Audit 396571

U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) Passed through Colorado Department of Education National School Lunch Program (Child Nutrition Cluster) / ALN 10.555 Compliance Requirement: Reporting Significant Deficiency in Internal Control over Compliance and Other Non- Compliance Criteria: Federal regulations require that recipients of federal awards maintain adequate records to support amounts claimed for reimbursement. Under 2 CFR 200.403 and 2 CFR 200.302, costs must be adequately documented and supported, and financial management systems must provide accurate, current, and complete disclosure of the financial results of each federally funded program. Additionally, USDA program guidance requires entities to retain documentation supporting daily meal counts and reimbursement claims. Condition: During testing of National School Lunch Program reimbursements, the District was unable to provide adequate supporting documentation for a sample of meal reimbursement claims relating to sack lunches/field meals during the District’s football season. As a result, we were unable to verify that the reimbursement amounts claimed were fully supported and allowable under program requirements. Questioned Costs: Estimated questioned costs for which there is projected to be no support for totals $53,772, which is an extrapolation of the $6,140 that did not have support in the $48,798 we tested for a sample month, multiplied by the total National School Lunch Program expenditures of $427,357 in 2025. Context: A non-statistical sample of 1 month of reimbursements from the fiscal year were selected for testing. Effect: Because sufficient documentation was not available, the allowability and accuracy of certain National School Lunch Program reimbursements could not be fully substantiated. This resulted in questioned costs related to unsupported reimbursements. Cause: The District did not have a formalized process to ensure that all required supporting documentation for meal counts and reimbursement calculations was retained and centrally maintained. In addition, staff turnover and reliance on manual processes contributed to missing or incomplete records. Identification as a repeat finding: Not applicable. Recommendation: We recommend that the Entity strengthen internal controls over the National School Lunch Program by implementing formal procedures to ensure that daily meal counts, edit checks, and reimbursement calculations are properly documented, reviewed, and retained in accordance with federal requirements. Management should also ensure that reimbursement claims are reconciled to supporting records prior to submission. Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Action: The District agrees with the finding. See separate corrective action plan at page for planned corrective action.