Audit 358920

Identification of the federal program: 21.027 – Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Noncompliance and Significant Deficiency in internal controls over reporting Criteria: Grant agreements and federal regulations require timely submission of monthly progress and financial reports. Condition: The Cooperative failed to submit its required monthly progress and financial reports for January-November of FY2024 to Hancock County by the established deadlines. Cause: The Cooperative believed they were required to submit quarterly reports, not monthly reports, and as such lacked adequate internal controls and oversight to ensure compliance with reporting timelines. Effect: Late reporting may impact grantor oversight and delay funding decisions. Questioned Costs: None Recommendations: The Cooperative should establish a review process to ensure financial reports are submitted on time. Views of responsible officials: The Cooperative will manage various grant deliverables via a consolidated tracker which will require management oversight to track due dates and deliverables. The Cooperative is well equipped to utilize technology to implement automatic reminders that will be automatically issued before deadline dates.

Identification of the federal program: 21.027 – Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Noncompliance and Significant Deficiency in internal controls over reporting Criteria: Cooperatives must ensure expenditures are properly allocated to the appropriate grant and not duplicated across multiple funding sources. Condition: The Cooperative reported the same $1,190,000 in expenditures under two separate federal grant agreements. Cause: The Cooperative lacked adequate internal controls and oversight to ensure compliance with reporting proper grant expenditure. There was also a miscommunication between program and finance staff to the consultant regarding how expenditures were to be reported across grants. Effect: Duplicate cost reporting may result in questioned costs, potential disallowance of expenditures, and result in noncompliance with federal grant requirements. Questioned Costs: None Perspective: Double reimbursement was not a risk in this finding as one submission was being charged against an advance. Recommendations: The Cooperative should establish a review process to ensure financial reports are accurate and expenditures are only charged to one funding source. Views of responsible officials: Finance will have a dual review process implemented before the submission of expenditure reporting requirements. These expenditures will also be cross-referenced with what projects were submitted for each project via a centralized tracker managed by Finance. Communication of internal roles and responsibilities between finance and the functional teams will be clearly defined, and the Cooperative’s Finance function will be the central single control point of any output submitted to any third-party agency. Finance will document the entirety of these communications.

Identification of the federal program: 21.027 – Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Noncompliance and Significant Deficiency in internal controls over reporting Criteria: Grant agreements and federal regulations require timely submission of monthly progress and financial reports. Condition: The Cooperative failed to submit its required monthly progress and financial reports for January-November of FY2024 to Hancock County by the established deadlines. Cause: The Cooperative believed they were required to submit quarterly reports, not monthly reports, and as such lacked adequate internal controls and oversight to ensure compliance with reporting timelines. Effect: Late reporting may impact grantor oversight and delay funding decisions. Questioned Costs: None Recommendations: The Cooperative should establish a review process to ensure financial reports are submitted on time. Views of responsible officials: The Cooperative will manage various grant deliverables via a consolidated tracker which will require management oversight to track due dates and deliverables. The Cooperative is well equipped to utilize technology to implement automatic reminders that will be automatically issued before deadline dates.

Identification of the federal program: 21.027 – Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Noncompliance and Significant Deficiency in internal controls over reporting Criteria: Cooperatives must ensure expenditures are properly allocated to the appropriate grant and not duplicated across multiple funding sources. Condition: The Cooperative reported the same $1,190,000 in expenditures under two separate federal grant agreements. Cause: The Cooperative lacked adequate internal controls and oversight to ensure compliance with reporting proper grant expenditure. There was also a miscommunication between program and finance staff to the consultant regarding how expenditures were to be reported across grants. Effect: Duplicate cost reporting may result in questioned costs, potential disallowance of expenditures, and result in noncompliance with federal grant requirements. Questioned Costs: None Perspective: Double reimbursement was not a risk in this finding as one submission was being charged against an advance. Recommendations: The Cooperative should establish a review process to ensure financial reports are accurate and expenditures are only charged to one funding source. Views of responsible officials: Finance will have a dual review process implemented before the submission of expenditure reporting requirements. These expenditures will also be cross-referenced with what projects were submitted for each project via a centralized tracker managed by Finance. Communication of internal roles and responsibilities between finance and the functional teams will be clearly defined, and the Cooperative’s Finance function will be the central single control point of any output submitted to any third-party agency. Finance will document the entirety of these communications.

Identification of the federal program: 21.027 – Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Noncompliance and Significant Deficiency in internal controls over reporting Criteria: Grant agreements and federal regulations require timely submission of monthly progress and financial reports. Condition: The Cooperative failed to submit its required monthly progress and financial reports for January-November of FY2024 to Hancock County by the established deadlines. Cause: The Cooperative believed they were required to submit quarterly reports, not monthly reports, and as such lacked adequate internal controls and oversight to ensure compliance with reporting timelines. Effect: Late reporting may impact grantor oversight and delay funding decisions. Questioned Costs: None Recommendations: The Cooperative should establish a review process to ensure financial reports are submitted on time. Views of responsible officials: The Cooperative will manage various grant deliverables via a consolidated tracker which will require management oversight to track due dates and deliverables. The Cooperative is well equipped to utilize technology to implement automatic reminders that will be automatically issued before deadline dates.

Identification of the federal program: 21.027 – Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Noncompliance and Significant Deficiency in internal controls over reporting Criteria: Cooperatives must ensure expenditures are properly allocated to the appropriate grant and not duplicated across multiple funding sources. Condition: The Cooperative reported the same $1,190,000 in expenditures under two separate federal grant agreements. Cause: The Cooperative lacked adequate internal controls and oversight to ensure compliance with reporting proper grant expenditure. There was also a miscommunication between program and finance staff to the consultant regarding how expenditures were to be reported across grants. Effect: Duplicate cost reporting may result in questioned costs, potential disallowance of expenditures, and result in noncompliance with federal grant requirements. Questioned Costs: None Perspective: Double reimbursement was not a risk in this finding as one submission was being charged against an advance. Recommendations: The Cooperative should establish a review process to ensure financial reports are accurate and expenditures are only charged to one funding source. Views of responsible officials: Finance will have a dual review process implemented before the submission of expenditure reporting requirements. These expenditures will also be cross-referenced with what projects were submitted for each project via a centralized tracker managed by Finance. Communication of internal roles and responsibilities between finance and the functional teams will be clearly defined, and the Cooperative’s Finance function will be the central single control point of any output submitted to any third-party agency. Finance will document the entirety of these communications.

Identification of the federal program: 21.027 – Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Noncompliance and Significant Deficiency in internal controls over reporting Criteria: Grant agreements and federal regulations require timely submission of monthly progress and financial reports. Condition: The Cooperative failed to submit its required monthly progress and financial reports for January-November of FY2024 to Hancock County by the established deadlines. Cause: The Cooperative believed they were required to submit quarterly reports, not monthly reports, and as such lacked adequate internal controls and oversight to ensure compliance with reporting timelines. Effect: Late reporting may impact grantor oversight and delay funding decisions. Questioned Costs: None Recommendations: The Cooperative should establish a review process to ensure financial reports are submitted on time. Views of responsible officials: The Cooperative will manage various grant deliverables via a consolidated tracker which will require management oversight to track due dates and deliverables. The Cooperative is well equipped to utilize technology to implement automatic reminders that will be automatically issued before deadline dates.

Identification of the federal program: 21.027 – Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Noncompliance and Significant Deficiency in internal controls over reporting Criteria: Cooperatives must ensure expenditures are properly allocated to the appropriate grant and not duplicated across multiple funding sources. Condition: The Cooperative reported the same $1,190,000 in expenditures under two separate federal grant agreements. Cause: The Cooperative lacked adequate internal controls and oversight to ensure compliance with reporting proper grant expenditure. There was also a miscommunication between program and finance staff to the consultant regarding how expenditures were to be reported across grants. Effect: Duplicate cost reporting may result in questioned costs, potential disallowance of expenditures, and result in noncompliance with federal grant requirements. Questioned Costs: None Perspective: Double reimbursement was not a risk in this finding as one submission was being charged against an advance. Recommendations: The Cooperative should establish a review process to ensure financial reports are accurate and expenditures are only charged to one funding source. Views of responsible officials: Finance will have a dual review process implemented before the submission of expenditure reporting requirements. These expenditures will also be cross-referenced with what projects were submitted for each project via a centralized tracker managed by Finance. Communication of internal roles and responsibilities between finance and the functional teams will be clearly defined, and the Cooperative’s Finance function will be the central single control point of any output submitted to any third-party agency. Finance will document the entirety of these communications.