Finding Text
Federal Agency: Department of Health and Human Services Federal Program: 93.137 Community Programs to Improve Minority Health Grant Program Identification Number: 1 CPIMP211296-01-00 Requirement: Reporting Type of Finding: Material weakness in internal control over major program; Noncompliance Criteria: Supporting documentation must be maintained for all reports required to be filed for federal programs. Amounts reported on financial reports should be supported by the accounting records that support the audited financial statements and the schedule of expenditures of federal awards. Reports should be filed by the due date required in the grant agreement. Condition: Supporting documentation for key line items on the quarterly progress reports was not maintained. Amounts reported as cash receipts and cash disbursements did not match the underlying support. Brown Plus could not verify the submittal dates of reports. Cause: Review and approval of grant reporting did not take place at the level needed to support accurate federal reporting. Also, the Minority Health Program experienced a high volume of employee turnover. Effect: Misinformation presented to the federal government may lead to federal inquiries of those charged with governance. Context: The reports selected for testing (two quarterly financial and performance progress reports) did not have documentation maintained that supported the program data stated in the reports. As noted in the directions for the quarterly FFR, cash receipts and cash disbursements are only actual cash received. Brown Plus could not trace the cash disbursements and cash receipts to the general ledger detail. Out of the two quarterly financial reports tested, one was submitted a day late. The two performance reports tested did not include submittal dates. Staff at the Minority Health Center were unable to locate documentation of the submittal dates for the quarterly progress reports, which prevented us from verifying whether the reports were submitted on time. Repeat Finding: This finding was reported for the year ended June 30, 2022 as 2022-010. Recommendation: Program management should maintain any and all support utilized in the preparation of federal reports. Documentation of the methods utilized to extract activity from the general ledger for financial reporting should also be maintained. Minority Health Program staff preparing reports should carefully review reporting instructions to ensure the correct amounts are reported and that reports are submitted timely. Views of Responsible Official(s) and Planned Corrective Actions: See corrective action plan.