Finding 2025-001 – Internal control deficiency over Activities Allowed or Unallowed, Allowable Costs/Cost Principles, Period of Performance, Reporting, and Special Tests and Provisions. Condition: Management did not design effective internal controls to retain documentation to evidence the operating...
Finding 2025-001 – Internal control deficiency over Activities Allowed or Unallowed, Allowable Costs/Cost Principles, Period of Performance, Reporting, and Special Tests and Provisions. Condition: Management did not design effective internal controls to retain documentation to evidence the operating effectiveness of the internal controls over the project and related expenses submitted to FEMA for reimbursement. Resolution: Management will develop and implement additional internal controls to ensure that adequate documentation is retained to evidence the design and operating effectiveness of controls over FEMA-related expenditures. These internal controls will be designed to ensure that expenses included in FEMA grant applications are complete, accurate, and allowable in accordance with program requirements. Specifically, management will implement a reconciliation process comparing detailed application expenses to the corresponding final paid invoices or payroll expenditures. As part of this process, each expense will be reviewed and annotated to confirm its allowability under FEMA guidelines. The reconciliation will be subject to review and approval by the Cottage Health Vice President of Finance prior to submission of the FEMA application. Evidence of this review and approval will be formally documented and retained. Contact Person: Lawrence Thomas, Vice President of Finance Anticipated Completion Date: December 31, 2026 (The entity has not incurred expenditures under the FEMA program subsequent to the period under audit. Accordingly, the corrective actions described above will be implemented on a prospective basis, contingent upon the entity incurring future FEMA-related expenditures).