FINDING 2023-005
Subject: COVID-19 - Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds
Federal Agency: Department of the Treasury
Federal Program: COVID-19 - Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds
Assistance Listings Number: 21.027
Federal Award Numbers and Years (or Other Identifying Numbers): CY 2021; TRSW221148
Pass-Through Agency: Indiana Finance Authority
Compliance Requirement: Procurement and Suspension and Debarment
Audit Findings: Material Weakness, Modified Opinion
Condition and Context
The Town elected to receive the standard revenue loss allowance, allowing the Town to claim its
total direct State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) allocation of $416,087 as revenue loss to use
for government services. As such, all SLFRF program funds to date were expended under the revenue
loss eligible use category. The U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) determined that there are no
subawards under this eligible use category, and that recipients' use of revenue loss funds would not give
rise to subrecipient relationships as there is no federal program or purpose to carry out in the case of the
revenue loss portion of the award. The Town also received $1,428,334 in State Water Infrastructure Fund
(SWIF) distributions which were funded with SLFRF dollars and were subject to the suspension and
debarment requirements.
INDIANA STATE BOARD OF ACCOUNTS
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TOWN OF FRANKTON
SCHEDULE OF FINDINGS AND QUESTIONED COSTS
(Continued)
Prior to entering into subawards and covered transactions with SLFRF award funds, recipients are
required to verify that such contracts and subrecipients are not suspended, debarred, or otherwise
excluded. "Covered transactions" include, but are not limited to, contracts for goods and services awarded
under procurement and nonprocurement transactions (i.e., grant agreement) that are expected to equal or
exceed $25,000. The verification is to be done by checking the Excluded Parties List System (EPLS),
collecting a certification from that person or adding a clause or condition to the covered transaction with
that person. Due to the Treasury's determination that the revenue loss eligible use category does not give
rise to subawards, the Town was only required to comply with suspension and debarment requirements
related to covered transactions for revenue replacement.
Upon inquiry of the Town to determine its policies and procedures related to suspension and
debarment requirements, the Town stated that it did not have policies or procedures in place for verifying
that an entity with which it plans to enter into a covered transaction is not suspended, debarred, or otherwise
excluded or disqualified from participating in federal assistance programs or activities. Six covered
transactions, totaling $1,652,832, to three different vendors for goods or services that equaled or exceeded
$25,000 that were paid from SLFRF funds were identified. Each transaction was examined to determine
whether the Town verified the suspension and debarment status prior to payment. The Town had not
verified the vendor's suspension and debarment status for any of the six covered transactions prior to
issuing payment.
Description Amount
Stormwater drain installation
(4 transactions, 1 vendor) $ 1 ,540,011
Police Cars
(1 transaction, 1 vendor) 85,140
Equipment for police cars
(1 transaction, 1 vendor) 27,681
Covered Transactions Tested
Additionally, the Town had one agreement subject to the Buy America Build America (BABA)
provisions. The Town could not provide documentation that procedures were performed to ensure the Buy
America domestic preference provisions were included in either agreement nor was a BABA waiver
obtained.
The lack of internal controls and noncompliance were systematic issues throughout the audit
period.
Criteria
2 CFR 200.303 states in part:
"The non-Federal entity must:
(a) Establish and maintain effective internal control over the Federal award that provides
reasonable assurance that the non-Federal entity is managing the Federal award in
compliance with Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the Federal
award. These internal controls should be in compliance with guidance in 'Standards for
Internal Control in the Federal Government' issued by the Comptroller General of the
United States or the 'Internal Control Integrated Framework', issued by the Committee of
Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). . . ."
INDIANA STATE BOARD OF ACCOUNTS
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TOWN OF FRANKTON
SCHEDULE OF FINDINGS AND QUESTIONED COSTS
(Continued)
31 CFR 19.300 states:
"When you enter into a covered transaction with another person at the next lower tier, you must
verify that the person with whom you intend to do business is not excluded or disqualified. You
do this by:
(a) Checking the EPLS; or
(b) Collecting a certification from that person if allowed by this rule; or
(c) Adding a clause or condition to the covered transaction with that person."
2 CFR 184.4 states in part:
"(a) Applicability of Buy America Preference to infrastructure projects. The Buy America
Preference applies to Federal awards where funds are appropriated or otherwise made
available for infrastructure projects in the United States, regardless of whether infrastructure is
the primary purpose of the Federal award.
(b) Including the Buy America Preference in Federal awards. All Federal awards with
infrastructure projects must include the Buy America Preference in the terms and conditions.
The Buy America Preference must be included in all subawards, contracts, and purchase
orders for the work performed, or products supplied under the Federal award. . . ."
Cause
A proper system of internal controls was not designed by the management of the Town. Embedded
within a properly designed and implemented internal control system should be internal controls consisting
of policies and procedures. Policies reflect the Town's management statements of what should be done to
effect internal controls, and procedures should consist of actions that would implement these policies. The
Clerk-Treasurer was new to the position as of January 1, 2024. The former Clerk-Treasurer was not
knowledgeable on the compliance requirements of the federal award. The Town contracted with outside
engineers to manage the compliance requirement, and there was no documentation that BABA provisions
or a waiver was obtained for the contracts nor that they included a suspension or debarment clause. Lastly,
documentation that vendors were not suspended or debarred was not provided for review.
Effect
Without the proper implementation of an effectively designed system of internal controls, the
internal control system cannot be capable of effectively preventing, or detecting and correcting, material
noncompliance. As a result, vendors to whom payments equal to or in excess of $25,000 were not verified
to be not suspended, debarred, or otherwise excluded. In addition, the BABA provisions were not
appropriately included in infrastructure projects.
Any program funds the Town used to pay vendors that have been suspended or debarred would
be unallowable, and the funding agency could potentially recover them. Additionally, noncompliance with
the provisions of federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the federal award could
result in the loss of future federal funding to the Town.
Questioned Costs
There were no questioned costs identified.
INDIANA STATE BOARD OF ACCOUNTS
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TOWN OF FRANKTON
SCHEDULE OF FINDINGS AND QUESTIONED COSTS
(Continued)
Recommendation
We recommended that the Town strengthen its system of internal controls to ensure that all vendors
that are paid $25,000 or more, all or in part with federal funds, are not suspended or debarred from
participating in federal programs before entering into any covered transactions. In addition, we
recommended that the Town ensure all applicable contracts contain the required BABA provisions.
Views of Responsible Officials
For the views of responsible officials, refer to the Corrective Action Plan that is part of this report.