Audit Reports

Develop a department-wide requirement for the periodic operating administration certification of the open obligation balance that is inactive for twelve or more months (validity).

Continue to provide department-wide training related to grants management, including the monitoring and close-out process.

Require that FHWA emphasize the timely review and de-obligation of stale obligations in accordance with the revised Financial Integrity Review and Evaluation (FIRE) program.

Require that FTA review their processes for monitoring obligations in order to more timely identify and de-obligate stale obligations.

Develop a report that reflects a complete population of open UCO balances, by agreement number, as of a period-end date.

Implement policies and procedures, whereby the DOT OAs, with material unfilled customer order balances, monitor and review its open UCO balances using the above report for completeness, accuracy, and validity.

Perform a reconciliation of reimbursable expenditures to reimbursable revenue, at the agreement level, to ensure reimbursable revenue is properly recognized in the appropriate accounting period and all material reconciling items are investigated.

Provide training on the execution, monitoring and reporting of UCOs in accordance with the newly established policies and procedures.

Follow the established policies and procedures and finish development of a business intelligence (BI) report to monitor Fund 15X015P633 monthly. In addition, record any necessary year-end accrual and adjusting entries to ensure the full cost recovery program reports a zero balance at year-end.

Continue with plans to add FMS into the SIEM tool.

Prior to the implementation of SIEM, we recommend that FTA implement policies and procedures to formally document and track audit logs reviews of FMS, including a date and time stamp with the reviewers' electronic signature.

Emphasize, through training, the importance of Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended and DOT Order 8000.6B to ensure that all FTA employees understand the provisions of the laws and regulations when responding to Office of Inspector General auditor's inquiries and requests.

Perform a review of FTA's control environment using one of the various tools (available from the GAO, or organizations such as the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission - COSO) to assess entity level control effectiveness at FTA. Based on the outcome of this review, take steps to improve the control environment of FTA, including establishing management oversight functions that ensure effective internal controls over financial reporting.

Complete the investigation into potential additional Anti-Deficiency Act violations at FRA.

Follow established protocol that has been designed to prevent Anti-Deficiency Act violations.