Corrective Action Plans

Auditor’s Recommendations: We recommend the District establish a policy and implement procedures regarding large purchases related to Federal grants to insure that no vendors who are suspended, debarred, or otherwise excluded from participating in transactions funded through Federal grants are used. As identified above, there are several methods in which the District can verify vendors who are not suspended or debarred. The District may have the vendor provide an annual certification that is s not currently suspended, debarred, or otherwise prevented from receiving Federal dollars. In other occasions in which a single purchase is going to be made, the purchasing procedures should include looking up the vendor on the GSA website, printing a copy of the verification, and placing it in the file with the purchase order. The District has options, and it should establish what method is the least intrusive, but also effective, in complying with the requirements of the Uniform Grant Guidance. Responsible Official’s Plan: • Specific corrective action plan for funding: The procurement Officer of SJSWCD has updated the procurement process on 12/7/23 that all contractors who will be receiving Federal monies must provide an annual certification that they are not suspended, debarred, inactive, or otherwise excluded from participating in transaction funded through Federal grants. The policy change will be approved at the next board meeting. • Timeline for completion of corrective action plan: December 7, 2023 • Employee position(s) responsible for meeting the timeline: Oralia Bridge, District Manager

Suggested Actions: 2.1 Perform a review of Supplier Master Records for completeness. The validation of completeness will include but will not be limited to the initial suspension and debarment validation report on Supplier Master Record file, in accordance with CRS Supplier Master Record Management policies and procedures. Responsible Officials: Director of Global Procurement, DRD Operations, SCM RTAs, Head of Operations, Supply Chain Managers Completion Date: September 30th, 2024

Specific corrective action plan for finding: Christi Walter, Coordinator Purchasing Department along with the Dom Atcitty, Grants Specialist, will review vendors that are issued requisitions at each approval level to assist in catching $25K or more for Suspension and Debarment. A printed document from SAM.GOV verifying eligibility to Requisitions over $25K should be attached. At the initial setup of new vendors, the Purchasing Department will review vendors in SAM.GOV. A printed document from SAM.GOV verifying eligibility of vendor will be attached to the vendor file. Timeline for completion of corrective action plan: July 1, 2023 Employee position(s) responsible for meeting the timeline: Dom Atcitty, Grants Specialists; Christi Walter, CPO; Lisa Smith, Purchasing Specialist; Bellamie DeHerrera-Presley, Federal Grants Coordinator and Erica Benally, Federal Grants Specialist

To mitigate this issue in the future, County Counsel reminded departments of the importance of understanding the requirements tied to the source being used to procure goods and services and to notify Counsel when federal monies are being used. Furthermore, County Counsel will include the suspension and debarment clause in the County’s standard contract templates, and the County Purchasing Policy (4-03) will be updated to reflect the importance of complying with requirements tied to a specific funding source. Lastly, County Counsel and Internal Audit will develop and provide training to departments. Antipcated Completion Date: 04/01/2024. Responsible Contact Person: Peter Philbrick

The County does check Sam.gov for suspension and debarment transactions. Documentation was retained but was lost due to a network intrusion. We will remain diligent in documenting our reviews.

Views of the Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions: The Business Administrator will work closely with the new Food Service Director to verify and record any company/vendor that is paid with Federal money.

The District will monitor vendors to ensure they are able to accept federal monies. By Ashley Simmons, Accounts Payable clerk by 6/30/2024.

U.S. Agency for International Development 2023-001 Collaboration for African Biodiversity (ABCG III) – Assistance Listing no. 98.001 Recommendation: Management should ensure retention of evidence to include dates of when suspension and debarment verifications are performed. Views of responsible officials: AWF management agrees with the finding and recommendation set forth and has developed a corrective action plan. The procurement and contracts manager is now ensuring that AWF captures the date when taking a screenshot from the OFCCP Debarred Companies list when conducting background checks on vendors so as to document that the search has been performed prior to entering into a contract with the vendor.

For the Special Aid and Food Service Funds, the System for Award Management will be checked in the fall and spring for the debarment of any vendors that we expect to pay over $25,000 for the fiscal year. Summary spreadsheets will be provided to the Auditors.

Action taken: The district entered into a shared services agreement with Capital Region BOCES in March of 2022 for management of the School Nutrition program. It was assumed that this was a procedure they followed; however, documentation was not provided and the external auditors inciuded it as a finding. The School Nutrition Director resigned and was replaced by a new School Nutrition Director with BOCES (Greg Nalewjka) and he was unaware that this was necessary. He is working with his supervisors to provide documentation to the district that due diligence has been done to meet this requirement. Anticipated completion date: 11/10/2023

CORRECTIVE ACTION PLAN October 2023 Section III: Federal Award Findings and Questioned Costs Findings and questioned costs related to Federal awards which are required to be reported in accordance with the Uniform Guidance 2 CFR 200.516(a): Significant Deficiency 2023-001 Child Nutrition Cluster - Procurement Views of the Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions: The District has reviewed the requirements of 2 CFR Section 200.213. The District is in agreement with the recommendation to implement a procedure to document the process used to verify the eligibility of potential vendors to participate in Federal assistance programs. The verification of excluded parties will be accomplished by accessing the System for Award Management (SAM.gov) website and selecting the “Excluded Entity” filter on the “Exclusions” search page to search for exclusions by Unique Entity ID or CAGE/NCAGE code as follows: 1. Select “Search” from the header menu from any page on SAM.gov 2. In the filters, under “Select Domain”, select “Entity Information”, then select Exclusions 3. Use the filters or keyword box to enter the search criteria and view the results 4. Document the results in the vendor file. Other alternatives for verification may include collecting a certification from the entity or adding a clause or condition to the covered transaction or contract with that entity. The Purchasing Agent is charged with the responsibility of monitoring and ensuring compliance with the suspension and debarment procedures and maintaining documentation that contracts expected to equal or exceed $25,000 have been verified on the System for Award Management (SAM) website before purchases are made. Responsible Person(s): Matt Leon, Assistant Superintendent for Business & Operations and Michael DeSantis, Purchasing Agent Deadline for Completion: On or before 12/1/23 for covered transactions with contracts or purchase orders meeting the threshold during the time period 7/1/22 - 10/31/23. Prior to contract approval or purchase order issuance for contracts or purchase orders meeting the threshold on or after 11/1/23.

Material Weakness in Internal Control Over Compliance (Federal Award Program) The City will develop and implement formal written procedures for the management of Federal award expenditures and procurement activities. All fund transfers will require documented approval by authorized personnel. Procurement processes will include verification of vendor eligibility, compliance with bid law, and retention of supporting documentation. Staff will be trained on federal compliance requirements. Responsible Party: Robert Nielson, Temporary Fiscal Administrator Timeline: December 31, 2025

2022 – 004: Procurement and Suspension and Debarment (Compliance; Internal Controls Over Compliance) Material Weakness – 93.U01 Title V Condition: The Organization was unable to provide sufficient documentation to support compliance with federal procurement and suspension and debarment requirements for purchases made under the Title V program. The general ledger did not allow for sufficient identification of transactions related to the Title V program as all expenditures were recorded through journal entries without supporting transaction-level detail. Due to this limitation, we were unable to select procurement transactions for testing or verify whether vendors had been screened for suspension and debarment before contracts were awarded. Corrective Action Plan: As of October 1, 2024, the start of FY25 QuickBooks has been the only software uused,and Revenue and Disbursements are being classed by Fund. General ledgers are reconciled monthly. The following are updated procedures that are now in place. All purchases must come with a purchase order request and be signed by the supervisor prior to purchase. All purchases over $1000 must be CEO approved too. All purchases over $5000 must have 3 bids and be Board approved. All purchase orders must be completed completely in all fields to know what grant/funding source is covering the cost for draw downs. Anyone who uses the SDUIH credit cards must sign a credit card statement

Significant Deficiency in Internal Control over Compliance, Other Matters Description of Finding The Town does not have policies and procedures in place to ensure that they do not contract with or make subawards to parties that are suspended or debarred. Statement of Concurrence or Nonconcurrence Management concurs with the finding. Corrective Action The Town will review the district’s suspension and debarment policy and make sure that it is following the criteria as set out in the 2 CFR sections 200.213. The policy will then be updated and communicated to all personnel involved in the procurement process. Name of Contact Person Robert J. Civetti, CPA, Finance Director Projected Completion Date June 30, 2025

The County will implement a new policy to verify vendors are not suspended or debarred.

2022-001 Special Education Cluster - Assistance Listing Numbers 84.027, 84.173 Recommendation: We recommend procedures be implemented to document the verification that all vendors are not suspended or debarred from participation in Federal assistance programs or activities. Explanation of disagreement with audit finding: There is no disagreement with the audit finding. Action taken in response to finding: Framingham Public Schools (FPS) contract procurement is handled by the Purchasing Department in the City of Framingham. FPS Executive Director of Finance and Operations, Lincoln Lynch IV, notified the Chief Procurement Officer, Jennifer Pratt, and City Framingham legal counsel, Christopher L. Brown of Petrini & Associates, P.C, of this finding and requested that 1) debarment and suspension procedures be included in the City of Framingham Procurement manual and 2) City of Framingham Supplemental Conditions be included in any City of Framingham contract where there is partial or whole federal funding (there is no dollar threshold). Name(s) of the contact person(s) responsible for corrective action: Jennifer Pratt - Chief Procurement Officer City of Framingham and Lincoln Lynch, IV - Executive Director of Finance and Operations Framingham Public Schools Planned completion date for corrective action plan: In progress

Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions: Due diligence practices have been improved within Astraea since FY2022 as team members with relevant experience and technical skills have been brought on to reform and implement our screening and documentation processes. First, the Awards Management team has been strengthened and expanded. In 2023, the Awards Management team instituted policies for screening of all awards (grants, sub-grants, contracts), and all relevant staff members were trained on the new award policies. It is important to note that Astraea consistently sought approval from its AOR for grants and subgrants prior to putting internal infrastructure in place to ensure that these screenings are performed. As noted above, Astraea updated its procurement policies in FY2022 to require documented screening for all vendors, suppliers, and contractors. All staff members are regularly trained on best practices to undertake and document these screenings- most recently in FY2024. Potential Astraea employees are subject to rigorous background checks as part of the hiring processes. The Finance, Operations, and Program teams have developed internal processes to ensure that all procurement flows through the organization are documented and in compliance with CFR200. Team members responsible for contracting in all areas of Astraea’s work stream will undergo regular training to ensure that screenings are done promptly and effectively, with clear documentation of such screenings. Anticipated Completion Date: June 30, 2024 Responsible Officials: Associate Director, Grants Management and Compliance; Director of Program Operations, Executive Director

Managers will be informed of the federal suspension and debarment policy and encouraged to hold operations staff accountable to implementing the policy more consistently.

2022-002: DOCUMENTATION OF PROCUREMENT, SUSPENSION, AND DEBARMENT PROCEDURES (CODE 50000) Name of contact person: Beth Anderson Corrective Action: The district has a procurement policy with sample forms. The district will use the forms to document review of multiple vendor quotes and to document verification that vendors have not been suspended or disbarred for all federal programs/funding. Proposed Completion Date: Ongoing

Vendor?s eligibility was reviewed but not formally documented. A spreadsheet will be documented when vendor?s eligibility are reviewed. Babette L. Donlon District Treasurer 1/23

Akron Children?s will implement a periodic independent review of a sample of vendors sent to the third-party vendor to ensure that the processes employed by third-party vendor are accurate. Akron Children?s will also develop a retention process for all vendor searches and file submissions to evidence compliance with the Federal regulations.

Finding Reference Number; 2022-002 Federal Agency:Department of Agriculture (USDA) Description of Findi ng: Criteria: : 2 CFR Section 200.318 stipulates that a non-Federal entity must use its own documented procurement procedures which reflect applicable state, local, and tribal Jaws and regulations, provided that the procurements conform to applicable Federal law and the standards identified in Part 200 Subpart D. Additional ly, 2 CFR Section 200.213 stipulates that no awards, subawards, or contracts be awarded to parties that are debarred, suspended, or otherwise excluded from or inel igible for partici pation in Federal assistance programs or activities. Condition: During audit testing performed by Mengel, Metzger, Barr & Co, LLP, they noted the following: - The contractors util ized by the Food Bank in 2022 were not properly checked for compl iance requirements regarding debarment. They did not have a control in place to ensure the contractors used for their covered transactions were not made with a debarred or suspended party . Statement of Concurrence or Nonconcurrence: The Food Bank agrees with this findi ng. Corrective Action : The Food Bank has implemented procedures to ensure all contracted vendors are vetted to ensure they are not on the federal exclusion list. All contractors used in 2022 have been checked and are not on the list. Name of Contact Person: Renee Law, Chief Financial Officer; phone number 518-786-3691 ext 226; email ReneeL@Regionalfoodbank.net. Projected Completion Date: May 31, 2023

U.S. Department of Education 2022-001 Education Stabilization Fund- Procurement, Suspension & Debarment Assistance Listing No. 84.425F Recommendation: We recommend the College establish policies and procedures to properly identify procured transactions and maintain documentation to support performance of the procurement procedures. We also recommend the College evaluate its policies procedures to ensure that suspension and debarment requirements are being met prior to entering into transactions with vendors. Explanation of disagreement with audit finding: There is no disagreement with the audit finding. Action taken in response to finding: Training related to federal spending guidelines will be given to any staff or faculty who are responsible for spending new federal money. Name(s) of the contact person(s) responsible for corrective action: Teri Simmons Planned completion date for corrective action plan: April 2023

The County does check Sam.gov for suspension and debarment transactions. We will be more diligent in documenting our reviews. The three companies referred to in this finding have been doing business with the County for years and are local.

Views of Responsible Officials: Management will update its policy to indicate when suspension and debarment checks are conducted and when a self-certification will be sufficient. The policy will also include thresholds.