Finding Text
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Passed through the NC Department of Health and Human Services
Program Name: Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) Cluster
AL #: 10.551 and 10.561
Finding: 2024-005 Internal Controls Related to FNS Eligibility Determinations
SIGNIFICANT DEFICENCY
ELIGIBILITY
Criteria:
Condition:
Questioned Costs:
Context:
Effect:
Section III. Federal Award Findings and Questioned Costs (continued)
Per Section 200.303 of the Uniform Grant Guidance, a non-federal entity must 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. The State
has provided policies and procedures to ensure that the County is meeting the federal
guidance, relevant policies are:
Food and Nutrition Services Policy 305 describes the verification sources and
requirements and the FNS units primary responsibility for providing documentary
evidence to support statements on applications and recertifications and procedures
required if the statements by applicant/beneficiary are questionable.
Food and Nutrition Services Policy 300 describes the sources of income countable and
not countable to the household for determining financial eligibility.
Food and Nutrition Services Policy 310 describes the procedures related to verifying
changes in income (i.e. termination, end of contract, temporary, etc.).
There were a total of 5 errors found in our testing: 1 instance where child support income
was incorrectly calculated and entered in NCFAST, 1 instance where earned income was
incorrectly caclculated and entered in NCFAST, 1 instance where an OVS report was not
included in the case file, 1 instance where a work work registration was not completed,
and 1 instance where a mortgage payment was entered into NCFAST but evidence shows
that the absent parent was paying mortgage in lieu of child support.
There was no known affect to eligibility and there were no known questioned costs.
We examined 25 of 96,362 FNS cases from a report of all active FNS beneficiaries
provided by Brunswick County's Department of Human Services. The finding is being
reported with the financial statement audit as it relates to FNS administrative cost
compliance audit.
For those certifications/re-certifications there was a chance that information was not
properly documented and reconciled to NC FAST and a participant could have been
approved for benefits for which they were not eligible.
Cause:
Recommendation:
Views of responsible
officials and planned
corrective actions:
AL #: 93.778
SIGNIFICANT DEFICENCY: Findings 2024-001, 2024-002, 2024-003, and 2024-004 also apply to State
requirements and State Awards.
Section IV. State Award Findings and Questioned Costs
Program Name: Medical Assistance Program (Medicaid; Title XIX)
Section III. Federal Award Findings and Questioned Costs (continued)
Due to the errors noted, eligibility cannot be sufficiently substantiated and there is a risk
that the County could provide funding and/or benefits to individuals who are not
program eligible.
The County should provide training of management and staff on the program's eligibility
requirements, proper case review process, and required verifications for eligibility. Also,
the County should ensure that their formal internal review process is adequately
completed to identify and correct errors in case reviews.
The County agrees with the finding. See Corrective Action Plan in the following section.