Recommendation Dashboard

The Chief Financial Officer verify that all differences between USAID and the Department of the Treasury are researched and resolved in a timely manner in accordance with Treasury financial manual reconciliation procedures.

The Chief Financial Officer augment its general ledger reconciliation processes to ensure that the postings in the general ledger are reconciled periodically with the postings in the subsidiary ledgers, general ledger differences are researched and resolved in a timely manner, errors are corrected in a timely manner to maintain accurate account balances in the general ledger, and detailed documentation of analysis and reconciliations supporting adjustments are maintained and easily retrievable for examination.

The Chief Financial Officer coordinate with the Office of Acquisition and Assistance and relevant Bureau Assistant Administrators to initiate targeted reviews of awards that are more than 3 years old with unliquidated obligation balances and verify that obligation managers conduct the periodic reviews required to initiate deobligation action on unliquidated obligations.

The Chief Financial Officer continue to upgrade controls at missions, update Automated Directives System 636 to include the desktop procedures that were implemented by the Cash Management and Payment Division, clarify when an outstanding advance should be reported to the contracting or agreement officer for debt determination, research and resolve all outstanding amounts that remain in the Department of Health and Human Services synchronization report from prior years, and implement a review and approval process to reclassify expenses as advances for amounts that were reported by the Department of Health and Human Services Payment Management System.

The Chief Financial Officer coordinate with the Office of Acquisition and Assistance to augment procedures to verify that contracting officer representatives review, validate, and modify as necessary the quarterly accounts payable and accrued expenses generated by the Accrual Reporting System before that information is recorded in the general ledger.

The Chief Financial Officer in coordination with the Office of Human Resources ensure: that personnel files are updated to reflect all personnel actions and that a reconciliation with National Finance Center records is performed to ensure that bi-weekly and annual salary pay caps are not exceeded.

USAID/Tanzania require Mennonite Economic Development Associates to update the annual work plan for the Achievement and Maintenance of Comprehensive Coverage of Long-Lasting Insecticide-Treated Nets in Tanzania to include milestones for completing key activities (such as resolving issues with voucher inventories) and report on progress against those milestones in quarterly performance reports.

USAID/Tanzania require Mennonite Economic Development Associates to establish performance targets in accordance with Automated Directives System 203, "Assessing and Learning."

USAID/Tanzania issue Mennonite Economic Development Associates written requirements for reporting its performance on Achievement and Maintenance of Comprehensive Coverage of Long-Lasting Insecticide-Treated Nets in Tanzania.

USAID/Tanzania require Mennonite Economic Development Associates to compute the costs related to the personal use of organization-furnished automobiles charged to USAID under the Extension of Tanzania National Voucher Scheme and Achievement and Maintenance of Comprehensive
Coverage of Long-Lasting Insecticide-Treated Nets in Tanzania awards, determine the allowability of these ineligible questioned costs, and recover from Mennonite Economic Development Associates any amounts determined to be unallowable.

USAID/Tanzania determine the allowability of $31,899 in ineligible questioned costs (spent on employee lunches) and recover from Mennonite Economic Development Associates any amounts determined to be unallowable.

USAID/Tanzania determine the allowability of $3,492 in ineligible questioned costs (spent on personal commuting costs) and recover from Mennonite Economic Development Associates any amounts determined to be unallowable.

USAID/Tanzania require Mennonite Economic Development Associates to compute the costs related to ineligible lunch stipends and unsupported laptop reimbursements charged to USAID under the Extension of Tanzania National Voucher Scheme and Achievement and Maintenance of
Comprehensive Coverage of Long-Lasting Insecticide-Treated Nets in Tanzania awards, determine the allowability of these ineligible and unsupported questioned costs, and recover from Mennonite Economic Development Associates any amounts determined to be unallowable.

USAID/Tanzania review Mennonite Economic Development Associates' compensation and benefits policy, inform Mennonite Economic Development Associates, in writing, of any benefits that are
unallowable under the Achievement and Maintenance of Comprehensive Coverage of Long-Lasting Insecticide-Treated Nets in Tanzania award, and implement procedures to confirm that such benefits are not charged to the award.

USAID/Tanzania require Mennonite Economic Development Associates to submit an updated branding and marking plan for the Achievement and Maintenance of Comprehensive Coverage of Long-Lasting Insecticide-Treated Nets in Tanzania Program.

Perform a comprehensive review and determine whether the service provider's financial management system is substantially in compliance with the federal financial management system's requirements and meeting MCC financial management and reporting needs. As part of this review, management should determine if a separate grants management system that focuses on program administrations that interfaces with the core financial system is needed.

Investigate and correct the causes for the underlying system errors and limitations that prevent or delay the recording, processing, and summarizing of accounting transactions.

Review USSGL transaction posting models so that all routine accounting transactions are included in the normal accounting processes. Manual adjusting journal entries should be used for limited transactions like unusual one-time entries. All valid recurring entries that are currently entered manually should have standard transaction codes set-up to prevent posting errors.

Hard code key cells in the excel spreadsheets used in preparing and generating the financial statements to prevent unintentional or inadvertent changes.

Limit access and ability to make changes to the workbook to a few personnel. Assign a staff and a designate as primarily responsible and accountable for the workbook.

Create a log to document changes to the workbook, the date of change, the person making the change, and the changes made.

Investigate the use of alternative approaches such as the use of a financial statement generation software tool or other financial management system that can interface with the trial balance or the core financial system and automatically generate the financial statements.

Develop a comprehensive financial statements review process that details specific steps performed, results of such reviews, steps taken to resolve discrepancies noted, and related management resolution.

Implement an effective management review using the comprehensive review process developed in recommendation 8 to ensure that all transactions for the accounting period are accurately and completely reflected in the financial statements, current year beginning balances agreed to prior year audited balances, and reconciling items are recorded timely. Such management reviews should be performed quarterly and at year-end timely with evidence of management sign-off signifying levels of reviews performed.

Cross-train MCC financial staff on the financial statements preparation process to ensure that there is more than one person knowledgeable and can prepare the financial statements.

Perform a grant accrual look back analysis on a quarterly basis. The look back analysis and the results should provide MCC sufficient information to explain unusual variances between actual and estimates, or support updating the current grant accrual methodology. Such periodic assessment of the adequacy of the grant accrual methodology should be documented and supported by data analysis. The accrued liability amount is subject to the risks that actual subsequent disbursement amount may be significantly different from management's estimate. When this occurs, management should further analyze the drivers/factors to ensure the validity and reasonableness of the estimation methodology.

Update the Expense Accruals Policy and Procedures to reflect the change in the methodology.

Develop audit procedures for the MCA audit to compare spending authority request amount against actual expenses, and investigate and document significant variances. The results should be provided to MCC, which can use this information collected from the MCA audits as data store to validate or enhance the current methodology.

Continue to enhance the accrual methodology.

MCC management should have control over how these audits should be conducted to meet its financial and programmatic accountability, needs and requirements. MCC management should collaborate with USAID OIG to clarify and document management roles, responsibilities, and performance standards and the USAID OIG oversight role with regards to MCA audits.

MCC needs to evaluate its resources, capability, and ability to monitor and review the quality and performance of the audits and the audit firms to track and conduct follow-up of corrective action plans with the MCAs in a timely manner.

Utilize the QFRs and the monthly reconciliations as monitoring tools over the MCA's financial reporting process and the MCC's validation of its financial records. To be effective as monitoring tools, the re-designing of the QFR form and the development and documentation of the monthly reconciliation process should ensure that relevant data and information are reported by the MCAs and reported timely.

Ensure that MCA reconciliations are provided to MCC and reviewed to investigate material variances and make corrections, if any.

Require the MCA audit firms to test the design and effectiveness of the MCA's internal control over the QFRs and the monthly reconciliation, and to test for the accuracy of the balances and reconciliation.

Develop and implement reconciliation procedures to document the complete reconciliation between the MCA's final QFR and MCC's records.

Timely assess the MCA's need for the remaining compact funds so that the funds could be de-obligated within the timeline in the policy and procedures after the compact expires.

Develop and implement a financial management policy that separates the programmatic close-out process from the financial close-out process. This policy should clearly layout the expected timing for de-obligation.

USAID/Serbia and the regional contracting officer responsible for the agreement follow the guidance provided by the USAID Office of the General Counsel regarding how USAID should enforce the terms of repayment.

USAID/Serbia report in writing on the progress against each of the milestones outlined in the disposition timeline contained in Modification 5 to the regional contracting office, and provide an explanation and any associated mitigating circumstances for milestones that are not met.

USAID's Office of Microenterprise and Private Enterprise Promotion work with other offices in USAID to develop microfinance institution disposition guidance for existing agreements as well as future agreements and document the results.

USAID/Benin in coordination with the Ministry of Health implement a distribution plan for the limited supply of rapid diagnostic tests that
requires that community-level case management programs are provided with sufficient amounts of the tests to meet their needs in diagnosing and treating malaria.

USAID/Benin implement a monitoring plan for its President's Malaria Initiative program that includes frequent site visits and data quality reviews, which are documented.

USAID/Benin, in collaboration with the National Malaria Control Program, implement procedures to improve the monitoring of antimalarial drugs and nets.

USAID/Benin, in collaboration with the National Malaria Control Program and other donors, identify ways or provide means for disposing of bed net bags safely and promptly from past, present, and future distributions and document the results.

USAID/Benin work with Medical Care Development International to revise its agreement and work plan, adjust its targets, adjust its budget, and incorporate follow-on projects into its scope of work to reflect the late start and the current circumstances.

USAID/Benin work with Medical Care Development International and require that it collaborate with the National Malaria Control Program and partners from previous projects to confirm that there is no break in follow-on services and document their actions.

USAID/Benin support an evaluation of the Government of Benin's policy for the free treatment of malaria and make recommendations in writing to the Government to make these services sustainable.

USAID/Kyrgyzstan country office and the
implementer of the Local Development Program implement a strategy to closely monitor active grant and in-kind assistance activities to ensure that implementation problems are noted and addressed quickly so that activities are completed as planned, final results are measured and reported, and the grant portion is phased out in an orderly manner.

USAID/Kyrgyzstan country office implement procedures for reviewing the results data supporting the Local Development Program's Return on Investment Ratio impact indicator at least quarterly. At a minimum, this review should check the recorded amounts under selected impact subindicators to verify their validity and determine whether the data being captured are clearly and reasonably attributed to USAID-supported efforts.

USAID/Zambia implement an agreement with the Government of Zambia that clearly delineates Zambia's responsibilities for malaria commodities purchased with U.S. Government funds.

USAID/Zambia implement a documented plan to mitigate the risks of using Zambia's systems for storing and distributing malaria commodities funded by the President's Malaria Initiative.

USAID/Zambia implement procedures to review the annual needs assessment report for errors and for reasonable assurance of accuracy before using it to make major decisions concerning its spraying activities.

USAID/Zambia work with the Government of Zambia and other partners to implement a plan to communicate to the districts expectations for the use and storage of surplus insecticide between spray seasons.

USAID/Zambia implement procedures to make sure that all source documents are stored safely for performance indicator data reported in the annual performance plan and report to Congress.

USAID/Zambia notify the Office of U.S. Foreign Assistance Resources, in writing, of the inaccurate results reported for malaria-related commodity indicators in fiscal year 2011.

USAID/Zambia document its objectives for identifying goods and services provided under the President's Malaria Initiative in Zambia as American aid, and update its communication strategies, including branding and marking plans, if they do not achieve those objectives.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer establish written time frames for implementing patches to ensure the remediation of known vulnerabilities.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer review the critical and high-risk vulnerabilities identified by the Office of Inspector General contractor and document why the Corporation's vulnerability management tool is not identifying these vulnerabilities

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer document and implement a process for documenting management review, acceptance, and implementation of corresponding compensating controls for known vulnerability scan exclusions.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer document and implement a process to conduct periodic reviews, as defined by the Corporation, of MCCNet users' access privileges to verify that they are appropriate.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer document and implement a process to review active accounts whose owners have never logged into the system to determine whether the accounts are necessary.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Vice President of Administration and Finance document and implement a process to perform periodic, as defined by the Corporation, reviews of the exit clearance process to ensure its regular implementation.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer conduct a full system reauthorization for MCCNet in accordance with the Corporation's policy.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer implement a documented validation process to ensure that security impact assessments are conducted prior to significant system changes in accordance with the Corporation's policy.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer implement a documented validation process to ensure that system risk assessments are reviewed and updated annually, as required by the Information Systems Security Policy.

We recommend that Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer document and implement a continuous monitoring plan to assess an appropriate number of controls for the agency's information systems on a Corporation-defined frequency.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Security Officer document and implement metrics for accepting Tip of the Day participation as annual security awareness training.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Security Officer document and implement a process to track and validate that all employees and contractors receive the annual security awareness training through either the Tips of the Day program or by taking another acceptable security awareness training.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer document and implement asset management procedures to include processes for ensuring information system assets are tracked appropriately, and that periodic, as defined by the Corporation, information system asset inventories are performed.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer re-open Recommendation 9 in Office of Inspector General Audit Report No. M-000-10-004-P.

We recommend that Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer implement a documented validation process to ensure the annual testing of contingency plans and timely reporting of lessons learned, as required by the Information System Security Policy.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer re-open recommendation 9 in Office of Inspector General Audit Report No. M-000-11-004-P.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer re-open recommendation 10 in Office of Inspector General Audit Report No. M-OOO-11-004-P.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer re-open recommendation 13 in Office of Inspector General Audit Report No. M-000-11-001-0.

USAID's Office of Acquisition and Assistance, Cost, Audit and Support determine the allowability of $13,856 in questioned costs and collect, as appropriate, any disallowed amounts from CARE USA.

USAID's Director of the Office of Acquisition and Assistance consider implementing the cost reimbursement method of payment instead of advances for all CARE USA programs until evidence is provided that the auditor's recommendations for Findings 2011- 01 to 2011-16 (page nos. 65 to 128 of the report) are implemented.

USAID/Southern Africa implement a plan with benchmarks and milestones for sustainably raising the tuberculosis treatment success rate to 85 percent in U.S. Government-supported health-care facilities by September 28, 2014.

USAID/Southern Africa revise its annual performance plan and report for fiscal year 2011 to disclose trends in the treatment success rate and the number of tuberculosis cases at sentinel surveillance sites and implement procedures to require full disclosure in future reports.

USAID/Southern Africa implement a costeffective
method for reasonably estimating the percentage of all registered tuberculosis patients tested for HIV in all facilities directly or indirectly supported by USAID.

USAID/Southern Africa conduct and document training for its implementing partners on the correct calculation of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief tuberculosis and HIV indicators and require that the implementing partners provide sufficient guidance on data collection for those indicators to the health-care facilities that they support.