This serves as a response to your audit memo regarding Finding 2024-001 Allowable Costs - Significant deficiency in internal controls over compliance in Section II - Federal Award Findings and Questioned Costs. The organization concurs with the finding and has made corrective actions effective immediately to ensure the deficiency no longer occurs. Specifically, an active confirmation of billing amounts matching the general ledger from the CPA to the CEO has been added to our internal controls. Previously, the CPA only contacted the CEO if there was a need for correction. As stated in the audit report, this error occurred during the transition time between our contracted CPA and the new CFO beginning. Neither the CPA nor the CFO informed the CEO of the discrepancy between the billing and general ledger amounts, and therefore no correction was made or even looked for. This finding identified a flaw in our existing internal controls if the CPA does not complete the final validation process. Below are the internal control procedures for grant billing that were in place at the time of the error with the new addition in red: • All time sheets are forwarded to the CPA. • The CPA, or their designee, develops a payroll report utilizing the timesheets to allocate payroll by work function. • The payroll report is forwarded to the CEO for approval and billing purposes. • The detailed monthly billing is sent to the CPA for verification that the billing matches the general ledger. • The CPA will send an email to the CEO either confirming the amounts billed match the general ledger or identifying the need for a billing/general ledger correction. • Any discrepancies between billing and the general ledger are corrected via a corrected billing being submitted or a general ledger journal entry being made to reallocate costs. The organization is confident the above augmented internal control procedures will provide the necessary oversight and quality control measures needed to ensure the identified deficiency from recurring. The CEO is responsible for monitoring and ensuring compliance with the revised internal control measures.