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GAO-20-485PR 1 (2020-04-13)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaeayg0001 and id is 1 raw text is: cAO U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G St. N.W. Comptroller General Washington, DC 20548 of the United States April 13, 2020 The Honorable Michael R. Pompeo Secretary of State U.S. Department of State 2201 C Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20520 Priority Open Recommendations: Department of State Dear Mr. Secretary: The purpose of this letter is to provide an update on the overall status of the U.S. Department of the State's (State) implementation of GAO's recommendations and to call your personal attention to areas where open recommendations should be given high priority.1 In November 2019, we reported that on a government-wide basis, 77 percent of our recommendations made 4 years ago were implemented.2 State's recommendation implementation rate was 71 percent. As of April 2020, State had 81 open recommendations.3 Fully implementing all open recommendations could significantly improve State's operations. Since our April 2019 letter, State has implemented 11 of our 18 open priority recommendations. We believe these efforts have (1) improved the security and safety of diplomatic personnel and facilities overseas, including residences and soft targets such as schools, by developing new security procedures and guidance and by clarifying existing requirements; (2) mitigated concerns regarding obsolete information technology investments by identifying such technologies and developing a plan to replace them; and (3) addressed some data quality concerns by assessing the completeness of other agencies' data submissions for ForeignAssistance.gov and developing targeted assistance to support these other agencies, among other government improvements. Fully implementing all of our open priority recommendations would further improve State's human rights vetting process, assistance- related data quality, embassy construction planning efforts, and hardship pay payment process. State has seven priority recommendations remaining from those we identified in the 2019 letter. We ask for your continued attention on those remaining priority recommendations. We also are adding five new recommendations related to improving cybersecurity, implementing agency 1Priority recommendations are those that GAO believes warrant priority attention from heads of key departments or agencies. They are highlighted because, upon implementation, they may significantly improve government operation, for example, by realizing large dollar savings; eliminating mismanagement, fraud, and abuse; or making progress toward addressing a high-risk or duplication issue. 2GAO, Performance and Accountability Report: Fiscal Year 2019, GAO-20-1 SP (Washington, D.C.: Nov.15, 2019). 3Sensitive and classified recommendations are tracked separately. GAO-20-485PR State Priority Recommendations Page 1

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