Identification of the Federal Program: Assistance Listing Number: 16.922 Assistance Listing Title: Equitable Sharing Program Federal Agency: U.S. Department of the Justice Federal Award Identification Number: N/A Criteria or Specific Requirement (Including Statutory, Regulatory, or Other Citation): Prior to entering into subawards and contracts with award funds, recipients must ensure that contractors and subcontractors are not suspended, debarred, or otherwise excluded from participation in federally funded programs pursuant to 2 CFR Part 180 and 2 CFR §200.214. Condition: During the audit, we noticed that the City did not perform suspension and debarment checks on the contractors that they hired with Asset Forfeiture monies. Cause: The City does not have formal policies and procedures in place to ensure the suspension and debarment review process over vendors that provides goods or services to the City’s programs was conducted prior to entering into a contract. Effect or Potential Effect: Without verifying whether vendors are suspended or debarred from working on federally-funded projects prior to the contract being awarded, the City could be contracting with vendors that are prohibited from working on federally funded projects and incurring potentially disallowed costs. Questioned Costs: None noted. Context: See condition above for the context of the finding. Identification as a Repeat Finding, If Applicable: No. Recommendation: We recommended the City develop policies and procedures to incorporate the suspension and debarment verification prior to awarding contracts. Views of Responsible Officials: Management concurs with the finding and agrees to implement necessary corrective procedures.
Identification of the Federal Program: Assistance Listing Number: 16.922 Assistance Listing Title: Equitable Sharing Program Federal Agency: U.S. Department of the Justice Federal Award Identification Number: N/A Criteria or Specific Requirement (Including Statutory, Regulatory, or Other Citation): Per the U.S. Department of Justice Equitable Sharing Guidelines, participating agencies are required to submit an Annual Certification Report that is: - Accurate and complete, and - Supported by underlying accounting records, and - Consistent with reported expenditures and program activity The report must properly classify expenditures by category (e.g., equipment, salaries, overtime) and include all allowable uses of funds. Condition: During our review of the City’s Annual Certification Report for the Equitable Sharing Program, we noted that the U.S. Department of Justice requested the report to be revised updating overtime expenditures which were originally classified and reported under salaries (line item l) to be properly classified and reported under overtime (line item j). Additionally, the original and the revised reports submitted by the City omitted $20,000 of equipment expenditures (line item d). As a result, total expenditures were understated due to the omitted equipment costs. Cause: The discrepancy was due to an oversight during the revision process, where the City updated the classification of expenditures (salary to overtime) but did not perform a complete reconciliation of total expenditures after making the revision. As a result, while overtime was correctly reported, certain equipment expenditures were inadvertently omitted, leading to an understatement of total expenditures by approximately $20,000. Effect or Potential Effect: The omission resulted in an incomplete and inaccurate Annual Certification Report, as total expenditures reported to the Department of Justice were understated. Questioned Costs: None noted. Context: See condition above for the context of the finding. Identification as a Repeat Finding, If Applicable: No. Recommendation: We recommend the City implement a formal reconciliation and review process for the Annual Certification Report to ensure total expenditures reconcile to the general ledger, all expenditure categories are complete and accurately reported, and any revisions are followed by a full validation of completeness and accuracy prior to resubmission. Views of Responsible Officials: Management concurs with the finding and agrees to implement necessary corrective procedures.
Identification of the Federal Program: Assistance Listing Number: 14.218 Assistance Listing Title: Community Development Block Grants Cluster - Entitlement/Special Purpose Federal Agency: U.S. Department of the Housing and Urban Development Pass-through Entity: County of Orange Community Resources Department Pass-through Identification Number: J2JWJVWQBEA6 Criteria or Specific Requirement (Including Statutory, Regulatory, or Other Citation): For federally funded programs, recipients are required to establish and maintain effective internal control over compliance in accordance with 2 CFR §200.303. These controls should provide reasonable assurance that federal awards are managed in compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and the provisions of contracts or grant agreements. Pursuant to 2 CFR §§200.403 through 200.405, costs charged to federal programs must be allowable, reasonable, necessary, and adequately documented. Recipients must maintain sufficient documentation to support the nature of expenditures, vendor selection, and cost reasonableness to ensure compliance with allowable cost principles. Additionally, pursuant to 2 CFR §200.318, non-Federal entities are required to use documented procurement procedures that reflect applicable federal, state, and local requirements. These procedures must ensure that procurement activities are conducted in a manner providing for full and open competition, use appropriate procurement methods, and include adequate documentation to support vendor selection and cost reasonableness. Recipients are responsible for ensuring that procurement activities performed by employees, consultants, or contractors on their behalf comply with these requirements. Failure to follow these procedures may result in costs that are not adequately supported as allowable under federal requirements. Further, pursuant to 24 CFR §570.506, when CDBG funds are used for rehabilitation activities, recipients must ensure that work is completed in accordance with applicable laws, codes, and requirements related to housing safety, quality, and habitability. This includes ensuring that required permits are obtained and inspections are performed in accordance with local building and safety requirements prior to and throughout construction activities. Condition: During our audit of the CDBG program, we identified the following deficiencies related to internal control and compliance over compliance requirements: Allowable Costs/Cost Principles: The City did not maintain sufficient documentation to support compliance with federal requirements related to CDBG-funded rehabilitation activities. Specifically, the City did not maintain adequate documentation to support vendor selection, cost reasonableness, or the basis for contractor procurement. In addition, the City did not maintain evidence demonstrating that procurement-related activities performed by a consultant on its behalf were conducted in accordance with established procedures. Special Tests and Provisions – Rehabilitation: During our testing of nine CDBG-funded rehabilitation projects, we noted that one project had a building permit on file that expired in 2008 and was not renewed prior to or during construction. Additionally, five projects had building permits that were issued after construction activities had already commenced, indicating that required permits were not obtained prior to the start of rehabilitation work. Cause: The City has not established and implemented effective internal controls and monitoring procedures over its CDBG program to ensure compliance with all federal requirements. Effect or Potential Effect: The City did not maintain sufficient documentation to support expenditures, limiting its ability to demonstrate that costs charged to the program are allowable, reasonable, and adequately supported in accordance with federal requirements. As a result, there is an increased risk that costs may be questioned or disallowed. Additionally, failure to obtain and maintain valid permits prior to construction increases the risk of noncompliance with rehabilitation requirements and may result in ineligible activities. Questioned Costs: None. Context: See condition above for the context of the finding. Recommendation: We recommend that the City strengthen its internal control system over the CDBG program by implementing and documenting formal policies and procedures to ensure compliance with federal requirements. This includes maintaining sufficient documentation to support vendor selection, cost reasonableness, and overall allowability of costs, as well as ensuring appropriate oversight of consultants performing activities on the City’s behalf. Additionally, the City should enhance its monitoring procedures over rehabilitation activities by maintaining sufficient documentation to support that work was performed in accordance with program requirements, including evidence of inspections and completion of approved work; permits or local approvals alone should not be relied upon as sole evidence of compliance. The City should provide training to staff involved in program administration and implement ongoing monitoring procedures to ensure compliance with federal requirements. Views of Responsible Officials: Management concurs with the finding and agrees to implement necessary corrective procedures.