We agree with the recommendation and understand the required compliance responsibility to provide audited financial statements and major Federal program compliance reporting timely each fiscal year, in accordance with the Federal Single Audit Act. Because of past misunderstandings and incorrect assu...
We agree with the recommendation and understand the required compliance responsibility to provide audited financial statements and major Federal program compliance reporting timely each fiscal year, in accordance with the Federal Single Audit Act. Because of past misunderstandings and incorrect assumptions about major Federal program compliance requirements for fiscal 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023, management failed to provide for timely audits. One critical assumption was that the Organization’s subrecipient, responsible for over ninety percent (90%) of grant distributions, fulfilled the audit requirement for the required Federal grant reporting under the Single Audit Act. However, upon recognizing this error, the Organization promptly engaged for the financial statement and major Federal program compliance audits spanning multiple years including up to last fiscal year and is on track to provide for timely filing with the current year. With this understanding and the expectation of financial statement and major Federal program compliance audits, the Organization replaced its contracted accountants by hiring its first Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in January of 2021 and a number of additional support accountants beginning in November of 2021 through January of 2024. Upon hire, and with the growth of the programming, the CFO and the accounting team focused extensively on enhancing the Organization’s financial reporting framework and data management systems to ensure continued compliance with federal and state guidelines and reporting requirements. This effort has been crucial in expediting the more recent audits and improving overall efficiencies in the day-to-day and monthly financial reporting and budgeting requirements. Further, the Organization must acknowledge the challenges posed by the transition of multiple Chief Executive Officers in a 2-year period as well as the impact of the pandemic on operations and reporting. These two factors affected operations and time lines as well as access to data files as many were in paper form. While the timeliness of reporting has improved significantly, some delays remain as a result of the historical backlog. However, the Organization is on track to achieve timely reporting for fiscal 2025. We affirm that timely external financial reporting is a critical internal control feature to support effective Board and management oversight, as well as to meet the accountability requirements of various grants and contracts. Despite the aforementioned difficulties, management’s commitment to timely financial reporting and program compliance remains steadfast and are working diligently to get its timing back on track going forward.