agreement. View of Responsible Officials A. We concur with this finding. The Department utilized an internally available copy of the Management Log, which lists vendor?s determinations. This is a copy of the log, not the original, official copy. There is a delay in updating this copy from the o...
agreement. View of Responsible Officials A. We concur with this finding. The Department utilized an internally available copy of the Management Log, which lists vendor?s determinations. This is a copy of the log, not the original, official copy. There is a delay in updating this copy from the original, and incorrect information had been initially entered. The Department is moving this log to software which allows all Department employees to view the same log, while limiting the number of individuals who have access to make changes. Implementation has been completed as of March 2023. B. We concur with this finding. However, we believe this was an isolated incident as the TANF CFDA number (93.558) used was very similar to correct CFDA number (93.778) that should have been documented. C. 200.332 requirements a. We do not concur with this finding. The contract for Mt Prospect became effective 8/4/21, prior to the 4/22 inception of the UEI. The DUNS number, as in effect at that time, is noticed in Exhibit J of the contract. b. We concur with three of the four findings. Two of the four contracts pre-date the template update requiring the notice an indirect cost rate. Indirect cost rate for federal awards (including if the de minimis rate is charged per 2 CFR section 200.414) were added to Exhibit C of the Department?s contracts in April 2020. One of the contracts did not indicate an indirect cost rate as required. One of the contracts notes the indirect cost rate in the Notes of their financial details. c. One of the two contracts pre-dates the template update requiring the notice the identification of R&D. R&D identifications for federal awards were added to Exhibit C of the Department?s contracts in April 2020 One of the two contracts did not identify whether the contract was R&D as required. D. Subrecipient Risk Assessment ? We concur with the finding. We consider the finding to be fully resolved through Department policy Department policy and Department wide implementation. However, it should be noted full compliance will not be achieved for one to two contact cycles due to timing. The Department began addressing the issue of Subrecipient Monitoring issue in June 2017 when the first Grants Administrator was hired. The Department finalized the Subrecipient Monitoring Policy, which encompasses the financial and programmatic risk assessments as well as the subrecipient monitoring, on June 1, 2018. The Department provided user training on the subject in February and September 2018, training over one hundred forty-six staff. However, only brand new procurements utilized this policy during the initial roll out of this policy. The Department hired a new Grants Administrator in May 2019. The full Subrecipient Monitoring policy rolled out to all procurements, including sole source, amendments, and renewals, effective August 1, 2020. The Contracts Unit received specialized subrecipient monitoring training on May 13 and October 28, 2020. Department wide training to all staff occurred weekly between September 8 and November 3, 2020. The Grants Office provided additional targeted training to Program staff through team meetings. Over one hundred fifty Program and Finance staff received training. Annual training will be held in September each year. Refresher training or training for new staff is available upon request from the Grants Office. The Grants Office website offers Program, Finance, and Contracts Bureau staff access to the subrecipient monitoring policy, as well as training modules, slides, and tools. The training has also been recorded and is available on this site. The Subrecipient Monitoring Policy requires Program to determine whether any vendor which receives funds in exchange for goods or services is a Contractor or Subrecipient. Determined subrecipients receive a Management Questionnaire, which includes a ten question questionnaire and requirements for submitting financial data. This information is used to populate the Risk Assessment Tool, which shows any risks pertinent to a subrecipient and the subaward. Based on the risks shown, Program chooses monitoring activities to mitigate the risks and the Contracts Bureau memorializes these choices in the contract. The Grants Office continues to work closely with the Contracts Bureau to ensure compliance with the Subrecipient Monitoring policy. C. and D. It is also important to note that between April 2020 and June 2022 the Department was involved in the State?s strategic response to the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, New Hampshire was under a state of emergency (Executive Order 2020-04), processes were rapidly converted to fully digital overnight, the State?s standard approval processes were suspended and non-standard templates, which did not include the required notifications under 200.332, were utilized to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Department worked with other State Departments and the National Guard to create a record number of amendments, contracts, and other agreements (approximately 200% more than standard). The Department is in the process of instituting a new contract life cycle management solution that will utilize conditional logic to include the required notifications for agreements involving federal funds in order to ensure compliance. Implementation is anticipated to be complete in July 2023. As the COVID-19 pandemic strategic response has wound down, the Department has not suspended its regular standard approval or subrecipient risk assessment and monitoring processes and has not used non-standard templates to award federal funding. E. We concur there was no formal documentation of any monitoring activity. Due to staff turnover a new administrator has been hired and unable to furnish the monitoring that took place during FY22. However, a program site review during FY23 was performed and financial monitoring of invoices has also taken place. Anticipated Completion Date: July, 2023 Contact Person: Melissa Kelleher, Administrator Rejoinder As documented above in Bullet B of the condition found, the Department did not properly communicate all required award information to the subrecipient. Once aware of the noncompliance, the Department should have timely communicated this information to its subrecipients.