Finding Text
Federal Agency: United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service
Federal Program Name: Cooperative Forestry Assistance
Assistance Listing Number: 10.664
Federal Award Identification Year: 2021
Pass-Through Agency: N/A
Award Period: 09/01/21-08/31/26
Compliance Requirement Affected: Subrecipient Suspension & Debarment
Type of Finding: Material Weakness in Internal Control over Compliance and Material Noncompliance
Criteria: 2 CFR 200.403(a) - When a non-federal entity enters into a covered transaction with an entity at a
lower tier, the non-federal entity must verify that the entity, as defined in 2 CFR section 180.995 and
agency adopting regulations, is not suspended or debarred or otherwise excluded from participating in
the transaction.
Condition: For one subrecipient samples that was selected, verification of subrecipient's suspension or debarment status was not verified.
Context: A nonstatistical sample of 5 out of 13 subrecipients were selected for testing for the Office for Coastal
Management program. The condition noted above was identified during our procedures over CFSC’s
subrecipients.
Effect: CFSC did not verify suspension or debarment status, which could result in naming a subrecipient as an
award recipient, which is potentially suspended or debarred.
Cause: CFSC did not consistently ensure that Suspension or Debarment status was verified before naming the
subrecipients tested as award recipients.
Repeat Finding: The finding is not a repeat finding.
Recommendation: We recommend that CFSC strengthen its current policies and procedures to ensure that Suspension and Debarment Status is verified for each subrecipient applicant during its pre-award subrecipient screening process.
Management’s Views: See separate corrective action plan.