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Open Recommendations (34 total)

Information Technology: Selected Federal Agencies Need to Take Additional Actions to Reduce Contract Duplication

GAO-20-567
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Justice The Attorney General should ensure that the Department of Justice develops and implements strategies to address duplication identified through the use of spend analyses. (Recommendation 13)
Open – Partially Addressed
In January 2024, the department provided evidence that it had used a spend analysis to identify opportunities to reduce IT contract duplication. In addition, the department identified strategies for addressing the duplication. In addition, the department developed strategies to address the duplication. However, it did not provide evidence that it had implemented the strategies. We will continue to monitor the agency's efforts to address our recommendation.

Ransomware: Federal Agencies Provide Useful Assistance but Can Improve Collaboration

GAO-22-104767
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Justice The Attorney General should direct the Director of FBI to (1) evaluate how to best address concerns raised by SLTTs and facilitate collaboration with other key ransomware stakeholders and (2) improve interagency coordination on ransomware assistance to SLTTs. (Recommendation 3)
Open – Partially Addressed
The Department of Justice agreed with our recommendation and has taken steps towards implementing it. Since September 2022, FBI has co-chaired an interagency Joint Ransomware Task Force (JRTF) with DHS's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). According to the JRTF charter, the task force intends to, among other things, facilitate coordination and collaboration between federal entities and relevant private sector and state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) government entities to improve federal actions against ransomware threats. According to the FBI, the agency is working with CISA and its interagency partners to coordinate, deconflict, and synchronize existing efforts to disrupt ransomware operations and provide support to the private sector and SLTT governments. FBI noted that the JRTF is listening to government and private sector partners, building staffing, and creating processes and technology to acknowledge and address information gaps. FBI identified five JRTF working groups that aim to, among other things, assess how to effectively provide ransomware victims the information needed to restore services and minimize damage and share information with other government agencies. As of January 2024, FBI had not demonstrated results from its planned efforts through the JRTF. To fully address this recommendation, FBI needs to demonstrate its efforts through the JRTF, or other mechanisms, to address concerns raised by SLTT governments and improve interagency collaboration on ransomware assistance. Addressing key practices for interagency collaboration in concert with the ransomware task force can help ensure effective delivery of ransomware assistance to SLTT governments.

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

GAO-23-105231
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Justice The Attorney General should ensure that OLA develops department-wide goals and related performance measures for timeliness in responding to congressional correspondence. (Recommendation 3)
Open – Partially Addressed
OLA established general timeline guidelines for each step in the response process based on the type of correspondence, the complexity of the correspondence, and the nature of the issues raised in the correspondence. The timelines for responding range from 5 weeks (33 days) for correspondence handled directly by OLA to 21 weeks (147 days) for correspondence that requires input from multiple components and review by both the Office of the Deputy Attorney General and the Office of the Associate Attorney General. OLA has incorporated these general guidelines into the standard operating procedures and workflow templates used to manage the process of responding to congressional correspondence. The workflow templates capture the most common steps applicable to typical types of correspondence and the standard operating procedures include an appendix of steps and timelines for these workflow templates. In October 2023, OLA officials told us that they have incorporated software tools to monitor the status of congressional correspondence and to improve their decision-making related to certain issues, such as monitoring the division of labor among its staff responsible for managing congressional correspondence. However, it is unclear whether OLA's timeliness goals apply to the congressional correspondence that is routed directly to the law enforcement components with their own legislative affairs staff to ensure the same standard of care is taken with the correspondence they manage independently.

Online Exploitation of Children: Department of Justice Leadership and Updated National Strategy Needed to Address Challenges

GAO-23-105260
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Justice The Attorney General should ensure that the department updates the National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction to fully address all statutory requirements, including appointment of a senior official, inclusion of all 19 statutory elements for the strategy, and issuance of the strategy every two years.
Open – Partially Addressed
DOJ neither agreed nor disagreed with the recommendation, but recently took steps to address the recommendation. Specifically, in April 2023, DOJ announced the designation and appointment of a permanent National Human Trafficking Coordinator and National Coordinator for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction. Further, in June 2023, DOJ issued an updated strategy. Based on our review of the related information we received to date, we view the actions taken as partially meeting the recommendation. For example, the new strategy does not speak to one of the findings we had regarding meeting the requirement that DOJ issue the strategy every two years. Further, the most recent 2023 strategy did not fully include 9 of the 19 required elements established in law, such as setting targets to accomplish quantifiable goals. Addressing these issues is essential to providing assurance that an overall strategy is helping to guide the many federal efforts focused on protecting our children.

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.

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

GAO-24-106501
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1 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 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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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
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 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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1 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.

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.
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