Finding Text
Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Federal Program Name: Water and Waste Disposal Systems for Rural Communities
Assistance Listing Number: 10.760
Federal Award Year: 2020
Type of Finding: Material weakness in internal control over compliance, other matters.
Criteria or Specific Requirement: 2 CFR Part 200 Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Award requires compliance with the provisions of procurement. The City should have internal controls designed to ensure compliance with those provisions.
Condition: During our testing, we noted the City did not have adequate internal controls designed to ensure compliance with procurement requirements.
Questioned Costs: None
Context: The Uniform Guidance requires governmental entities to have procurement policies that address specific elements, including: the five procurement methods, open competition, conflicts of interest, avoidance of unnecessary or duplicative items, contracting with small and minority businesses, women’s business
enterprises, and labor surplus area firms. During our testing, it was noted that the City’s procurement policy, although approved by the award oversight agency, did not contain all the required elements as set forth by CFR 2, Part 200, Subpart D.
Cause: The City relied on guidance provided by the award oversight agency during the procurement process.
Effect: The potential exists that compliance requirements are not being met if the City is not familiar with Uniform Guidance compliance requirements.
Repeat Finding: The finding is a repeat finding from the immediate prior year. The prior year finding number was 2022-004.
Recommendation: The City should be familiar with compliance requirements outlined by Uniform Guidance and design controls to ensure procurement requirements are met.
Views of Responsible Officials: There is no disagreement with the audit finding.