Audit 409897

U.S. Department of the Treasury COVID-19 Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, Award Year: 2022 Assistance Listing Number: 21.027 Criteria or Specific Requirement - Reporting In accordance with the award requirements and 2 CFR 200.328(c), recipients are required to submit accurate, complete, and timely performance reports. Additionally, 2 CFR 200.303 requires the County to establish and maintain effective internal control over Federal awards, including controls designed to ensure reports are complete, accurate, and submitted by required deadlines. Condition: The County did not submit the required annual performance report by the established deadline of April 30, 2024. The report was submitted on May 6, 2024. In addition, the report understated expenditures by $29,721 due to certain eligible expenditures being omitted from the report. Cause: Controls designed to ensure performance reports were reviewed for accuracy and reconciled to supporting accounting records prior to submission did not operate effectively. In addition, controls over monitoring reporting deadlines did not operate effectively. Effect or Potential Effect: As a result, the annual performance report was not submitted timely and did not accurately report program expenditures. Federal awarding agencies may rely on information contained in performance reports to monitor grant activity and program performance. Questioned Costs: None Context: The County was required to submit one annual performance report during the audit period. The report tested was submitted after the required deadline and understated program expenditures by $29,721. Identification of Prior Year Finding: N/A Recommendation: The County should strengthen internal controls over Federal reporting to ensure required reports are submitted timely and that information reported to the Federal awarding agency is complete and accurate. Such controls should include monitoring submission deadlines, reconciling reported amounts to supporting accounting records, and documenting a review of reports prior to submission. Views of Responsible Official and Planned Corrective Action: We will build a SEFA plan as well as establish a standard work for how federal grants should be handled when setting up accounts in our ERP system. This will help ensure the Auditor’s Office has proper tracking of federal funds and their guidelines.