Finding 1106258 (2023-008)

Significant Deficiency
Requirement
ABH
Questioned Costs
-
Year
2023
Accepted
2025-03-24
Audit: 347804
Organization: Hill County, Montana (MT)
Auditor: Kcoe Isom LLP

AI Summary

  • Core Issue: Hill County is not consistently recording expenditures according to federal guidelines, leading to potential compliance risks.
  • Impacted Requirements: Expenditures must be verified against project budgets before payment, as per 2 CFR section 200.500.
  • Recommended Follow-Up: Monitor and document all expenditures closely to ensure proper coding and approval, especially for journal voucher entries.

Finding Text

Condition: Hill County is responsible for complying with Uniform Guidance and all compliance requirements as required by the contract and federal award documents for reimbursement grants, as it relates to recording of the related award expenditures. Criteria: Prior to payment of expenditures with award funds, recipients must verify proper account and fund recording, pursuant to 2 CFR section 200.500. Context: In reviewing and compiling the federal award expenditures for testing, we noted the County posted several journal voucher entries to change the original recording of numerous expenditures, either to record as ARPA expenditures or to remove as ARPA expenditures to another fund and/or award. In addition, several expenditures were only partially applied to ARPA with the rest applied to other funding sources, but were not segregated as such in the accounting system. Cause: There appears to be confusion between departments in which expenditures are to be coded as ARPA and which are not. County personnel should utilize approved project budgets in order to have the accounting and financial records properly recorded and reflected at the time of the transaction. County personnel should also clearly record any transactions that are covered by multiple funding sources as such. Effect: Expenditures may be submitted for reimbursement more than once, or to more than a single grant award, thus putting the County out of compliance with the federal award and potentially resulting in a duplication in funding. Recommendation: Prior to payment of expenditures with award funds, the County should closely monitor the expenditures as compared to each project budget and verify the expenditures are properly recorded to the appropriate award, pursuant to 2 CFR section 200.500, and document accordingly. Any subsequent change recorded via a journal voucher entry should also be properly documented and approved. Planned Corrective Action: “The coding of the invoices has improved. There is a detailed list of how each vendor should be coded. There are still times invoices need to transfer to a different fund in order to utilize the funding more efficiently. The grant coordinator has discussed everything. The transfers that are done have already been approved and paid. The expenditures are transferred to match the grant coordinator. Expenditure transfers can be done if the expenditure was incorrectly coded.”

Categories

Cash Management

Other Findings in this Audit

  • 529815 2023-007
    Significant Deficiency Repeat
  • 529816 2023-008
    Significant Deficiency
  • 1106257 2023-007
    Significant Deficiency Repeat

Programs in Audit

ALN Program Name Expenditures
21.027 Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds $721,151
14.228 Community Development Block Grants/state's Program and Non-Entitlement Grants in Hawaii $258,786
97.067 Homeland Security Grant Program $141,453
10.557 Wic Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children $89,438
93.045 Special Programs for the Aging, Title Iii, Part C, Nutrition Services $66,411
93.323 Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious Diseases (elc) $65,280
93.217 Family Planning Services $63,815
93.044 Special Programs for the Aging, Title Iii, Part B, Grants for Supportive Services and Senior Centers $54,028
93.053 Nutrition Services Incentive Program $46,056
93.069 Public Health Emergency Preparedness $40,016
97.042 Emergency Management Performance Grants $38,803
97.036 Disaster Grants - Public Assistance (presidentially Declared Disasters) $38,585
93.268 Immunization Cooperative Agreements $32,747
21.019 Coronavirus Relief Fund $24,800
16.034 Coronavirus Emergency Supplemental Funding Program $15,640
93.043 Special Programs for the Aging, Title Iii, Part D, Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Services $7,167
93.994 Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant to the States $6,204
10.565 Commodity Supplemental Food Program $3,586
93.581 Improving the Capability of Indian Tribal Governments to Regulate Environmental Quality $3,408
10.578 Wic Grants to States (wgs) $3,201