Audit 379369

2025-001 Reporting – Inaccurate Meal Counts Reported for Reimbursement. Federal Program: Child Nutrition Cluster (10.553, 10.555). Finding Type: Significant deficiency in internal control over compliance, and noncompliance with laws and regulations. Condition: The District did not maintain effective internal controls over the Child Nutrition Cluster to ensure the accuracy of meals served, as reported on monthly Claim Status Reports for reimbursement. Criteria: 2 CFR § 200.303 requires that non-federal entities establish and maintain effective internal control over federal awards that provides reasonable assurance that the entity is managing federal awards in compliance with federal statues, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the federal award. Additionally, 7 CFR § 210.8(a) requires that school food authorities establish internal controls which ensure the accuracy of meals served prior to the submission of monthly Claim Status Reports. At a minimum, these internal controls shall include on-site reviews of the meal counting and claiming system employed by each school in the District, comparisons of daily meal counts against data which will assist in the identification of inaccurate meal counts, and a system for appropriate corrective action when differences or deficiencies are identified. Cause: The District’s oversight of monthly reporting for reimbursement was ineffective in ensuring accuracy in the total number of meals served reported. Effect: The District received reimbursements in excess of meals served. Context: We evaluated meals served for all buildings in the District for three months during the audit period, comparing totals reported per the monthly Claim Status Reports to supporting point-of-sale reports and hard copy count sheets. For the months reviewed, the District served 159,265 total meals and requested reimbursement for 159,419. Questioned Costs: $1,782 Recommendation: The District should establish and maintain effective procedures and internal controls that would identify and correct errors and ensure accuracy prior to submitting monthly Claim Status Reports for reimbursement. View of Responsible Officials: The District agrees with the finding and will implement corrective action to address the condition.