Finding 1160268 (2024-007)

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, passed through Kansas Department of Aging and Disability Services Aging Cluster - ALN 93.044 - Special Programs for the Aging_Title III, Part B_Grants for Supportive Services and Senior Centers - 2301KSOASS ALN 93.045 - Special Programs for the Aging _Title III, Part C_Nutrition Services - 2301KSOAHD ALN 93.053 - Nutrition Services Incentive Program - 2301KSOAHD Criteria or Specific Requirement: Suspension and Debarment and Significant Deficiency In accordance with 2 CFR 200.214, non-federal entities are prohibited from contracting with or making subawards under covered transactions to parties that are suspended or debarred. “Covered transactions” include contracts for goods and services awarded under a non-procurement transaction (e.g., grant or cooperative agreement) that are expected to equal or exceed $25,000 or meet certain other criteria as specified in 2 CFR section 180.220. All non-procurement transactions entered into by a pass-through entity (i.e., subawards to subrecipients), irrespective of award amount, are considered covered transactions, unless they are exempt as provided in 2 CFR Section 180.215. Per 2 CFR 200.303, the non-Federal entities receiving federal awards (i.e., auditee management) establish and maintain internal control design to reasonably ensure compliance with Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the Federal award. Condition: Suspension and debarment checks were not completed for the subrecipient that received federal funds. Cause: For the Unified Government, this is typically included in the contracts, but was not included in the subrecipient contracts for this program and the Unified Government did not have another means of validating suspension and debarment. Effect: Federal funds could be paid to entities that are suspended or debarred. Questioned Costs: None noted. Context: Only one subrecipient received pass-through funding from the Unified Government. The single subrecipient under ALN 93.044, 93.045 and 93.053, receiving approximately $428,000, was not evaluated for suspension and debarment. It was noted after subsequent check, that the subrecipient was not suspended or debarred. Identification of Prior Year Finding: 2023-006, 2022-007, 2021-005, 2020-002 Recommendation: Policies and procedures should be modified to ensure that suspension and debarment checks are performed on vendors and subrecipients alike prior to making purchases with federal funds. When newly established programs include subrecipients, we also recommend the contracts include suspension and debarment language. View of Responsible Official and Planned Corrective Actions: We agree with the finding. See management corrective action plan.