Audit 400912

2025-001 Program Titles: Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) ALN: 10.331 Compliance Requirement: Cash Management Finding Type: Noncompliance and Material Weakness Criteria: Grantees may be paid in advance, provided that they maintain or demonstrate the willingness to maintain both written procedures that minimize the time elapsing between the transfer of funds and disbursement, and financial systems that meet the standards for fund accountability. The timing and amount of advanced payments must be as close as is administratively feasible to the actual disbursement for direct program or program costs and the proportionate share of any allowable indirect costs. Condition: The Organization drew down an advance of anticipated 3 months of program expenses on February 5, 2025 and then continued to draw down the remainder of the grant award on February 20, 2025. Questioned Costs: $36,842 - The Organization earned $37,342 in interest income for the year from the above advanced funds which exceeds the federal $500 limit. Context: The Organization drew down $210,153.04 on February 5, 2025 and another $1,219,760.51 on February 20, 2025 but total expenses for the year were only $911,505. Effect: The Organization does not appear to be in compliance or have properly functioning controls regarding compliance for cash management of federal funds. Cause: The Organization had their federal grant funds frozen in January 2025 due to an executive order of the President of the United States. The inability to access these funds put the operations of the Organization at risk and when funds were available the Organization decided to draw all grant awards down. Recommendation: Management should return the advanced funds and the excess interest income and revert to its prior operation strategy of reimbursement based grants. Views of Responsible Officials: The Organization had their funds frozen due to an executive order of the President of the United States. The inability to access these funds put the operations of the Organization at risk and when funds were available the Organization decided to draw all grant awards down. The Organization has properly accounted for the unused funds as a liability and reported them properly in the federal SF-425 reports.