Finding Text
Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Federal Program Name: The Emergency Food Assistance Program (Food Commodities)
Assistance Listing Number: 10.569
Pass-through Agency: Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture
Pass-through Number: 5-07-39-217
Award Period: July 1, 2021 – September 30, 2026
Type of Finding:
• Material Weakness in Internal Control over Compliance
• Other Matters
Criteria:
3 CFR Part 200 Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards requires compliance with the provisions of eligibility. The Organization should have procedures and controls in place to ensure distributing agencies of The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) are eligible to receive commodities for distribution to their participants.
Condition:
During our testing, we identified there was no monitoring performed for 2 out of the 21 agencies tested which distributed TEFAP commodities during fiscal year 2023.
Questioned Costs:
None.
Context:
The Organization did not have proper internal controls in place to monitor the food distributed in a timely manner.
Cause:
The Organization had scheduling challenges with one of the agencies which resulted in a lapse in the timing of the monitoring to not be within the required two-year period. For the other agency there was documentation that could not be located.
Effect:
The Organization collected data and monitored participating agencies after year-end and without the ability to modify food distributions if any ineligible participants were discovered during the program year. No ineligible distributions were determined based on subsequent monitoring activities.
Repeat Finding:
The finding is a repeat of a finding in the immediately prior year. Prior year finding number was 2022-003.
Recommendation:
The Organization should prioritize the timely monitoring of participating agencies to allow for changes in food distributions if any ineligible participants are discovered.
View of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Action:
Please refer to Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley, Inc. and subsidiaries’ Corrective Action Plan.