Finding 1152285 (2024-001)

FA 2024-001 Strengthen Controls over Expenditures Compliance Requirements: Activities Allowed or Unallowed Allowable Costs/Cost Principles Procurement and Suspension and Debarment Internal Control Impact: Significant Deficiency Compliance Impact: Nonmaterial Noncompliance Federal Awarding Agency: U.S. Department of Agriculture Pass-Through Entity: Georgia Department of Education AL Numbers and Titles: 10.553 – School Breakfast Program 10.555 – National School Lunch Program Federal Award Numbers: 245GA324N1199 (Year: 2024), 235GA32N1099 (Year: 2023) Questioned Costs: $7,388 Description: A review of expenditures charged to the Child Nutrition Cluster revealed that the School District’s internal control procedures were not operating appropriately to ensure that expenditures were reviewed and approved and that the School District’s procurement and suspension and debarment procedures were followed. Background Information: The Child Nutrition Cluster (CNC) is comprised of various programs that are intended to assist states in administering and overseeing food service program operators that provide healthful, nutritious meals to eligible children in public and non-profit private schools, residential childcare institutions, and summer programs. This Cluster of programs also fosters healthy eating habits in children by providing fresh fruits and fresh vegetables to children attending elementary and secondary schools and encourages the domestic consumption of nutritious agricultural commodities. CNC funding was granted to the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. GaDOE is responsible for distributing funds to local educational agencies (LEAs) and overseeing the various CNC programs. CNC funds totaling $1,087,437.24 were expended and reported on the Wilkinson County Board of Education’s Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA) for fiscal year 2024. Criteria: As a recipient of federal awards, the School District is required to establish and maintain effective internal control over federal awards that provides reasonable assurance of managing the federal awards in compliance with federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the federal awards pursuant to Title 2 U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 200, Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (Uniform Guidance), Section 200.303 – Internal Controls. Provisions included in the Uniform Guidance, Section 200.403 – Factors Affecting Allowability of Costs state that “costs must meet the following general criteria in order to be allowable under Federal awards: (a) Be necessary and reasonable for the performance of the Federal award and be allocable thereto under these principles, (b) Conform to any limitations or exclusions set forth in these principles or in the Federal award as to types or amount of cost items, (c) Be consistent with policies and procedures that apply uniformly to both federally-financed and other activities of the non-Federal entity… (g) Be adequately documented…” Additionally, provisions included in the Uniform Guidance, Section 200.318 – General Procurement Standards state in part that “(a) the non-Federal entity must use its own documented procurement procedures which reflect applicable State, local, and tribal laws and regulations and… (b) non-Federal entities must maintain oversight to ensure that contractors perform in accordance with the terms, conditions, and specifications of their contracts or purchase orders.” In addition, provisions included in the Uniform Guidance, Section 200.320 – Methods of Procurement to Be Followed provide guidance for procurement through small purchase procedures and state “If small purchase procedures are used, price or rate quotations must be obtained from an adequate number of qualified sources.” Condition: A sample of 39 expenditures was randomly selected for testing using a non-statistical sampling approach. These expenditures were reviewed to determine if appropriate internal controls were implemented and applicable compliance requirements were met. For eight of the 10 sample expenditures that were incurred outside of the School District’s Co-Op process, evidence of review and approval was not reflected within the voucher package. Additionally, auditor reviewed five of these same expenditures and a sample of 29 additional expenditures, which was randomly selected for testing using a non-statistical sampling approach, to determine if procurement transactions complied with the School District’s procurement procedures and proper oversight was maintained to ensure that contractors were performing according to their contracts. The following deficiencies were noted with expenditures incurred outside of the School District’s Co-Op process: • Evidence of review and approval was not reflected within the voucher package and/or purchase files for 17 additional expenditures. • The School District could not provide evidence that an adequate number of rate or price quotations were obtained from qualified sources for eight small purchase expenditures reviewed. Questioned Costs: Upon testing a sample of $14,237 in procurement transactions that were incurred outside of the School District’s Co-Op process, known questioned costs of $7,388 were identified for expenditures that did not follow the School District’s procurement procedures. Using the population of procurements that were incurred outside of the School District’s Co-Op process of $56,274, we project the likely questioned costs to be approximately $29,200. Cause: The School District did not follow its policies and procedures that govern the nonpersonal services expenditure process for federal programs. Effect: The School District is not in compliance with the Uniform Guidance and GaDOE guidance related to CNC. Failure to ensure that expenditures are appropriately approved and procedures to address procurement and suspension and debarment compliance requirements are implemented exposes the School District to unnecessary risk of error and misuse of federal funds and could result in the expenditure of federal funds for unallowable purposes and/or with unqualified vendors. In addition, this deficiency could lead to the return of funding associated with unallowable expenditures. Recommendation: The School District should review current internal control procedures related to CNC. Where vulnerable, the School District should develop and/or modify its policies and procedures to ensure that all expenditures reflect evidence of review and approval, required procurement methods are properly identified and followed and required procurement and suspension and debarment documentation is properly identified, safeguarded, and retained. In addition, management should develop a monitoring process to ensure that these procedures are operating appropriately. Views of Responsible Officials: We concur with this finding.