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Open Recommendations (155 total)

Government Efficiency and Effectiveness: Inconsistent Definitions and Information Limit the Usefulness of Federal Program Inventories

GAO-15-83
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Office of Management and Budget
Priority Rec.
To ensure the effective implementation of federal program inventory requirements and to make the inventories more useful, the Director of OMB should, to better present a more coherent picture of all federal programs, include tax expenditures in the federal program inventory effort by designating tax expenditure as a program type in relevant guidance.
Open
No executive action has been taken. As of March 2024, OMB had not taken action to include tax expenditures in the federal program inventory, as GAO recommended in October 2014. The GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 required OMB to publish a list of all federal programs on a central, government-wide website (31 U.S.C. ? 1122(a)(2)). Although OMB published an initial inventory covering the programs of 24 federal agencies in May 2013, OMB decided to postpone further development of the inventory in order to coordinate with the implementation of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act, Pub. L. No. 113-101, 128 Stat. 1146 (2014)). In January 2021, Congress amended and expanded requirements for the federal program inventory as part of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (Pub. L. No. 116-283, div. H, ? 9601, 134 Stat. 3388, 4823-4828 (2021)). In February 2024, OMB launched an initial inventory website that identified 2,388 federal programs. However, the inventory was limited to federal financial assistance programs, such as grants, loans, and insurance programs. It did not cover all types of federal programs, including tax expenditures. By including tax expenditures in the inventory, OMB could help increase the transparency of tax expenditures and the outcomes to which they contribute.

Federal Contracting: Opportunities Exist to Improve the Reporting of Waivers to Domestic Preference Laws

GAO-24-106166
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Office of Management and Budget The Director of OMB should develop procedures for agencies to correct domestic preference waiver reporting errors, including deleting duplicate waiver records and adding waivers where agencies did not first obtain OMB approval. (Recommendation 4)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

San Francisco Bay Delta Watershed: Wide Range of Restoration Efforts Need Updated Federal Reporting and Coordination Roles

GAO-18-473
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Office of Management and Budget The Director of OMB should direct staff to update OMB's written guidance for federal and state agencies on submitting data for the budget crosscut reports OMB is required to submit under section 106 of the CALFED Act. (Recommendation 7)
Open
In August 2023, OMB officials stated that later in the year they will modify the write-ups in the text of the Crosscut Budget. In prior years, CEQ and Interior stated that they have updated their write-ups to reflect their roles in relation to the Delta Plan Interagency Implementation Committee and the Delta Plan. However, the 2023 OMB Crosscut Budget continues to refer to activities being conducted under the prior Interim Federal Action Plan in its sections on the Army Corps of Engineers, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. We are encouraged that OMB recognizes the need to update the write-ups and will review the new language when it is available.

Cybersecurity: Selected Federal Agencies Need to Coordinate on Requirements and Assessments of States

GAO-20-123
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Office of Management and Budget
Priority Rec.
The Director of OMB should take steps to ensure that CMS, FBI, IRS, and SSA coordinate, where feasible, on assessments of state agencies' cybersecurity, which may include steps such as leveraging other agencies' security assessments or conducting assessments jointly. (Recommendation 2)
Open
While OMB did not agree or disagree with GAO's recommendation, the agency noted steps it is taking to address the recommendation. In March 2022, OMB stated that it has continued to review the recommendation with the Federal Chief Information Officer Council, Federal Chief Information Security Officer Council, and the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, but had no new information to provide. As of December 2022, OMB stated that it is comparing the recommendations with recent actions, guidance, and policy memoranda issued since the recommendations were made. To fully address this recommendation, OMB needs to determine and implement an approach that encourages agencies to coordinate on assessments of state agencies' cybersecurity where feasible. As of February 2024, OMB has not completed these actions. Until OMB does so, it will not have reasonable assurance federal agencies are leveraging compatible assessments where practicable that could lead to fragmented assessments across federal agencies.

Justice40: Use of Leading Practices Would Strengthen Efforts to Guide Environmental Justice Initiative

GAO-24-105869
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Office of Management and Budget The Director of OMB, jointly with the Chair of CEQ and the Assistant to the President and National Climate Advisor of CPO, should establish and document a process for assessing progress toward achieving the goal of the Justice40 Initiative that incorporates key practices for evidence-building and performance-management activities. (Recommendation 14)
Open
In written comments reproduced in our report, CEQ stated that it anticipates taking steps in the coming months to implement our recommendations on leading practices. We will update the status of this recommendation when we receive additional information from the agencies.

Data Act: OMB Needs to Formalize Data Governance for Reporting Federal Spending

GAO-19-284
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Office of Management and Budget The Director of OMB should ensure that the June 2018 policy changes regarding DATA Act data definition standards are clearly identified and explained in the official repository or another authoritative public source of DATA Act standards and guidance, such as by including a revision history along with the current version of the definitions. (Recommendation 2)
Open
In April 2022, OMB staff stated that it considered notations that it had previously added to its Federal Spending Transparency Data Standards website as responsive to this recommendation and that it considered implementation complete. In December 2022, OMB said that it does not plan on taking further action on this recommendation. We have raised concerns with OMB regarding limitations in the scope and detail of the information it has provided. To close this recommendation, GAO would like to see a better documented revision history available on the site.

Cybersecurity: OMB Should Update Inspector General Reporting Guidance to Increase Rating Consistency and Precision

GAO-22-104364
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Office of Management and Budget
Priority Rec.
The Director of OMB should collaborate with its partners in DHS and CIGIE to clarify the IG FISMA metrics guidance to specify when IGs should use OMB's recommended methodology and when they should use another method to determine agencies' overall effectiveness ratings. (Recommendation 1)
Open
OMB did not concur with our recommendation at the time of report issuance. In December 2023, OMB informed us that they agreed with our recommendation, and they were working on an action related to the recommendation. In OMB's March 2024 update, the agency noted that its actions were ongoing. Nevertheless, we have yet to receive OMB's related documentation. We will continue to monitor OMB's implementation of our recommendation.

Data Transparency: Oversight Needed to Address Underreporting and Inconsistencies on Federal Award Website

GAO-14-476
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Office of Management and Budget To improve the completeness and accuracy of data submissions to the USASpending.gov website, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, in collaboration with Treasury's Fiscal Service, should clarify guidance on (1) agency responsibilities for reporting awards funded by non-annual appropriations; (2) the applicability of USASpending.gov reporting requirements to non-classified awards associated with intelligence operations; (3) the requirement that award titles describe the award's purpose (consistent with our prior recommendation); and (4) agency maintenance of authoritative records adequate to verify the accuracy of required data reported for use by USASpending.gov.
Open – Partially Addressed
At the time of issuance in June 2014, OMB agreed with this recommendation and began taking steps to address several of the issues discussed in this recommendation that includes working with agencies to identify those required to report under the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act). As of March 2022, OMB has not taken additional action to address this recommendation. We continue to believe that OMB needs to clarify its guidance on topics including descriptive award titles and non-classified awards related to intelligence activities. Fully implementing this recommendation should help improve the reliability of the data displayed on USAspending.gov.

Managing for Results: Further Progress Made in Implementing the GPRA Modernization Act, but Additional Actions Needed to Address Pressing Governance Challenges

GAO-17-775
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Office of Management and Budget
Priority Rec.
The Director of OMB should revise and publicly issue OMB guidance--through an update to its Circular No. A-11, a memorandum, or other means--to provide time frames and associated milestones for implementing the federal program inventory. (Recommendation 2)
Open
As of April 2022, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) had taken limited action in response to this recommendation. Although OMB published an initial inventory covering the programs of 24 federal agencies in May 2013, OMB decided to postpone further development of the inventory in order to coordinate with the implementation of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act). In January 2021, Congress amended and expanded requirements for the federal program inventory as part of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021. In November 2021, OMB published a plan to build toward implementing a comprehensive federal program inventory, expected in 2025, through a series of pilots. Implementing this plan presents an opportunity for OMB to identify specific time frames and associated milestones to fully address this recommendation. According to updates provided by OMB officials in March and April 2023, they expect to begin implementing the first pilot in Summer 2023. We will continue to monitor progress.

Government Performance Management: Actions Needed to Improve Transparency of Cross-Agency Priority Goals

GAO-23-106354
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Office of Management and Budget The Director of OMB should designate a CAP goal addressing federal real property management, which is responsive to ongoing government-wide challenges. (Recommendation 3)
Open
In July 2023, OMB stated that it does not plan to take further action on this recommendation, and considers the recommendation to be closed. We consider this recommendation to be valid for the reasons stated in our report, and we will continue to monitor its implementation status.
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