Although the Administration for Community Living Resolved Nearly All Audit Recommendations, It Did Not Always Do So in Accordance With Federal Timeframe Requirements

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Community Living (ACL), did not always resolve audit recommendations in a timely manner during Federal fiscal years (FYs) 2015 and 2016. Specifically, ACL resolved 65 of the 71 audit recommendations that were outstanding during FYs 2015 and 2016. However, it did not resolve 34 of the 65 recommendations (52.3 percent) within the required 6-month resolution period. In addition, as of September 30, 2016, ACL had not resolved six audit recommendations that were past due for resolution. These six past-due recommendations were procedural in nature and involved policies and procedures and internal controls; none of them involved dollar amounts such as recommended disallowances.

ACL had policies and procedures in place to ensure that audit recommendations were resolved in compliance with Federal requirements. However, ACL did not always follow these policies and procedures. Although ACL did not always issue management decisions and submit the related clearance documents to OIG within the required 6-month resolution period, ACL has made progress in this respect (compared with the findings of our previous review) by increasing the percentage of audit recommendations that were resolved in a timely manner.

Without resolving all audit recommendations in a timely manner, ACL runs the risk of noncompliance with Federal requirements and mismanagement of Federal funds. The prompt resolution of audit recommendations helps ensure that Federal funds are effectively and efficiently used to carry out the activities for which they were authorized.

We recommended that ACL follow its policies and procedures related to the audit resolution process and promptly resolve the six outstanding audit recommendations that were past due as of September 30, 2016.

ACL concurred with our first recommendation and, although it did not directly concur with our second recommendation, described corrective actions that it had taken related to both recommendations. ACL stated that it had updated and implemented audit resolution policies and procedures and added that it had submitted clearance documents and issued management decision letters for the outstanding audit recommendations.