Finding 1157648 (2024-002)

Material Weakness Repeat Finding
Requirement
C
Questioned Costs
-
Year
2024
Accepted
2025-09-30

AI Summary

  • Core Issue: The Foundation delayed payments for expenditures, requesting reimbursement before actually paying the costs.
  • Impacted Requirements: This practice violates cash management rules for cost-reimbursed contracts, which require timely payment of incurred costs.
  • Recommended Follow-Up: Management should ensure that reimbursement requests are made within 30 days of payment to comply with federal guidelines.

Finding Text

Criteria: Management is responsible for only changing allowable costs to the federal award. In accordance with cash management requirements for cost-reimbursed contracts, the Foundation is required to request reimbursement for (a) only allocable, allowable, and reasonable contract costs that have already been paid or (b) if the non-federal entity is not delinquent in paying costs of contract performance in the ordinary course of business, costs incurred, but not necessarily paid. Condition: We selected a sample of expenditures requested for reimbursement. In our testing of the sample, we noted expenditures between $7,429 and $807,372 (average expenditure of $168,903) that were incurred and requested for reimbursement; however, the payment for the expenditure was not made until 47-135 days after reimbursement (average delay in payment of 97 days). Cause: The Foundation waited for reimbursement funds to be received to pay the expenditure for cash flow purposes. Effect or potential effect: Since the federal award is a cost-reimbursement contract, the request for reimbursement was not in compliance with the cash management requirements of the federal award. Recommendation: We recommend that management limit the time between requests to the federal government for reimbursement and payment of the expense to 30 days or less. Views of responsible officers: Management acknowledges this finding and will address remediation in the accompanying management’s corrective action plan in appendix A.

Corrective Action Plan

Management’s Response: We concur. Management’s Response: We concur. View of Responsible Officials and Corrective Action: The CEO and Finance Team are responsible for implementing and maintaining the reimbursement process. A standardized procedure has been established to ensure reimbursement requests for the prior month’s work are completed and submitted by the end of the following month. This process is consistently utilized for grant-related activities and is regularly monitored and reviewed by leadership to ensure compliance. Anticipated Completion Date: TPREF has implemented this new process as of January 1, 2024, and reviewed/revised the process as of January 1, 2025.

Categories

Allowable Costs / Cost Principles Cash Management Matching / Level of Effort / Earmarking

Programs in Audit

ALN Program Name Expenditures
93.268 Immunization Cooperative Agreements $1.46M