Audit 384721

2024-101: Reimbursement Requests were Not Formally Approved by the City Prior to Submission Assistance Listing Number: 97.036 Program Title: Disaster Grants – Public Assistance (Presidentially Declared Disasters) Compliance Requirement: Special Tests and Provisions Pass-through Entity: Florida Division of Emergency Management Federal Grant/Contract Number and Grant Year Z0894 2019 Finding Type: Significant Deficiency in Internal Control Known Questioned Costs: $0 Criteria: 2 CFR section 200.303 requires that nonfederal entities receiving federal awards establish and maintain internal control over the federal awards that provides reasonable assurance that the nonfederal entity is managing the federal awards in compliance with federal statutes, regulations, and terms and conditions of the federal awards. Condition: The reimbursement requests to the Florida Division of Emergency Management were prepared by the City’s consultant and acknowledged as approved by them as well. In the two reimbursement requests selected for sampling, one of the requests was both submitted and acknowledged by the third-party administrator. This was not a statistically valid sample. Cause: The City implemented procedures to ensure they are the entity to provide the acknowledgement of approval on the Florida Division of Emergency Management FEMA website for reimbursement requests submitted by the third-party consultants however those processes were not followed by the third-party administrator and subsequently not corrected by the City. Effect: Reimbursement requests could include potential errors and cause the City to be out of compliance with the requirements of the grant Recommendation: The City should consistently be the entity to acknowledge and approve the submission of the request on the Florida Division of Emergency Management FEMA website. If it is not feasible for them to be on the website then email confirmation between the City and the consultant should be obtained which supports the review and approval of the submission by the City. Management Response: See attached Corrective Action Plan