CAP for Finding: 2022-304 DATE: March 23, 2023 TO: Carolyn Stittleburg, Deputy State Auditor Legislative Audit Bureau FROM: Barry Kasten, Director Bureau of Fiscal Services Department of Health Services SUBJECT: Corrective Action Plan ? Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds ? Monitoring ...
CAP for Finding: 2022-304 DATE: March 23, 2023 TO: Carolyn Stittleburg, Deputy State Auditor Legislative Audit Bureau FROM: Barry Kasten, Director Bureau of Fiscal Services Department of Health Services SUBJECT: Corrective Action Plan ? Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds ? Monitoring of Local and Tribal Health Department Response and Recovery Support Program Expenditures Department staff has reviewed the Legislative Audit Bureau?s (LAB) interim audit memo for Finding 2022-304: Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds ? Monitoring of Local and Tribal Health Department Response and Recovery Support Program Expenditures. This is the department?s Corrective Action Plan. ? Recommendation (2022-304): Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds ? Monitoring of Local and Tribal Health Department Response and Recovery Support Program Expenditures We recommend the Wisconsin Department of Health Services: ? Develop and implement written policies and procedures for the review and tracking of the quarterly reports used to monitor expenditures under the Local and Tribal Health Department Response and Recovery Support program. Wisconsin Department of Health Services Planned Corrective Action: As beneficiaries, the Treasury Guidance indicates that Local and Tribal Health Departments are not subject to subrecipient monitoring and reporting requirements. The designation of beneficiary is unique to the CSLFRF and thus is not as familiar to DHS as the subrecipient designation and subsequent reporting requirements. The uncertainty surrounding this designation resulted in DPH not following the best practices described in the DPH Contract Management Manual. DPH?s Contract Management Manual outlines requirements and best practices for contract management. This Manual describes how to best review and track expenditures to monitor expenditures. The Manual encourages the best practice of requesting enhanced expenditure reporting from agencies, in addition to the reporting required for CARS payments. The Manual describes the role of the contract administrator in reviewing the expenditure information against the approved budget to ensure expenses are reasonable and allowable. The Manual also suggests maintaining copies of submitted reports and verifying the amounts in the submitted reports correspond to CARS reports. Examples of expenditure tracking are provided as is a description of how this tracking and other fiscal monitoring supports bureaus within DPH and DHS. DHS will review the existing policies and procedures in the Contract Management Manual to ensure that the level of detail is sufficient to prevent further non-compliance. We recommend the Wisconsin Department of Health Services: ? Maintain the quarterly reports, document its review of the quarterly reports, and document its correspondence with the public health departments regarding resolution of reporting variances. Wisconsin Department of Health Services Planned Corrective Action: DPH hired a position in June 2022 to manage and track expenditures and reporting for its Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds granted to locals and tribal public health departments. DPH will continue to review, track, and maintain quarterly reports, and document correspondence with the local and tribal public health departments per best practices in the DPH Contract Management Manual. We recommend the Wisconsin Department of Health Services: ? Review the contracts with the public health departments and determine whether any revisions are needed to clarify expectations for documentation and timeliness of filing the quarterlyreports; and Wisconsin Department of Health Services Planned Corrective Action: DPH will review its contracts with the local and tribal public health departments and ensure timely filing of quarterly reports. Specific areas of non-compliance have been identified and division staff will review and draft updated scope of work language to mitigate delays in reporting from our local partners. We recommend the Wisconsin Department of Health Services: ? Ensure it obtains quarterly reports to support the payments it made to the City of Milwaukee Public Health Department. Wisconsin Department of Health Services Planned Corrective Action: DPH has now obtained quarterly reports from the City of Milwaukee Public Health Department and is in the process of reviewing them. Division staff will work with the City of Milwaukee Health Department to ensure future compliance. Anticipated Completion Date: June 30, 2023 Person responsible for corrective action: Karen Drogsvold, Budget Section Manager Division of Public Health, Bureau of Operations karen.drogsvold@dhs.wisconsin.gov