Dear Mr. Waguespack:
The Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) acknowledges receipt of correspondence from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor (LLA) dated February 3, 2025 regarding a reportable audit finding related to the Office of Public Health (OPH) – Inadequate Controls over and Noncompliance wit...
Dear Mr. Waguespack:
The Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) acknowledges receipt of correspondence from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor (LLA) dated February 3, 2025 regarding a reportable audit finding related to the Office of Public Health (OPH) – Inadequate Controls over and Noncompliance with Federal Financial Reporting. LDH appreciates the opportunity to provide this response to your office’s findings.
Finding: Inadequate Controls over and Noncompliance with Federal Financial Reporting
Recommendation: OPH should design and implement controls to ensure all information contained in the financial reports submitted to Federal agencies is accurate, current, and complete for the reporting period covered under the report.
LDH Response: LDH Fiscal Management recognizes its responsibility to accurately report financial data, however, LDH Fiscal Management does not concur with the finding of Inadequate Controls over and Noncompliance with Federal Financial Reporting (FFR) due to immateriality of the questioned expenses. The expenses in question reported on the Federal Financial Report were eligible grant expenses for this award. LDH Fiscal understood the expenses in question to be related to the same award that was ending 6/30/24, but received a No Cost Extension through 12/31/2024. After consulting with the grantor on this matter, the grantor conveyed that reporting these eligible expenditures earlier than the No Cost Extension date was not a material concern and would not require a revised FFR for this period, as the main concern is that they were eligible expenses and would be included in the final FFR. Total expenses in question ($142,568) represent approximately .3% of the cumulative expenses reported on the Federal Financial Report ($42M) as of 06/30/2024; therefore, the stance of LDH is the amount in question is immaterial and does not misstate the Federal Financial Report.
Corrective Action Plan: Procedures and internal training currently exist for fiscal team members on completing Federal Financial Reports. A corrective action plan to reiterate and reinforce the understanding of various reporting periods to include No Cost Extension and liquidation periods to the preparers and reviewers of the FFR’s to mitigate this occurrence was implemented immediately.
Quintesah Syas, Accountant Manager 4/Comptroller within the LDH Fiscal Office for Office of Public Health Financial Reporting and Helen Harris, Deputy Undersecretary 2/LDH Fiscal Director are responsible for the execution and implementation of this corrective action and may be contacted with any questions about this matter.
You may contact Quintesah Syas Accountant Manager 4/Comptroller, within the LDH Fiscal Office for Office of Public Health Financial Reporting at (225) 342-9333 or via email at Quintesah.Syas@la.gov, or Helen Harris), Deputy Undersecretary 2/LDH Fiscal Director at (225) 342-9568 or via email at Helen.Harris@la.gov with any questions about this matter.