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Open Recommendations (34 total)

DOJ Grants Management: Further Steps Could Improve Efforts Taken to Address Early Grants IT Modernization Challenges

GAO-24-106501
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2 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Justice The Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs should establish and document an approach to ensure that future organizational change management programs related to grants management include a stakeholder analysis, a key element of stakeholder engagement planning. (Recommendation 2)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Justice The Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs should establish and document an approach to ensure that future organizational change management programs related to grant management develop performance goals that are objective, measurable, and quantifiable and include a mix of intermediate and ultimate performance goals. (Recommendation 3)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Privacy: Dedicated Leadership Can Improve Programs and Address Challenges

GAO-22-105065
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2 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Justice
Priority Rec.
The Attorney General should incorporate privacy into an organizationwide risk management strategy that includes a determination of risk tolerance. (Recommendation 25)
Open
The Department of Justice did not concur with this recommendation, stating that its existing strategy documents address how it manages privacy risk, including a determination of risk tolerance. As of March 2024, DOJ had provided documents outlining its approach to managing privacy risks. However, they did not include key details such as a discussion of the department's approach to determining privacy risk tolerance, including, for example, factors to be considered and acceptable amounts of risk. According to DOJ officials, while discussions regarding risk thresholds, or the acceptable level of risk for a given activity, have occurred in a number of areas, the department is still working toward developing a department-wide risk tolerance statement. Once the department states that it has taken additional actions, we intend to verify whether implementation has occurred.
Department of Justice The Attorney General should establish a time frame and fully develop and document a privacy continuous monitoring strategy. (Recommendation 26)
Open
The Department of Justice did not concur with this recommendation, stating that DOJ components must assess all security and privacy controls employed by an information system during initial authorization and assess a subset of controls during continuous monitoring on an ongoing basis. However, documentation provided by DOJ did not specify the frequency with which the department plans to assess each privacy control at the various risk management tiers. Accordingly, we continue to believe our recommendation is warranted. As of March 2024, the department had not provided further updates on actions taken to address this recommendation. Once the department states that it has taken action, we plan to verify whether implementation has occurred.

Child Trafficking: Addressing Challenges to Public Awareness and Survivor Support

GAO-24-106038
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Justice The Attorney General should ensure that OVC, in coordination with OTIP, establishes a mechanism—aligned with leading collaboration practices—to guide the offices' collaboration efforts to combat child trafficking. (Recommendation 1)
Open
As of February 2024, DOJ reported that a draft memorandum of agreement is under review that formalizes collaboration plans between DOJ's Office for Victims of Crime and HHS's Office on Trafficking in Persons to combat child trafficking. DOJ also reported that in November 2023, the two offices began convening bimonthly meetings focused on the agencies' efforts to combat child trafficking. We will close this recommendation once DOJ provides a copy of its finalized memorandum of agreement with HHS, as well as documentation of the offices' bimonthly meetings on child trafficking.

Child Trafficking: Addressing Challenges to Public Awareness and Survivor Support

GAO-24-106038
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Justice The Attorney General should ensure that OVC develops achievable performance goals for its anti-trafficking programs for children that reflect leading practices, such as being objective, measurable and quantifiable. (Recommendation 3)
Open
As of November 2023, DOJ reported that by July 2024, it would analyze its strategic goals and performance data to establish performance goals for its child-serving anti-trafficking programs. DOJ's Office for Victims of Crime anticipates that these performance goals will be reflected in its fiscal year 2025 funding opportunities focused on anti-trafficking programs for children. While these are positive steps, we will close this recommendation once DOJ has established performance goals for its child-serving anti-trafficking programs.

Department of Justice: Actions Needed to Better Track and Monitor Responses to Congressional Correspondence

GAO-23-105231
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2 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Justice The Attorney General should ensure that ExecSec and OLA maintain readily available, accurate, and complete congressional correspondence data to track responses in DOJ's department-wide correspondence management system. (Recommendation 1)
Open
DOJ reported in June 2023 that ExecSec and OLA launched a new system for tracking congressional correspondence starting with the 118th Congress. According to DOJ, the new system allows the Department to better track its congressional response process by showing the steps in the process-from initial drafting to finalization and transmittal. The system also tracks where draft responses are in that process, according to DOJ. DOJ officials noted that the new system also shows the employee with responsibility for ensuring that a particular response is finalized and transmitted, and it allows the department to generate regular reports for managers and supervisors to monitor progress as needed. In October 2023, OLA officials stated that they have held meetings with key stakeholders (including ExecSec) to assess internal correspondence processes, standardized the data entry process, and have established goals. OLA officials also stated that they have developed checklists for accuracy, formatting, and context that attorneys are to use as part of their tracking process and have begun to offer trainings to OLA attorneys. According to these officials, OLA is on step three of eight in their problem solving process.
Department of Justice The Attorney General should ensure that ExecSec and OLA develop guidance on correspondence management system data quality. (Recommendation 2)
Open
DOJ reported in June 2023 that ExecSec and OLA have developed standard operating procedures for congressional correspondence as part of the new system for tracking and monitoring correspondence. DOJ also provided a copy of the Standard Operating Procedures Manual for Priority Correspondence. In October 2023, OLA officials told us that they were in the beginning stages of conducting outreach to DOJ components on standardizing guidance.

Federal Software Licenses: Agencies Need to Take Action to Achieve Additional Savings

GAO-24-105717
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Justice The Attorney General should ensure that the Department of Justice consistently tracks software licenses that are currently in use for its widely used licenses by, at a minimum, developing and implementing procedures for tracking license usage. (Recommendation 7)
Open
The Department of Justice agreed with this recommendation. When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Federal Software Licenses: Agencies Need to Take Action to Achieve Additional Savings

GAO-24-105717
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Justice The Attorney General should ensure that the Department of Justice consistently compares the inventories of software licenses that are currently in use with information on purchased licenses to identify opportunities to reduce costs and better inform investment decision making for its widely used licenses on a regular basis. At a minimum, it should develop and implement procedures for comparing the inventories of licenses in use to purchase records. (Recommendation 8)
Open
The Department of Justice agreed with this recommendation. As of March 2024, the department had no comments on the implementation status of this recommendation. Until the department consistently compares their inventories of software licenses in use to known purchases for each of their five most widely used software licenses, it is likely to miss opportunities to reduce costs on duplicative or unnecessary software licenses. We will continue to monitor the department's efforts to fully implement this recommendation.
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