August 31, 1999

Thompson letter on GPRA - Justice Attachment 2

OPEN GAO RECOMMENDATIONS ON DOJ

MAJOR MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS

INS MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES PERSIST

Problem description: The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has been in the process of developing a restructuring plan to meet various objectives, including clearly dividing enforcement of immigration laws from delivery of immigration services. However, INS does not plan on addressing certain management challenges, such as the absence of written guidance on appropriate channels of communication within the agency, until the restructuring plan is approved. Other management challenges facing INS include the existence of outdated policies and procedures on how to implement immigration laws, selecting a replacement financial management system without first analyzing its business processes and developing a risk management plan, and not having appropriate accounting records and internal controls to enable its auditor to express an opinion on INS’ financial statement.

GAO Report No. and Date	Recommendation
GGD-97-132 July 22, 1997	The Commissioner of INS should take steps to mitigate the risks associated with INS’ planned approach for acquiring a new financial management system. Such steps should include fully implementing plans to analyze its current financial management processes and determining future financial management process needs, finalizing a comprehensive implementation plan, and fully developing and implementing a risk management plan.
GGD-97-132 July 22, 1997	To help achieve the reorganization goals, the Commissioner of INS should provide written guidance to all INS managers on the responsibilities and authority of the Executive Associate Commissioners for Field Operations and Programs in relation to each other.
GGD-97-132 July 22, 1997	To help achieve the reorganization goals, the Commissioner of INS should provide written guidance on the appropriate coordination and communication methods and channels between offices, including (1) when and how Field Operations and Programs should coordinate and communicate with each other, (2) when and how the Office of Programs should coordinate and communicate with the regional offices and the districts and sectors, and (3) when and how the Office of Policy and Planning should coordinate with the other offices.
GGD-97-132 July 22, 1997	To help achieve the reorganization goals, the Commissioner of INS should incorporate into INS’ current evaluation of the reorganization the issues raised in this report so that they can be addressed as INS attempts to fully achieve the goals of the reorganization.
GGD-98-164 July 31, 1998	To help correct undercounts, reduce conceptual problems, and, where possible, fill gaps for information on immigration flow, the Commissioner of INS should (1) evaluate and, where feasible, work toward improving data flow and (2) utilize a set of demographic categories (or an information typology) that clearly distinguishes different concepts and helps determine which statistics can fairly be compared to others.
GGD-98-164 July 31, 1998	To eliminate confused reporting of data and estimates concerning immigration flow, the Commissioner of INS should more clearly report information about trends in legal immigration flow and about the difference between the concepts of flow and net change in the INS Yearbook—or develop a new reporting format that communicates effectively to policymakers and interested members of the general public.
GGD-98-164 July 31, 1998	To reduce the uncertainty associated with statistical estimates of demographic concepts other than immigration flow, fill information gaps for specific legal statuses, and address fragmented reporting, the Commissioner of INS and the Director of the Bureau of the Census should together devise a plan of joint research for evaluating the quality of census and survey data on the foreign-born.
GGD-98-164 July 31, 1998	To reduce the uncertainty associated with statistical estimates of demographic concepts other than immigration flow, fill information gaps for specific legal statuses, and address fragmented reporting, the Commissioner of INS and the Director of the Bureau of the Census should together further develop, test, and evaluate the three-card method that GAO devised for surveying the foreign-born about their legal status.
GGD-98-164 July 31, 1998	To reduce the uncertainty associated with statistical estimates of demographic concepts other than immigration flow, fill information gaps for specific legal statuses, and address fragmented reporting, the Commissioner of INS and the Director of the Bureau of the Census should together either publish a joint report or coordinate reports that present information on population size, net change, and emigration.
GGD-99-31 March 30, 1999	The Attorney General should direct the Commissioner of INS to evaluate the effectiveness of integrity assurance efforts, such as training, background investigations, and re-investigations.
GGD-99-31 March 30, 1999	The Attorney General should require the Commissioner of INS to comply with policies that require employment re-investigations to be completed when they are due.
GGD-99-31 March 30, 1999	The Attorney General should direct the Commissioner of INS to strengthen internal controls at southwest border ports-of-entry and at Border Control checkpoints by establishing (1) one or more methods to deprive drivers of their choice of inspection lanes at ports-of-entry, (2) a policy for the inspection of law enforcement officers or their vehicles at ports-of-entry and Border Patrol checkpoints, and (3) a recusal policy concerning the performance of inspections by Immigration Inspectors and Border Patrol Agents where their objectivity may be in question.
GGD-98-197 Sept. 28, 1998	To improve confidence in the sampling methodologies used to determine future immigration and naturalization fees, the Commissioner of INS should ensure that future samples are consistent with generally accepted social science techniques and that the statistical integrity of the sampling plans is maintained throughout the study.

CHALLENGES WITH IMPLEMENTATION OF INS’ PROGRAMS

Problem description: The Attorney General has established a strategy to strengthen immigration enforcement; however, GAO’s review of three aspects of the strategy has raised concerns about INS’ efforts to achieve program objectives. First, INS has spent billions of dollars on border enforcement but has not done a comprehensive evaluation to determine whether its strategy to deter illegal entry has been effective. Second, INS has a program to place criminal aliens in removal proceeding while the aliens serve their prison sentences, but it has failed to identify thousands of such aliens before their release into U.S. communities. Most of those whom INS identified were released from prison and placed in detention before INS completed the removal proceedings, causing INS to incur millions of dollars in avoidable detention costs. Third, INS is required to complete criminal history checks on all naturalization applicants before the application is approved. INS’ failure to do so in some cases has resulted in criminal aliens being improperly naturalized. INS issued instructions to implement internal control procedures in the naturalization process, but questions about the process’ integrity remain.

GAO Report No. and Date	Recommendation
GGD-97-47 May 20, 1997	The Attorney General should direct the Commissioner of INS to periodically determine and assess the production rates and processing times in the INS field units.
GGD-97-47 May 20, 1997	The Commissioner of INS should first ensure that the field units are consistently reporting the data used to calculate the rates and times.
GGD-97-47 May 20, 1997	After ensuring that data are consistently reported, including using the same definitions, the Commissioner of INS should analyze the production rates and processing times for each field unit by application type.
GGD-97-47 May 20, 1997	After ensuring that data are consistently reported, including using the same definitions, the Commissioner of INS should identify factors that contribute to making the field units more or less productive and timely.
GGD-97-47 May 20, 1997	After ensuring that data are consistently reported, including using the same definitions, the Commissioner of INS should determine whether and what changes could be made to make individual field units more productive and timely.
GGD-97-47 May 20, 1997	After ensuring that data are consistently reported, including using the same definitions, the Commissioner of INS, should follow up with the field units to ensure that appropriate changes are implemented.
GGD-98-21 Dec. 11, 1997	The Attorney General should develop and implement a plan for a formal, cost-effective, comprehensive, systematic evaluation of the strategy to deter illegal entry across the southwest border. This plan should describe (1) the indicators that would be required for the evaluation, (2) the data that need to be collected, (3) mechanisms for collecting the data, (4) controls intended to ensure accuracy of the data collected, (5) expected relationships among indicators, and (6) procedures for analyzing the data.
GGD-99-33 Apr. 2, 1999	The Commissioner of INS, as a part of the outreach program for INS’ pilot programs, should seek assistance from federal and state agencies, such as the Department of Labor and state labor agencies, in disseminating information to employers about the programs.
GGD-99-33 Apr. 2, 1999	The Commissioner of INS, in implementing the interior enforcement strategy, should clarify the criteria for opening investigations of employers suspected of criminal activities.
T-GGD-97-154 July 15, 1997	The Commissioner of INS should establish a nationwide data system containing the universe of foreign-born inmates reported to INS by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and the state departments of corrections and use this system to track the Institutional Hearing Program (IHP) status of each inmate.
T-GGD-97-154 July 15, 1997	The Commissioner of INS should give priority to aliens serving time for aggravated felonies by establishing controls to ensure that these aliens are identified from among the universe of foreign-born inmates provided by BOP and the states, are placed into deportation proceedings while in prison, and are taken into custody upon their release.
T-GGD-97-154 July 15, 1997	The Commissioner of INS should (1) develop a workload analysis model to identify the IHP resources needed in any period to achieve overall program goals and the portion of those goals that would be achievable with alternative levels of resources and (2) use the model to support INS’ IHP funding and staffing requests. Such a model should consider several factors, including the number of foreign-born inmates, number of prisons that must be visited, number and types of IHP staff, length of time needed to process cases, and travel time and costs.
T-GGD-97-154 July 15, 1997	The Commissioner of INS should identify the causes of immigration agent attrition and take steps to achieve IHP program goals.
T-GGD-97-154 July 15, 1997	The Commissioner of INS should establish and effectively communicate a clear policy on the role of special agents in the IHP and, using a workload analysis model, set IHP goals for district responsibilities.
T-GGD-97-154 July 15, 1997	If it appears that IHP goals will not be met, INS should document any actions taken to correct the problem.

SIGNIFICANT DEPARTMENTAL FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT WEAKNESSES (NO OPEN GAO RECOMMENDATIONS)

Problem description: The audit of the Department of Justice’s fiscal year 1998 Consolidated Balance Sheet and Consolidated Statements of Net Cost and Changes in Net Position has been completed and resulted in a disclaimer of opinion because the auditors were unable to obtain sufficient evidence about certain balances and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. The Department also received a disclaimer of opinion on the Consolidated Statement of Financial Position for fiscal year 1997, and the Department’s Inspector General noted that although improvements were being made in certain areas, overall, the Department had not substantially progressed towards an unqualified opinion. In connection with the audit of Justice’s fiscal year 1998 consolidated financial statements, auditors disclosed one material weakness and three reportable conditions. In reporting on the separate audits of Justice’s component entities, auditors identified 13 material weaknesses and 18 reportable conditions related to internal controls. Some of these problems affected the components’ ability to receive opinions on their financial statements and produce reliable financial information on a routine basis. Finally, auditors identified several noncompliance conditions related to the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996, the Prompt Pay Act, appropriation law, and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Acts.

While GAO does not have any open recommendations related to Justice’s financial management weaknesses, the Department’s financial statement auditors have open recommendations related to correcting material weaknesses and reportable conditions identified in the audits. These recommendations include improving electronic data processing (EDP) controls, ensuring that financial transactions are recorded in accordance with federal accounting standards, strengthening controls over Fund Balance With Treasury, and improving fiscal year-end closing procedures. GAO and the Justice Office of Inspector General (OIG) will continue to monitor certain key financial management issues at the department.

EMBEZZLEMENTS AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT CONTROL WEAKNESSES AT DEA (NO OPEN GAO RECOMMENDATIONS)

Problem description: In September 1998, GAO reported on two embezzlement cases at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and on some of the financial management weaknesses identified and reported by DEA’s external auditor. GAO stated that some of the financial management weaknesses compromised DEA’s overall control environment and are the type of control problems that could allow embezzlements, such as those reported, to occur without prompt detection. For example, the external auditor reported in its fiscal year 1997 financial statement audit report that, of 148 items sampled, documentation to support the proper receipt and acceptance of goods and services had not been received for 14 expense transactions. The auditor reported similar instances in its fiscal year 1998 financial statement audit. Payment of expenses without adequate documentation is the type of control weakness that contributes to an environment where embezzlements can take place. For instance, in one of the cases of reported embezzlements, DEA processed transactions even though it lacked documents to establish that the amounts were owed.

Although, DEA’s external auditor issued an unqualified opinion on DEA’s fiscal year 1998 balance sheet, the auditor issued a disclaimer of opinion on all of DEA’s other financial statements. The disclaimer of opinion was issued because it was not practical for the external auditors to extend auditing procedures to sufficiently satisfy themselves as to the beginning balances of assets, liabilities, and net position. Finally, the external auditors also identified one material weakness and three reportable conditions related to DEA’s internal control and identified two instances of noncompliance related to the Prompt Pay Act and the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996.

While GAO does not have any open recommendations related to DEA’s embezzlements and financial management control weaknesses, DEA’s financial statement auditors have open recommendations related to correcting the material weaknesses and reportable conditions identified in the audits. These recommendations include implementing mainframe security software, accurately and completely reporting seized drug information, reconciling differences between DEA’s Fund Balance With Treasury Accounts and its general ledger, and strengthening internal controls over accruals and disbursements. GAO and the Justice OIG will continue to monitor certain key financial management issues at DEA.