Dear Mr. Waguespack,
Please accept this letter as the Louisiana Department of Education's (LDOE) official response to the draft finding submitted by your office of the financial audit for the LDOE for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023. A review of the audit finding has been conducted, and we con...
Dear Mr. Waguespack,
Please accept this letter as the Louisiana Department of Education's (LDOE) official response to the draft finding submitted by your office of the financial audit for the LDOE for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023. A review of the audit finding has been conducted, and we concur with the finding.
Recommendation:
While there was significant improvement in reporting for ESF, LDOE should continue to strengthen internal controls to ensure accurate information is reported and should correct all amounts and obligation dates that were previously reported incorrectly.
LDOE Response:
LDOE has prioritized addressing the implementation of procedures and internal controls to comply with the requirements of FFATA. As noted in the recommendation, the agency has made significant improvements with the corrective actions taken during the 2022-2023 year in regard to the internal FFATA data reporting process. To remedy the issues identified previously, LDOE hired and trained a full-time staff person in October 2022 to be responsible for the accuracy and timeliness of reporting FFATA fiscal data. In addition, LDOE developed a FFATA reporting tracker to strengthen internal controls, which has aided in improving the agency’s ability to ensure the reporting of accurate and timely data to the FFATA Subaward Reporting System (FSRS). All of these measures were in place for the FY23 FFATA reporting timelines noting that the LDOE had committed to a deadline of September 2023 to correct all prior year findings, and the LDOE met this timeline. LDOE now has the FFATA reporting infrastructure in place to ensure reports are successfully submitted accurately and timely to FSRS for the Education Stabilization Fund (ESF) and ESEA. During the current audit, it was determined that the FY2021 and FY2022 FFATA prior year findings across the majority of programs were cleared.
Because of LDOE’s commitment to accurate and timely data reporting, the LDOE staff conducted its own review of fiscal data submitted to comply with FFATA. During this review, the LDOE staff identified a discrepancy in the report that is generated by an internal system used for the FFATA reporting for the Child Nutrition Cluster (CNC) and the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). It was determined that the report had been programmed in 2011 to pull cumulative totals versus monthly totals each month. Therefore, this system’s incorrect reporting had gone unnoticed by LDOE and the USDA for over a decade. This data reporting error resulted in an over-reporting of the total awards for CNC and CACFP since the creation and implementation of FFATA reporting.
LDOE had received no guidance from the awarding agency regarding the FFATA reporting until contacting them recently for advice on this matter.
LDOE notified the Legislative Auditors of this internal control issue during the onset of the FFATA CNC portion of the audit. The LLA has since noted this inaccuracy as a finding. Since identifying this discrepancy, LDOE has taken initiative to resolve this issue by contacting the system developer to change the generated report, contacting the awarding agency (USDA) for clarification surrounding the CNC and CACFP FFATA reporting requirements, and submitting a helpdesk ticket in the FSRS to correct the FY2023 reported amounts.
During the FY23 audit of the ESF Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief program funded by the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriation Act and the American Rescue Plan Act, a test of 474 subawards totaling $293,847,931 related to 20 subwardees showed that LDOE reported the incorrect obligation date in the FSRS for 47 subawards totaling $967,987. This one issue represents an error rate of only .3%. Although the program fiscal data was accurate, the timeliness of when it was reported could have been slightly better. This immaterial issue will be resolved with increased staff training and enhancement of verification routines.
LDOE has taken the requirement to submit reports accurately and timely very seriously and continues to dedicate extra time and resources to ensure all data reporting is accurate. If you have any questions, you may contact Keisha Payton by telephone at 225-219-4426 or via email at keisha.payton@la.gov.