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Open Recommendations (100 total)

Critical Infrastructure Protection: Treasury Needs to Improve Tracking of Financial Sector Cybersecurity Risk Mitigation Efforts

GAO-20-631
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Treasury
Priority Rec.
Regarding financial sector cyber risk mitigation efforts, we recommend that the Secretary of the Treasury, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security and other federal and nonfederal sector partners, track the content and progress of sectorwide cyber risk mitigation efforts, and prioritize their completion according to sector goals and priorities in the sector-specific plan. (Recommendation 1)
Open
Treasury generally agreed with this recommendation, but had concerns with its authority to implement it, due to its limited authority to require regulators to supply data on cyber risk mitigation efforts, and legal and trust concerns with getting information from firms voluntarily. We responded to these concerns in our report, stating that Treasury is ideally positioned to secure voluntary agreement from these groups to provide focused information on their cyber risk mitigation efforts, which would help Treasury track and prioritize progress toward sector goals. In January 2023, Treasury reported that it plans to discuss with the financial services sector the development of metrics on sector risk mitigation efforts and on the sector's adoption of the National Institute of Standards and Technology cybersecurity framework. Treasury also stated it plans to develop metrics on the sector's sharing of cyber threat information and measures regarding their effectiveness. In May 2023, Treasury said it is planning implementation of a tool that may enable it to track and record risks and resulting efforts, but that the tool's capabilities and uses were still in development. As of April 2024, Treasury had completed mapping of sector information flows, which it plans to use to inform further understanding of sector risks and risk mitigation efforts. However, it has not yet completed these latter steps. Without tracking and prioritizing efforts based on sector goals and priorities, Treasury and the financial sector will remain unable to determine the effectiveness of their efforts.

State Small Business Credit Initiative: Improved Planning Could Help Treasury Limit Additional Delays

GAO-23-105293
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Treasury Treasury's Chief Recovery Officer should fully incorporate best practices for project scheduling related to sequencing and establishing the duration of activities, assigning resources to activities, and updating the schedule using actual progress into its planning processes for the SSBCI program. (Recommendation 1)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Financial Literacy: Better Outcome Reporting Could Facilitate Oversight of Programs for Older Adults and People with Disabilities

GAO-24-106381
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Treasury The Secretary of the Treasury, as chair of the Financial Literacy and Education Commission, should coordinate with the vice chair and agencies represented on the Commission to encourage the ongoing collection of data on financial literacy program outcomes and include these data in the Commission's annual report to Congress. (Recommendation 1)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

IRS 2017 Budget: IRS Could Improve Presentation of Budget Data in Its Congressional Justification

GAO-16-695
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Treasury As Treasury works with IRS to improve the quality and accuracy of budget data, the Secretary of the Treasury should ensure sufficient controls are in place to make certain that the information technology investment reports generated from the SharePoint Investment Knowledge Exchange are accurate. This includes, for example, taking steps to reduce the need for manual corrections to the data.
Open
As of November 2017, Treasury Department officials took steps to address the need to manually correct budget data for the fiscal year 2017 budget request. However, we did not receive documentation that they have done so for future budget years. In November 2022, we received additional documentation in response to this recommendation. We are reviewing it to determine if it satisfies our recommendation. Improved information would help Treasury and IRS better account for information technology resources.

Federal Spending Transparency: Opportunities Exist for Treasury to Further Improve USAspending.gov's Use and Usefulness

GAO-22-104127
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Treasury The Secretary of the Treasury should add a broad website search function to USAspending.gov to help users find content on the website. (Recommendation 3)
Open
Treasury officials told us that they are in the process of laying the foundation for a broad ("global") search function across all USAspending.gov content. However, they expect the design work for a global search function will not begin until FY2024 at the earliest. As of April 2023, this status is unchanged.

U.S. Consolidated Financial Statements: Improvements Needed in Internal Controls over Treasury and OMB Preparation Processes

GAO-23-106707
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Treasury The Fiscal Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, in coordination with the working group, should develop and implement policies and procedures for determining, in coordination with applicable federal entities, in which reporting entity's financial statements to report any identified contingencies. (Recommendation 2)
Open
As of the completion of our fiscal year 2023 audit of the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. government, this recommendation remained open. Treasury and State reported that they plan to address this recommendation in fiscal year 2024.

Management Report: Improvements Needed in Controls over the Processes Used to Prepare the U.S. Consolidated Financial Statements

GAO-14-543
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Treasury
Priority Rec.
The Secretary of the Treasury should direct the Fiscal Assistant Secretary, working in coordination with the Controller of OMB, to establish and implement policies and procedures for accounting for and reporting all significant General Fund activity and balances, obtaining assurance on the reliability of the amounts, and reconciling the activity and balances between the General Fund and federal entities.
Open
As of the completion of our fiscal year 2023 audit of the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. government, this recommendation remained open. Treasury continued to implement corrective actions to (1) obtain and review support for material accrual balances provided by federal entities for inclusion in the General Fund's general ledger and (2) review federal entity audited financial statements and conduct data calls for unrecorded activity to include in the General Fund's general ledger. In addition, Treasury continued to work with federal entities to ensure proper usage of newly established transaction codes. However, intragovernmental differences remain and further improvements are needed to account for and report all significant General Fund activity and balances, including obtaining audit assurance and reconciling with federal entity trading partners.

Management Report: Improvements Needed in Controls over the Processes Treasury and OMB Used to Prepare the U.S. Consolidated Financial Statements

GAO-22-105851
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Treasury
Priority Rec.
We recommend that the Fiscal Assistant Secretary of the Treasury enhance existing policies and procedures to support CFS disclosure decisions related to explaining significant fluctuations and disaggregating line item components in note tables. (Recommendation 5)
Open
As of the completion of our fiscal year 2023 audit of the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. government (CFS), this recommendation remained open. Treasury developed a timeline and completed the initial steps for designing and implementing corrective actions to enhance its existing policies and procedures. However, we continued to identify note disclosures that needed additional explanations for significant fluctuations.

401(k) Plans: Additional Federal Actions Would Help Participants Track and Consolidate Their Retirement Savings

GAO-24-103577
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Treasury The Secretary of the Treasury should take action, such as amending the 402(f) Notice requirements and Model Notice, or providing clarifying information to the Notice to: (1) include clear information about participants' option to leave their savings in their old plan; (2) provide clearer and more concise information on each of the four distribution options and their associated tax consequences; and (3) address the timing requirements for plans to provide the 402(f) Notice, to ensure the Notice is provided to participants when they leave their job and become eligible to take a distribution. (Recommendation 3)
Open
Treasury stated that an update to the 402(f) Notice is currently in process and will reflect legislation and guidance issued since the last update. However, regarding the part of the recommendation that address the timing requirements for plans to provide the 402(f) Notice, Treasury stated that there is no statutory authority to require a notice to a participant upon separation from service. Our recommendation states that Treasury should take action to address the timing issue; and Treasury can seek any venue it deems appropriate, including seeking statutory authority from Congress to address the timing. Without such action, Treasury will continue to miss an opportunity to ensure that participants are receiving easily-understandable information about all distribution options-at the point in time when a participant is facing an important decision about their retirement savings. We will monitor the agency's action.

Critical Infrastructure Protection: Treasury Needs to Improve Tracking of Financial Sector Cybersecurity Risk Mitigation Efforts

GAO-20-631
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Treasury
Priority Rec.
Regarding the financial sector-specific plan, we recommend that the Secretary of the Treasury, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security and other federal and nonfederal sector partners, update the financial services sector-specific plan to include specific metrics for measuring the progress of risk mitigation efforts and information on how the sector's ongoing and planned risk mitigation efforts will meet sector goals and requirements, such as requirements for the financial services sector in the National Cyber Strategy Implementation Plan. (Recommendation 2)
Open
Treasury generally agreed with the recommendation, but believed it should not be implemented until the Department of Homeland Security updates the National Infrastructure Protection Plan, now called the National Plan, to establish cross-sector priorities and provide guidance on sector-specific plans. However, we reported in February 2023 that there was no deadline for the National Plan to be updated. In April 2024, Treasury clarified that it plans to update the financial services sector-specific plan once a directive currently under revision, and a related memorandum, have been updated. Treasury also stated that it was continuing to work on development of sector-specific cyber performance goals. We continue to believe it would be feasible and beneficial for Treasury to develop an interim update to the current sector-specific plan on how ongoing efforts meet sector goals and priorities. Without sufficiently creating and documenting appropriate metrics, it will be difficult for Treasury to determine whether the financial sector's risk mitigation efforts will improve its cyber resilience.
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