Corrective Action Plans

VIDE acknowledges the audit findings regarding the Special Education Cluster payroll discrepancies and the unreported fraud incident and concurs with the recommendation. VIDE is taking immediate action to align payroll controls with the established fiscal improvement plan and to institutionalize a mandatory federal reporting protocol for fraud. To address the pay rate discrepancies between NOPAs and the payroll register, the Budget Team and the Deputy Commissioner of Fiscal and Administrative Services will review and approve every personnel action in the ERP prior to the NOPA being executed. This review matches the action against the approved grant application or staffing list to ensure the pay rate is accurate before the payroll cycle begins. To address fraud reporting, VIDE will implement a Federal Mandatory Disclosure Policy in strict accordance with 2 CFR §200.113 that designates the Office of the Commissioner and the Internal Audit Division as the responsible parties for reporting any credible evidence of fraud, bribery, or gratuity violations to the Federal awarding agency and the OIG. Accordingly, the specific incident cited in the finding regarding the $5,221 theft related to bus driver timesheets will be immediately reported to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General via the online hotline and formal written correspondence to cure the non-compliance. Furthermore, to prevent recurrence of the specific falsified timesheet scheme, VIDE will implement a Service Verification Log for bus drivers and similar service staff wherein supervisors will be required to cross-reference timesheets against daily trip logs or service logs before approving time in the payroll system. Finally, to ensure ongoing compliance, the Office of Fiscal and Administrative Services will conduct monthly spot checks of ERP logs to ensure pre-execution reviews are occurring, and the Internal Audit Division will maintain a log of all investigations to verify that a Notification of Federal Disclosure is attached to any file involving federal funds.

With the support of a new leadership team, Jefferson Parish is committed to strengthening oversight and monitoring federal grants financial and compliance activities. To enhance reliability, the Parish has engaged Deloitte & Touche LLP as a consultant to assist with improving documentation procedures and strengthen internal controls supporting financial and compliance activities going forward. As part of this effort Jefferson Parish and Deloitte are working across Finance, Accounting, and programmatic departments to establish improved federal grants governance and policy. This includes quarterly oversight and review processes and procedures to monitor the use of federal funds and confirm that compliance activities are occurring. This also includes improved preventative controls to require the performance of due diligence activities for each federal fund sub-recipient or individuals receiving federal assistance prior to the awarding or disbursement of federal funds. The Parish will also develop a policy and communicate annually to all departments the requirements to report to the appropriate authorities, including the Louisiana Legislative Auditor's Office and the Jefferson Parish District Attorney's Office. Community Development Director Stephanie Brumfield, Interim Finance Director Victor LaRocca and Risk Management Director Maria Leon will develop and communicate the policy for reporting fraud which should be enacted by January of 2026.

Year Ended December 31, 2022 Contact – Randy Willard, New Director of Finance Telephone Number – (410)-733-9113 Completion Date – First Quarter of 2024 Information on Federal Program(s) U.S. Department of State Name of Program: Program to End Modern Slavery Assistance Listing Number: 19.019 Grant Award Number: S-SJTIP-17-CA-1018/S-SJTIP-18-CA-1014/ S-SJTIP-18-CA-3035 Grant Award Period: October 1, 2017 to June 30, 2022, October 1, 2018 to December 31, 2022, October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2024 Management’s Corrective Action Plan: The financial impropriety was within a subrecipient organization that affected numerous projects/donor funding and not only the PEMS2 funds. GFEMS completed the necessary reporting to the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of State. There were no costs or loss sustained from the incident because GFEMS subtracted the misappropriated amount, $4,979.75, from the final disbursement to the subrecipient. GFEMS will continue to apply its existing due diligence and subgrantee monitoring procedures to minimize risk of fraud and non-compliance of subgrants awarded. This will include review of subgrantees policies, procedures, vouchers, receipts, and audit reports as well as desk and site visit financial monitoring, as appropriate.