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Open Recommendations (17 total)

National Institute of Standards and Technology: Strengthening Disclosure Requirements and Assessing Training Could Improve Research Security

GAO-24-106074
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
National Institute of Standards and Technology The Director of NIST should, consistent with applicable statutes and regulations, collect and review disclosures from domestic associates—including information on positions and appointments, current and pending research support, and participation in foreign talent recruitment programs—and require updates to these disclosures, as appropriate. (Recommendation 2)
Open
According to an April 2024 action plan, NIST intends to take several actions to implement this recommendation, such as expanding its review process for domestic associates by leveraging the information collection template used for foreign national associates, and modifying an information system used to collect and store this information. As of November 2024, GAO continues to monitor NIST's pending adoption of the new form for use with domestic associates.

Cybersecurity Workforce: National Initiative Needs to Better Assess Its Performance

GAO-23-105945
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
National Institute of Standards and Technology The Director of NIST should ensure that the Director of NICE assesses and justifies the resources that the program requires to achieve its performance plan and the strategic plan goals. (Recommendation 3)
Open
The Department of Commerce (Commerce) concurred with the recommendation. In February 2024, Commerce stated that the Director of NICE, after consulting with NICE program staff to prepare an annual spend plan, would provide an annual budget proposal to NIST leadership in March 2024 justifying the resources required for the program to achieve its performance plan and strategic plan goals. However, as of March 2024, the department had not yet provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the NICE program had assessed or justified these required resources. To fully implement this recommendation, Commerce will need to provide evidence that the Director of NICE has assessed and justified the resources required by the NICE program to achieve its performance plan and strategic plan goals.

Cybersecurity Workforce: National Initiative Needs to Better Assess Its Performance

GAO-23-105945
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7 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
National Institute of Standards and Technology The Director of NIST should ensure that the Director of NICE uses performance information to manage the program, including to identify opportunities to improve program results, as appropriate. (Recommendation 8)
Open
The Department of Commerce (Commerce) concurred with the recommendation. In February 2024, Commerce noted that the NICE program office and NICE community leadership would convene quarterly beginning in March 2024 to assess the program's progress toward achieving its performance goals and identify opportunities to improve program results. However, as of March 2024, Commerce had not yet provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the NICE program had used performance information to identify appropriate opportunities to improve program results. To fully implement this recommendation, Commerce will need to provide evidence that the Director of NICE has used performance information to manage the program, including to identify opportunities to improve program results, as appropriate.
National Institute of Standards and Technology The Director of NIST should ensure that the Director of NICE develops a program performance plan with goals that are measurable. (Recommendation 1)
Open
The Department of Commerce (Commerce) concurred with the recommendation. In February 2024, Commerce stated that the Director of NICE would publish an annual performance plan for the NICE program office in February 2024 after receiving and discussing input from NICE program staff and NICE community leadership. However, as of March 2024, the department had not yet provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the NICE program had developed a plan including goals that are measurable. To fully implement this recommendation, Commerce will need to provide evidence that the Director of NICE has developed a program performance plan with goals that are measurable.
National Institute of Standards and Technology The Director of NIST should ensure the Director of NICE reports measurable program performance information to stakeholders. (Recommendation 6)
Open
The Department of Commerce (Commerce) concurred with the recommendation. In February 2024, Commerce noted that the NICE program office would share measurable program performance information with NICE community leadership quarterly and develop and disseminate to the NICE community an annual impact report in January 2025. Additionally, the department stated that the Director of NICE would report this information annually to NIST management as part of the personnel performance management process. However, as of March 2024, the department had not yet provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the NICE program had reported this program performance information to stakeholders. To fully implement this recommendation, Commerce will need to provide evidence that the Director of NICE has reported measurable program performance information to stakeholders.
National Institute of Standards and Technology The Director of NIST should ensure that the Director of NICE establishes performance measures with a plan to collect the data needed to assess progress toward each performance goal. (Recommendation 4)
Open
The Department of Commerce (Commerce) concurred with the recommendation. In February 2024, Commerce noted that NICE program staff would include performance measures in the program office's performance plan and establish a data collection plan in February 2024 before scheduling quarterly meetings to review goals, performance measures, and data collection processes. However, as of March 2024, Commerce had not yet provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the Director of NICE had established performance measures or a plan to collect the data necessary to assess progress toward program performance goals. To fully implement this recommendation, Commerce will need to provide evidence that the Director of NICE has established performance measures and a plan collect data needed to measure the NICE program's progress toward each performance goal.
National Institute of Standards and Technology The Director of NIST should ensure that the Director of NICE updates the program's environmental scan documentation to include an assessment of how the outcomes and impacts of the identified programs, projects, and initiatives may affect the program's achievement of its performance plan and the strategic plan goals. (Recommendation 2)
Open
The Department of Commerce (Commerce) concurred with the recommendation. In February 2024, Commerce stated that the NICE Director would assign responsibility for NICE program staff to maintain and update the program's environmental scan with new programs, projects, and initiatives as well as information documenting outcomes or impacts of these programs, projects, and initiatives on an ongoing basis. However, as of March 2024, the department had not yet provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the NICE program had updated its environmental scan document to assess these possible impacts on the program's achievement of its performance plan and strategic plan goals. To fully implement this recommendation, Commerce will need to provide evidence that the Director of NICE has updated the NICE program's environmental scan documentation to include an assessment of how the outcomes and impacts of identified programs, projects, and initiatives may affect the program's achievement of its performance plan and strategic plan goals.
National Institute of Standards and Technology The Director of NIST should ensure that the Director of NICE assesses progress toward achieving program performance goals with measurable performance information. (Recommendation 7)
Open
The Department of Commerce (Commerce) concurred with the recommendation. In February 2024, the department stated that the NICE program office and NICE community leadership would convene quarterly beginning in March 2024 to assess the program's progress toward achieving performance goals. However, as of March 2024, Commerce had not yet provided sufficient evidence demonstrating that the NICE program had assessed progress toward achieving program performance goals. To fully implement this recommendation, Commerce will need to provide evidence that the Director of NICE has assessed the program's progress toward achieving its performance goals with measurable performance information.
National Institute of Standards and Technology The Director of NIST should ensure that the Director of NICE regularly collects program performance information that is measurable, timely, accurate, and useful. (Recommendation 5)
Open
The Department of Commerce (Commerce) concurred with the recommendation. In February 2024, Commerce stated that NICE program staff would regularly collect measurable, timely, accurate, and useful program performance information; the Director of NICE would regularly review the process for collecting this information; and the NICE program office would regularly seek NICE community feedback on effective practices for collecting this information, all on an ongoing basis. However, as of March 2024, the department had not yet provided sufficient evidence demonstrating the program's collection of measurable, timely, accurate, and useful program performance information. To fully implement this recommendation, Commerce will need to provide evidence that the Director of NICE has regularly collected program performance information that is measurable, timely, accurate, and useful.

National Institute of Standards and Technology: Improved Workforce Planning Needed to Address Recruitment and Retention Challenges

GAO-23-105521
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
National Institute of Standards and Technology The OHRM Division Chiefs should track how often flexibilities have been used—including how often incentive payments have been offered and paid—to evaluate their success. (Recommendation 1)
Open – Partially Addressed
As of October 2024, NIST's Office of Human Resources Management (OHRM) Division has implemented a dashboard for NIST management that tracks incentive use for the past 10 years, including use of different types of incentives and by operating unit and job series. However, NIST does not yet track instances when incentives were offered but not accepted, which would help it assess how successful incentives were for recruitment and retention. In November 2024, NIST officials stated that system enhancements are needed to collect this data and the agency does not have a specific timeframe for doing so.
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