Management response/corrective action: The Town of Gorham does not have a grant manager. The Finance Department consists of two staff and are unable to manage all the Town’s grants. The Town was awarded this grant in March 2023, but the grant application was not fully approved by HUD until 2/28/24, due to HUD staff turnover. Until the grant was fully approved, the Town did not have access to the HUD portal to do the progress reports. The Town had trouble accessing the HUD portal which took months of troubleshooting. The Town was in constant contact with HUD in the progress reporting and voucher reimbursement process, so HUD was aware that the reports would be late. The Town will emphasize the importance of filing reports on time and putting the deadlines in their work calendars.
Management’s response/corrective action plan: School: The School verifies vendors are not suspended or disbarred but does not retain the evidence of doing so. The School will develop and implement a procedure for recording and retaining the verification of vendors. Town: The Town was unaware of this step in the federal procurement process until April 2024. At this point, most of the ARPA projects have already begun which makes this a repeat finding. The Town has checked the vendors of any projects that started after the finding notification. The Finance Director has communicated to the departments that administer the grant expenditure that this process needs to be done. The Town has checked the vendors of any projects that started after the original finding notification.
Management’s response/corrective action plan: The School routinely looks for competitive pricing before the procurement of micro-purchases but does not retain evidence of doing so. The School will develop and implement a procedure for recording and retaining the comparison of minimally three source vendors.
Management response/corrective action: The Town Council approves the projects for ARPA and the department that the project is related to manages the project and codes the invoices. The Finance Department has two staff and has been implementing new financial software. Due to the volume of work the Finance Department cannot reconcile the Town’s expenditure routinely. Everything posted to ARPA is reviewed to make sure the cost is appropriate during the reporting period ending March 31st. The report is filed as of 4/30/24, based on the snapshot of what was coded to the ARPA expense lines as of March 31st. No costs reported were not considered ARPA expenses. At year end, a thorough review of all the Town’s expenditure is done, and some ARPA costs were found coded to non-ARPA account. These costs were moved to the ARPA account in June as part of year end entries. Some of these costs were paid in the reporting period of March 31st and had they been coded correctly they would have been in that report. These costs were captured in the next annual report that is due 04/30/25. The Finance Department staff will be increasing to three in FY26 so this will give the Finance Director more time to review the monthly expenditure to find any miscoded invoices.
Management’s response/corrective action plan: School: The School verifies vendors are not suspended or disbarred but does not retain the evidence of doing so. The School will develop and implement a procedure for recording and retaining the verification of vendors. Town: The Town was unaware of this step in the federal procurement process until April 2024. At this point, most of the ARPA projects have already begun which makes this a repeat finding. The Town has checked the vendors of any projects that started after the finding notification. The Finance Director has communicated to the departments that administer the grant expenditure that this process needs to be done. The Town has checked the vendors of any projects that started after the original finding notification.
Management’s response/corrective action plan: The School routinely looks for competitive pricing before the procurement of micro-purchases but does not retain evidence of doing so. The School will develop and implement a procedure for recording and retaining the comparison of minimally three source vendors.
Management response/corrective action: The Town Council approves the projects for ARPA and the department that the project is related to manages the project and codes the invoices. The Finance Department has two staff and has been implementing new financial software. Due to the volume of work the Finance Department cannot reconcile the Town’s expenditure routinely. Everything posted to ARPA is reviewed to make sure the cost is appropriate during the reporting period ending March 31st. The report is filed as of 4/30/24, based on the snapshot of what was coded to the ARPA expense lines as of March 31st. No costs reported were not considered ARPA expenses. At year end, a thorough review of all the Town’s expenditure is done, and some ARPA costs were found coded to non-ARPA account. These costs were moved to the ARPA account in June as part of year end entries. Some of these costs were paid in the reporting period of March 31st and had they been coded correctly they would have been in that report. These costs were captured in the next annual report that is due 04/30/25. The Finance Department staff will be increasing to three in FY26 so this will give the Finance Director more time to review the monthly expenditure to find any miscoded invoices.
Management’s response/corrective action plan: School: The School verifies vendors are not suspended or disbarred but does not retain the evidence of doing so. The School will develop and implement a procedure for recording and retaining the verification of vendors. Town: The Town was unaware of this step in the federal procurement process until April 2024. At this point, most of the ARPA projects have already begun which makes this a repeat finding. The Town has checked the vendors of any projects that started after the finding notification. The Finance Director has communicated to the departments that administer the grant expenditure that this process needs to be done. The Town has checked the vendors of any projects that started after the original finding notification.
Management’s response/corrective action plan: The School routinely looks for competitive pricing before the procurement of micro-purchases but does not retain evidence of doing so. The School will develop and implement a procedure for recording and retaining the comparison of minimally three source vendors.
Management response/corrective action: The Town Council approves the projects for ARPA and the department that the project is related to manages the project and codes the invoices. The Finance Department has two staff and has been implementing new financial software. Due to the volume of work the Finance Department cannot reconcile the Town’s expenditure routinely. Everything posted to ARPA is reviewed to make sure the cost is appropriate during the reporting period ending March 31st. The report is filed as of 4/30/24, based on the snapshot of what was coded to the ARPA expense lines as of March 31st. No costs reported were not considered ARPA expenses. At year end, a thorough review of all the Town’s expenditure is done, and some ARPA costs were found coded to non-ARPA account. These costs were moved to the ARPA account in June as part of year end entries. Some of these costs were paid in the reporting period of March 31st and had they been coded correctly they would have been in that report. These costs were captured in the next annual report that is due 04/30/25. The Finance Department staff will be increasing to three in FY26 so this will give the Finance Director more time to review the monthly expenditure to find any miscoded invoices.
Management response/corrective action: The Town of Gorham does not have a grant manager. The Finance Department consists of two staff and are unable to manage all the Town’s grants. The Town was awarded this grant in March 2023, but the grant application was not fully approved by HUD until 2/28/24, due to HUD staff turnover. Until the grant was fully approved, the Town did not have access to the HUD portal to do the progress reports. The Town had trouble accessing the HUD portal which took months of troubleshooting. The Town was in constant contact with HUD in the progress reporting and voucher reimbursement process, so HUD was aware that the reports would be late. The Town will emphasize the importance of filing reports on time and putting the deadlines in their work calendars.
Management’s response/corrective action plan: School: The School verifies vendors are not suspended or disbarred but does not retain the evidence of doing so. The School will develop and implement a procedure for recording and retaining the verification of vendors. Town: The Town was unaware of this step in the federal procurement process until April 2024. At this point, most of the ARPA projects have already begun which makes this a repeat finding. The Town has checked the vendors of any projects that started after the finding notification. The Finance Director has communicated to the departments that administer the grant expenditure that this process needs to be done. The Town has checked the vendors of any projects that started after the original finding notification.
Management’s response/corrective action plan: The School routinely looks for competitive pricing before the procurement of micro-purchases but does not retain evidence of doing so. The School will develop and implement a procedure for recording and retaining the comparison of minimally three source vendors.
Management response/corrective action: The Town Council approves the projects for ARPA and the department that the project is related to manages the project and codes the invoices. The Finance Department has two staff and has been implementing new financial software. Due to the volume of work the Finance Department cannot reconcile the Town’s expenditure routinely. Everything posted to ARPA is reviewed to make sure the cost is appropriate during the reporting period ending March 31st. The report is filed as of 4/30/24, based on the snapshot of what was coded to the ARPA expense lines as of March 31st. No costs reported were not considered ARPA expenses. At year end, a thorough review of all the Town’s expenditure is done, and some ARPA costs were found coded to non-ARPA account. These costs were moved to the ARPA account in June as part of year end entries. Some of these costs were paid in the reporting period of March 31st and had they been coded correctly they would have been in that report. These costs were captured in the next annual report that is due 04/30/25. The Finance Department staff will be increasing to three in FY26 so this will give the Finance Director more time to review the monthly expenditure to find any miscoded invoices.
Management’s response/corrective action plan: School: The School verifies vendors are not suspended or disbarred but does not retain the evidence of doing so. The School will develop and implement a procedure for recording and retaining the verification of vendors. Town: The Town was unaware of this step in the federal procurement process until April 2024. At this point, most of the ARPA projects have already begun which makes this a repeat finding. The Town has checked the vendors of any projects that started after the finding notification. The Finance Director has communicated to the departments that administer the grant expenditure that this process needs to be done. The Town has checked the vendors of any projects that started after the original finding notification.
Management’s response/corrective action plan: The School routinely looks for competitive pricing before the procurement of micro-purchases but does not retain evidence of doing so. The School will develop and implement a procedure for recording and retaining the comparison of minimally three source vendors.
Management response/corrective action: The Town Council approves the projects for ARPA and the department that the project is related to manages the project and codes the invoices. The Finance Department has two staff and has been implementing new financial software. Due to the volume of work the Finance Department cannot reconcile the Town’s expenditure routinely. Everything posted to ARPA is reviewed to make sure the cost is appropriate during the reporting period ending March 31st. The report is filed as of 4/30/24, based on the snapshot of what was coded to the ARPA expense lines as of March 31st. No costs reported were not considered ARPA expenses. At year end, a thorough review of all the Town’s expenditure is done, and some ARPA costs were found coded to non-ARPA account. These costs were moved to the ARPA account in June as part of year end entries. Some of these costs were paid in the reporting period of March 31st and had they been coded correctly they would have been in that report. These costs were captured in the next annual report that is due 04/30/25. The Finance Department staff will be increasing to three in FY26 so this will give the Finance Director more time to review the monthly expenditure to find any miscoded invoices.
Management’s response/corrective action plan: School: The School verifies vendors are not suspended or disbarred but does not retain the evidence of doing so. The School will develop and implement a procedure for recording and retaining the verification of vendors. Town: The Town was unaware of this step in the federal procurement process until April 2024. At this point, most of the ARPA projects have already begun which makes this a repeat finding. The Town has checked the vendors of any projects that started after the finding notification. The Finance Director has communicated to the departments that administer the grant expenditure that this process needs to be done. The Town has checked the vendors of any projects that started after the original finding notification.
Management’s response/corrective action plan: The School routinely looks for competitive pricing before the procurement of micro-purchases but does not retain evidence of doing so. The School will develop and implement a procedure for recording and retaining the comparison of minimally three source vendors.
Management response/corrective action: The Town Council approves the projects for ARPA and the department that the project is related to manages the project and codes the invoices. The Finance Department has two staff and has been implementing new financial software. Due to the volume of work the Finance Department cannot reconcile the Town’s expenditure routinely. Everything posted to ARPA is reviewed to make sure the cost is appropriate during the reporting period ending March 31st. The report is filed as of 4/30/24, based on the snapshot of what was coded to the ARPA expense lines as of March 31st. No costs reported were not considered ARPA expenses. At year end, a thorough review of all the Town’s expenditure is done, and some ARPA costs were found coded to non-ARPA account. These costs were moved to the ARPA account in June as part of year end entries. Some of these costs were paid in the reporting period of March 31st and had they been coded correctly they would have been in that report. These costs were captured in the next annual report that is due 04/30/25. The Finance Department staff will be increasing to three in FY26 so this will give the Finance Director more time to review the monthly expenditure to find any miscoded invoices.