Finding Text
Criteria: Title 2 U.S. Code of Federal Regulations Part 200.510(b) requires auditees to prepare a schedule of expenditures of federal awards which must report total federal awards expended during the audit period. At a minimum, the schedule must include: expenditures by individual program, program title and assistance listing number, programs required to be identified as part of a cluster, name of the pass-through entity and identifying number assigned by the pass-through entity for awards not received directly from the federal government, and the total amount provided to subrecipients from each federal program. Condition: The schedule of expenditures of federal awards (SEFA) reported by the County in the annual budget documents contained errors in amounts of federal expenditures reported. Additionally, the schedule did not include the identification of programs required to be part of a cluster, names of pass-through entities, identifying numbers assigned by the pass-through entities, or total amounts provided to subrecipients for the applicable programs. The County reported $13,375 in expenditures under assistance listing number 20.205 - Highway Planning and Construction, however, underlying accounting records support expenditures of $66,877. Cause: The County has not implemented a proper system of internal control over SEFA preparation, such as a reconciliation to underlying accounting records or having a separate individual review the SEFA for clerical accuracy after it has been prepared. Reasons for discrepancies varied. Effect: The SEFA presented for the audit did not accurately reflect the County's actual expenditures of federal awards for the year ended December 31, 2023. Recommendation: We recommend that the County implement internal controls to ensure that the SEFA completely and accurately states the expenditures of federal awards of the County each year, such as performing a reconciliation between the SEFA and underlying accounting records. Federal reimbursement grants should be reported on the SEFA based on reimbursable expenditures made during the year. Management's Response: 16.575 - U.S. Department of Justice - Crime Victim Assistance Grant. This grant provides the salary and expenses for the Prosecuting Attorney's Victim Advocate. The County Clerk utilized the year-end expenses for the Victim Advocate grant effort which included salary, office expenses, mileage and training expenses. Our records show that a grant reimbursement of $34,583 was received for 2023. In the future, the County Clerk will ensure the total grant reimbursement amounts are utilized. 16.738 - U.S. Department of Justice - Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant. Our research revealed that this grant was received by our Sheriff's Office. However, the grant application and approval was not provided to the County Clerk's office. Therefore, she was unable to reflect this grant in the budget document. We have asked the Sheriff's Office to send us their grant applications so we are able to set-up a tracking system in the future. 20.205 - U.S. Department of Transportation - Highway Planning and Construction. These funds are pass-through grants from the federal government to the Missouri Department of Transportation to fund bridge replacement projects under the BRO Program. The financial audit for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022, (finding 2022-003) cited Benton County for improperly accounting for these SEFA grants. The original SEFA amount in 2022 was $428,993 and was corrected to show $343,194. The difference was the 20% local match for these grants. The 2023 audit indicates that the County should report 100% of the grant, not just the 80% that will represent the federal/state funds. The County utilized the guidance from the 2022 to report for the 2023 projects, however, this was incorrect due the source of the funds used for matching. Benton County will ensure that 100% of the federal grants will be reflected in the financial documents moving forward for projects that are funded with soft match credit from the Missouri Department of Transportation.