust Services

GAO-23-105356
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Interior The Assistant Secretary–Indian Affairs should review current and planned performance measures for Interior's management of trust funds and establish clearly defined performance measures for fulfilling its fiduciary trust responsibility and managing trust funds and related services to beneficiaries. (Recommendation 1)
Open
As of October 2023, Interior has identified four new categories of performance measures to fulfill the Secretary's trust principles: 1) probate processing; 2) disbursement processing; 3) timeliness of oil and gas receipting; and 4) beneficiary satisfaction. The agency has offered to walk GAO through the implementation of these performance measures, and plan to complete this task to address our recommendation by the second quarter of FY 2024.

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands: Greater Transparency Could Improve Worker Ratio Reports

GAO-24-106698
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Interior The Secretary of the Interior should ensure that the Assistant Secretary for Insular and International Affairs works with the CNMI government and, as appropriate, other U.S. agencies to determine what steps can be taken to improve transparency of the analytical approach CNMI uses to create its annual worker ratio report. Such steps could include communicating in greater detail, through CNMI's Standard Operating Procedure document and worker ratio report, the analytical approach CNMI took to categorize unknown workers as either U.S. or foreign, as well as the implications of the unknown portion for the ratio.
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Tribal Transportation: Better Data Could Improve Road Management and Inform Indian Student Attendance Strategies

GAO-17-423
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Interior To help ensure that NTTFI is able to provide quality information to support management and program oversight efforts, the Secretary of the Interior should direct the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs to for fields determined to have continued relevance for management and program oversight take steps to improve the quality of these data by clarifying guidance in the NTTFI coding guide that tribes use to collect data and by providing additional guidance on steps needed to ensure that data are consistently reported.
Open
As of March 2024, GAO requested an updated from BIA regarding the status of its efforts to implement this recommendation. When BIA responds to our request, GAO will provide updated information.
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