Quarterly Reporting The State concurs in part with the condition and recommendation. A unique challenge with ERA reporting has been changes in the U.S. Treasury portal for that program, which have impacted the State?s ability to download and provide copies of past reports that have been submitted. I...
Quarterly Reporting The State concurs in part with the condition and recommendation. A unique challenge with ERA reporting has been changes in the U.S. Treasury portal for that program, which have impacted the State?s ability to download and provide copies of past reports that have been submitted. In addition, this issue in the reporting portal has been inconsistent, as some previously submitted reports were made accessible by Treasury, while others were not, which resulted in the State being able to access some requisite materials but not others. The State did not have documented procedures to ?pull down? copies of reports it had submitted to Treasury because the State has otherwise been able to rely on access to its previously submitted reports within reporting portals in order to enable the testing required during audit for the relevant periods. Meaning, in the State?s experience with COVID-19 related federal funds reporting, it has been able to access and download past reports for purposes of audit. However, also noted above is that the Treasury portal was recently revised and updated to allow for accessing previously submitted ERA reports that were not otherwise available (the communication from Treasury acknowledging this change was provided by the State). However, the reporting portal change did not take place in time for the State?s auditors to reasonably conduct the necessary testing. The State did provide the data and materials it reported to Treasury for the relevant periods, but auditors were unable to test and validate that data because the State could not access and provide a copy of what was actually uploaded into the portal. Nevertheless, to avoid any such potential issues in the future, the State has already implemented a procedure that involves downloading copies of reports as soon as they are submitted and taking screenshots of portions of the portal where perceived necessary to support what the State has submitted to Treasury. This updated procedure will be memorialized in the program?s transaction processing memo during its next update. Monthly Reporting The State concurs in part but has already implemented related corrective action in line with the recommendation above. The State would also like to note that as part of the ERA reallocation process U.S. Treasury has relied on both quarterly and monthly reporting, and that the State has continued to engage in thorough monitoring of its subrecipient and receives regular reports from that subrecipient, including weekly, biweekly, and quarterly data, which also includes quality control reports. This is inclusive of the monthly reports that were required by U.S. Treasury at one time but no longer are. The State reviews and then discusses reports received at standing, calendared, weekly meetings with the subrecipient and often engages in e-mail correspondence concerning those reports, especially if any questions concerning the data provided arise. However, the State has acknowledged that its documentation of those weekly conversations needed to be more formally memorialized. During the current fiscal year, the State began providing agendas and summaries of topics discussed during the weekly check-ins and will ensure that the program?s transaction processing memo adequately documents this requirement and procedure. The very nature of this program and U.S. Treasury?s facilitation of it has required the State and its subrecipient to stay in close contact, make regular decisions on strategies and policies within the program, and closely consider data relative to it. Anticipated Completion Date Quarterly reporting - Corrective action relative to acquisition of submitted federal reports has already been implemented and this revised procedure will be memorialized in the transaction processing memo for the program during its next update in Q1 2023. Monthly Repotting - Corrective action relative to documentation of weekly meetings was already complete as of the State?s response to this finding, and the State will ensure that the transaction processing memo for the program reflects these measures during its next update in Q1 2023. Contact Person Chase Hagaman, Lisa Cota-Robles, and Emily Larson