RIDOH agrees with the finding and recommendations and will develop and implement enhanced internal controls over Uniform Grant Spreadsheets (UGSs) to assure that all indirect cost billings and drawdowns of federal funds are appropriate and accurate. The UGS internal controls will include (but are n...
RIDOH agrees with the finding and recommendations and will develop and implement enhanced internal controls over Uniform Grant Spreadsheets (UGSs) to assure that all indirect cost billings and drawdowns of federal funds are appropriate and accurate. The UGS internal controls will include (but are not limited to):
• Mandatory refresher training for all staff that complete and/or review UGSs, with focus on areas of potential errors and correct entry of UGS data in the Monthly Federal Grants Tracking spreadsheet used for drawdowns and indirect billing.
• Providing a crosswalk of expenditure categories and natural accounts to grants management staff to assure appropriate and consistent assignment of transactions to categories subject to/not subject to indirect costs.
• A rotating schedule of monthly in-depth reviews of UGSs to assure that data entry aligns with RIFANS transaction reports, transactions are recorded so natural accounts align with correct expenditure categories, the appropriate indirect cost rate is entered, and formulas for computation of indirect costs are not corrupted. Reviews will be conducted by supervisors of staff completing UGSs, and results will be reported to the Deputy CFO/Federal Grants Manager.
• Review of the Monthly Federal Grants Tracking spreadsheets each month before indirect cost billing and federal drawdowns are completed, to assure that expenditures reported align with RIFANS reports and indirect billings and drawdown requests are appropriate.
RIDOH credited the ELC Enhancing Detection federal award for the unallowable indirect costs on 3/14/2025 (J25075GMC530). The credit was calculated using RIFANS transaction data from 7/1/2020 through 3/13/2025, not from the UGSs. The UGSs for this award and others are being re-built from the start of the award using RIFANS data in new, less complicated templates to assure correct charging and reporting going forward.
Anticipated Completion Date: July 31, 2025
Contact Persons: Alisha Colella, Chief Financial Officer, Department of Health
alisha.colella@health.ri.gov
Carla Lundquist, Deputy CFO / Federal Grants Manager, Department of Health
carla.lundquist@health.ri.gov