Finding Text
Criteria
Per the compliance supplement for the Child Nutrition program, “Each month’s claim for reimbursement and all data used in the claims review process must be maintained on file. Records are required to be retained for a period of three years after submission of the final Claim for Reimbursement for the fiscal year.”
Condition
Supporting meal count reports that were filed as claims for reimbursement were not maintained on file.
Cause
New software was adopted in the current fiscal year. As a result of learning the new software’s capabilities, reports were not ‘locked down’ after being submitted and any edits or deletions to schools or students eligibility were applied retrospectively as opposed to prospectively. This resulted in immaterial meal count differences when reports that were pulled from the software for past dates were compared with the amounts submitted to the state.
Effect
Failure to maintain such records may be grounds for denial of reimbursement for meals served and/or administrative costs claimed during the period covered by the records in question.
Questioned Costs
None
Recommendation
Meal records that are filed as a claim for reimbursement should be maintained 3 years from the fiscal year end date of when they were filed.
Views of Responsible of Officials and Planned Corrective Actions
The District agrees with the finding as presented. The child nutrition department will ensure both that the months are closed out in our software system so that data does not change after the fact and that original meal count reports ran from the system that match the claims filed with ND DPI are kept on file for the required time period. Corrective action has already taken place on a go forward basis starting when this was identified during audit testing.
Repeat Finding
This is a new finding in the current year.