Finding Text
Federal Agency: Department of Health and Human Services Federal Program Name: Aging Cluster Federal Agency: Department of Health and Human Services Assistance Listing Number: 93.044, 93.045, 93.053 Pass-Through Agency: State of Connecticut Department of Aging and Disability Services Award Period: 10/1/2022 9/30/2025 Type of Finding: • Material Weakness in Internal Control over Financial Reporting Condition: Due to the organization not fully utilizing the capacity of their accounting system, the audit was significantly delayed. In addition, there was turnover within the accounting department which resulted in additional time to gain comfort over beginning balances and reconcile the activity for the year under audit. Criteria or Specific Requirement: Internal controls over financial reporting are required to be designed to provide reasonable assurance that financial statement misstatements are prevented or detected and corrected. Our audit procedures revealed a continued need for improvement of a timely and complete monthly or periodic reconciliation and closing process. Lack of a complete monthly or periodic close led to a continuing and growing backlog of transactions and journal entries that were not posted into the accounting system, which rendered the accounting information inadequate. Effect: Material adjustments were required to be made by management prior to providing a trial balance for audit. Because financial information was not being tracked within the accounting system, it took management a significant amount of time to reconcile and record activity and therefore, the audit was delayed. Cause: The prior Director of Finance had been with the organization for a long period of time and did not utilize the accounting system as intended. Many reconciliations were performed manually, and the current finance team was unable to reproduce the work of the previous Director of Finance. Repeat Finding: Yes Recommendation: We recommend that the Organization fully utilize the accounting system as intended to track daily financial activity. We also recommend that they formalize monthly account reconciliations and year-end closing procedures to ensure that all transactions are properly recorded in the appropriate account and the correct period.