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Open Recommendations (84 total)

School Meal Programs: USDA Could Enhance Implementation of the Buy American Provision

GAO-23-105884
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the Administrator of FNS develops a standard form that school food authorities can use to document their reasons for using exceptions from the Buy American provision, and disseminates that form through state agencies. (Recommendation 1)
Open
FNS concurred with this recommendation and stated that it will develop a standard form that school food authorities can use to document information related to the Buy American provision when utilizing exceptions. FNS noted that in developing the form, it will consider topical comments on the Buy American provision included in the proposed rule, Child Nutrition Programs: Revisions to Meal Patterns Consistent with the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, published in February 2023. FNS plans to issue the final rule in early 2024, and subsequently plans to provide state agencies and school food authorities with the standard form for the 2024-2025 school year that begins in July 2024. We will monitor the progress of these efforts.

Artificial Intelligence: Agencies Have Begun Implementation but Need to Complete Key Requirements

GAO-24-105980
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the department updates its AI use case inventory to include all the required information, at minimum, and takes steps to ensure that the data in the inventory aligns with provided instructions. (Recommendation 9)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

IT Modernization: USDA Needs to Improve Oversight of Farm Production and Conservation Mission Area

GAO-21-512
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) directs the Business Center Chief Operating Officer to have the FPAC mission area implement the key IT workforce planning activity of assessing competency and staffing needs regularly. (Recommendation 6)
Open
In August 2023, agency officials noted that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Workforce Steering Committee had updated the technical competencies for its IT workforce. Subsequently the FPAC Human Resources group used the updated competencies to develop a competency assessment process. However, agency officials stated that that the assessment process was put on hold. FPAC officials noted that in August 2023 they began the process of restarting the competency assessments. We will continue to review FPAC's progress in this area.

Critical Infrastructure Protection: Additional Actions Are Essential for Assessing Cybersecurity Framework Adoption

GAO-18-211
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture
Priority Rec.
The Secretary of Agriculture, in cooperation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, should take steps to consult with respective sector partner(s), such as the sector coordinating council (SCC), Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and NIST, as appropriate, to develop methods for determining the level and type of framework adoption by entities across their respective sector. (Recommendation 1)
Open – Partially Addressed
USDA neither agreed nor disagreed with the recommendation, but stated that it would attempt to develop a measurement mechanism as part of its annual data calls to the Food and Agriculture Sector. USDA has taken steps towards determining framework adoption across the sector. For example, USDA has distributed several requests for information to sector members that include questions regarding framework adoption and resulting improvements. In addition, USDA requested feedback from sector partners and made subsequent changes to its data calls responses. Despite these efforts, as of February 2024, USDA has not yet received information from sector entities regarding their adoption of the NIST cybersecurity framework. To fully implement this recommendation, USDA needs to implement actions that will allow the agency to better assess framework adoption among entities within its sector. USDA has been encouraging and supporting the use of the framework. However, in order to assist in protecting critical infrastructure the agency needs to implement our recommendation so it can gain a more comprehensive understanding of the framework's use.

Broadband: USDA Should Set Performance Goals and Improve Fraud Risk Management for Funding Program

GAO-23-105265
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the Office of the Chief Risk Officer conducts and documents a fraud risk assessment for the ReConnect program that aligns with the leading practices outlined in our Fraud Risk Framework. (Recommendation 3)
Open
Previously, USDA said it plans to conduct and document a series of activities that will culminate in the production of the ReConnect program's fraud risk profile. In October 2023, USDA officials said they expect to complete this work in June 2024. GAO will continue to monitor the agency's progress in implementing this recommendation.

Cloud Security: Selected Agencies Need to Fully Implement Key Practices

GAO-23-105482
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the agency fully implements continuous monitoring for its selected SaaS system 1, to include reviewing the continuous monitoring deliverables from the CSP and committing to a time frame to review audit logs. (Recommendation 3)
Open
In September 2023, Agriculture stated that they plan to review continuous monitoring reports from the cloud service provider (CSP) on a monthly basis. In addition, the officials stated that they plan to document their review using a continuous monitoring checklist. In January 2024, officials stated that the CSP's continuous monitoring deliverables at the departmental level. However, as of February 2024, we have not received documentation demonstrating that these reviews are performed. We will continue to monitor the agency's efforts to address our recommendation.

Foreign Investments in U.S. Agricultural Land: Enhancing Efforts to Collect, Track, and Share Key Information Could Better Identify National Security Risks

GAO-24-106337
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the Chief Operating Officer of FPAC-BC, in coordination with relevant CFIUS member agencies, establish a process to provide detailed and timely AFIDA transaction data relevant to foreign investments in agricultural land to CFIUS member agencies, including DOD and Treasury. Such information could include whether a party has filed a disclosure, who filed it, and when it was filed. (Recommendation 1)
Open
USDA concurred with this recommendation. As of March 2024, we have not received any additional information.

IT Modernization: USDA Needs to Improve Oversight of Farm Production and Conservation Mission Area

GAO-21-512
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) directs the Business Center Chief Operating Officer to have the FPAC mission area implement the key IT workforce planning activity of assessing gaps in competencies and staffing. (Recommendation 7)
Open
In August 2023, agency officials noted that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Workforce Steering Committee had updated the technical competencies for its IT workforce. Subsequently the FPAC Human Resources group used the updated competencies to develop a competency assessment process. However, agency officials stated that that the assessment process was put on hold. FPAC officials noted that in August 2023 they began the process of restarting the competency assessments. We will continue to review FPAC's progress in this area.

Community Development: Federal Revitalization Programs Are Being Implemented, but Data on the Use of Tax Benefits Are Limited

GAO-04-306
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture To facilitate the administration, audit, and evaluation of the EZ/EC and RC programs, HUD, USDA, and IRS should collaborate to (1) identify the data needed to assess the use of the tax benefits and the various means of collecting such data; (2) determine the cost-effectiveness of collecting these data, including the potential impact on taxpayers and other program participants; (3) document the findings of their analysis; and, if necessary, (4) seek the authority to collect the data, if a cost- effective means is available.
Open – Partially Addressed
In response to GAO's recommendation, officials from HUD, USDA, and IRS met to identify data needed to assess the use of the tax benefits and identified three means of collecting such data. These methods include (1) using existing data to extrapolate an estimate of the use of some tax benefits; however, such data would be limited to the national level; (2) changing tax return forms to indicate the Empowerment Zone or Renewal Community in which each benefit is claimed; and (3) surveying businesses located in Empowerment Zones and Renewal Communities about tax benefit use. They also discussed the cost-effectiveness of each of the data collection options. The IRS Director of Research, Analysis, and Statistics, sent a letter to GAO that documented these discussions and indicated that the agencies were unable to agree on a cost effective method of collecting the data. GAO has been told that none of the agencies plan to seek the authority to collect the data at this time.

Thrifty Food Plan: Better Planning and Accountability Could Help Ensure Quality of Future Reevaluations

GAO-23-105450
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should develop and document a process to ensure that TFP reevaluations follow the project management practice of creating a comprehensive project management plan that describes how the project will be executed, monitored, controlled, and closed and, in addition to a project schedule, includes:

  • a risk management plan that manages operational risk and applies controls to ensure the project meets its objectives.
  • a quality management plan that describes how the project will be monitored and controlled based on applicable USDA and other federal quality standards.
  • a stakeholder engagement plan outlining all of the relevant stakeholders that must be included in the reevaluation and their respective roles for achieving quality
  • a requirements management plan that establishes how the project requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed.
    • (Recommendation 2)
Open
USDA did not explicitly agree or disagree with this recommendation. As of December 2023, the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) developed and documented a more formal project management guidance for use by agency staff, including a project management plan template. The project management plan template includes sections prompting the project team to describe and reference the project schedule, a strategy for risk management (or a full risk management plan for complex projects), and the general approach to managing project quality. The template also includes a section prompting the team to list all internal and external stakeholders, and a section to describe the project's approach to conveying clear, consistent, and timely information to stakeholders. FNS officials stated that the section in the template addressing the project's scope outlines the project requirements, and a supplemental "requirements" template focuses on the analysis, documentation, and management of those requirements. However, as of February 2024, FNS officials have not provided that supplemental template. In addition, the section of the template on quality does not prompt the project team to describe how the project will be monitored and controlled based on applicable USDA and other federal quality standards, as we recommended. Beyond the templates, FNS stated that its Office of the Administrator provided a brown bag training to staff on the templates and tools and created a project management matrix to help project managers determine when to use the templates. Projects concluding with a product including extensive research, service, or results--such as the Thrifty Food Plan reevaluation--are required to have project documentation, including a project management plan. Finally, the agency re-initiated its Project Management Community of Practice to further equip project managers with tools and best practices to manage projects agency-wide. We will continue to review FNS's actions with respect to this recommendation and will consider it addressed when we receive documentation of the supplemental requirements template, which we have requested, and additional guidance to project teams to describe how the project will be monitored and controlled based on applicable USDA and other federal quality standards.
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