Finding Text
Condition and Criteria: The Federal Compliance Supplement requires that accurate records be maintained justifying all meals claimed and documenting that all program funds were spent only on allowable Child Nutrition Program costs. Each month the outsourced management company compares total meals served to total meals claimed, making an adjustment to actual for any missed meals. However, the appropriate documentation supporting the adjustment is not maintained and was not able to be recreated by the management company. In addition, it was found that at one school building, that at times, tally sheets were recreated and unintentionally duplicated, increasing the meals claimed. Effect: This creates potential questioned costs for those unsupported meals being claimed as well as known questioned costs for the duplicated tally sheets claimed. Cause: The management company claims that their weekly closeout occurs on Thursdays, making it likely for meals served on Fridays to be missed in initial counts. In addition, if students are on a field trip, there are times that their daily tally sheets are not turned in on time. However, proper documentation of missed meals is not maintained to support the additional meals being claimed. The duplicated tally sheets occurred by an employee trying to combine the tally sheets into one, and subsequently submitting both the combined tally sheet with the original tally sheets to the management company for reimbursement. Context: The unsupported meals being claimed is a systematic problem occurring due to the process being followed by the management company. The duplicated tally sheets is isolated to one building. Questioned Costs: $295,380. This is the estimated total federal reimbursement for all unsupported meal claims plus the anticipated overcharged claims for duplicated tally sheets. This was determined by taking the known overages and estimating the remaining overages for the months in which the related reports were not available. Auditors' Recommendation: We recommend that in situations where missed meals are identified, that proper documentation (including original tally sheets) be maintained and kept on hand to support the additional meals being claimed. In addition, we recommend that staff be properly trained to not recreate tally sheets, but to properly document on the original copies, to ensure that meal counts are not duplicated. Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions: The District understands the issue and will work with their management company on correcting this issue moving forward. Please see the attached Corrective Action Plan prepared by the District.