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Open Recommendations

COVID-19 Contracting: Opportunities to Improve Practices to Assess Prospective Vendors and Capture Lessons Learned
GAO-21-528
Jul 29, 2021
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10 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Health and Human Services The Secretary of Health and Human Services should direct the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response to review and fully communicate the resources available to contracting officers for assessing prospective vendors—including resources to assess financial capability. (Recommendation 1)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Health and Human Services The Secretary of Health and Human Services should direct the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response to develop internal guidance that includes information for contracting officers related to contracting and assessing prospective vendors during emergencies. (Recommendation 2)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should direct the Administrator of the Agricultural Marketing Service to evaluate the contracting practices established to assess vendors and implement the Farmers to Families Food Box Program to determine what practices could be used for future emergency procurements and incorporate those practices into internal guidance. (Recommendation 3)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Office of Federal Procurement Policy The Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy should revise the Emergency Acquisitions Guide, based on outreach to agencies involved in the COVID-19 response, to account for information on the obstacles contracting officers may face when assessing prospective vendors during an emergency and key practices or resources to address those obstacles, and communicate those revisions to agencies once complete. (Recommendation 4)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Office of Federal Procurement Policy The Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy should establish a process and time frames for regularly updating the Emergency Acquisitions Guide to ensure resources and practices federal agencies can use when contracting during an emergency are current. (Recommendation 5)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Health and Human Services The Secretary of Health and Human Services should ensure that, as part of the Exercise, Evaluation and After Actions Division's ongoing after-action reporting and corrective action program, contracting lessons learned in response to COVID-19 and future emergency response efforts are collected, analyzed, validated, archived, and shared to inform HHS's contracting efforts in response to ongoing and future emergencies. (Recommendation 6)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

COVID-19 Contracting: Contractor Paid Leave Reimbursements Could Provide Lessons Learned for Future Emergency Responses
GAO-21-475
Jul 28, 2021
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Office of Management and Budget The Director of OMB should, upon conclusion of the COVID-19 national emergency, ensure that OFPP collects and shares lessons learned from federal agencies' implementation of COVID-19 paid leave reimbursement, including those related to data tracking and reporting. (Recommendation 1)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Evidence-Based Policymaking: Survey Data Identify Opportunities to Strengthen Capacity across Federal Agencies
GAO-21-536
Jul 27, 2021
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Office of Management and Budget The Director of the Office of Management and Budget should work with the Office of Personnel Management and relevant interagency councils to leverage our survey results as an additional source of information to inform efforts to enhance evidence-building capacity across the federal government and at individual agencies, as appropriate. This could include using our survey results to help identify promising practices at certain agencies and address challenges at others. Results could also be used to help identify cross-cutting capacity issues affecting multiple agencies, and prioritize actions to address them. (Recommendation 1)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Federal Contracting: Senior Leaders Should Use Leading Companies' Key Practices to Improve Performance
GAO-21-491
Jul 27, 2021
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11 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Air Force The Secretary of the Air Force should ensure the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Contracting) collaborates with end users to develop performance metrics for procurement organizations. (Recommendation 1)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of the Army The Secretary of the Army should ensure the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army (Procurement) collaborates with end users to develop performance metrics for procurement organizations. (Recommendation 2)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of the Navy The Secretary of the Navy should ensure the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Procurement) collaborates with end users to develop performance metrics for procurement organizations. (Recommendation 3)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Homeland Security The Secretary of Homeland Security should ensure the DHS Chief Procurement Officer collaborates with end users to develop performance metrics for procurement organizations. (Recommendation 4)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Veterans Affairs The Secretary of Veterans Affairs should ensure the VA Senior Procurement Executive (SPE) collaborates with end users to develop performance metrics for procurement organizations. (Recommendation 5)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of the Air Force The Secretary of the Air Force should ensure the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Contracting) uses a balanced set of performance metrics to manage the department's procurement organizations, including outcome-oriented metrics to measure (a) timeliness of deliveries, (b) quality of deliverables, and (c) end-user satisfaction. (Recommendation 6)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
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