Finding 1164761 (2025-001)

Item 2025-001 - Eligibility - Material Weakness Name of Federal Agency: United States Department of Health and Human Services Federal Program Name: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Assistance Listing Number 93.558 Federal Award Identification Number and Year: 47089 - Year Ended June 30, 2025 Name of Pass-through Entity: North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Criteria The Partnership of Johnston County is responsible for determining a child’s eligibility and maintaining documentation used to complete the NC Pre-K Program Eligibility Scorecard and support the child’s enrollment. This documentation must include a complete and signed application with supporting documents that provide verification for the eligibility of each child enrolled in the NC Pre-K Program, as well as the review and approval of such documents. Condition The Partnership for Children of Johnston County did not maintain documentation for review and approval of the children’s application files for determining the status for 11 children sampled receiving funding. Cause The Partnership for Children of Johnston County is required to have sufficient internal controls over compliance to support that all requirements of the program have been met, including support of review and approval. The Partnership did not maintain support for reviewing eligibility documents. Effect or Potential Effect The effect is noncompliance with the United States Department of Health and Human Services regulations, which could result in a loss of funding. Questioned Costs: None. Context During our testing of the eligibility compliance requirement, it was noted that the review and approval of 11 children’s eligibility documents was not maintained. 40 children were sampled in total from all NC Pre-K providers. Identification of Repeat Finding: Not a repeat finding. Recommendation Management should implement controls over record retention for review and approval of eligibility documentation of children. Reporting Views of Responsible Officials In addition to maintaining a saved copy of the income spreadsheet and scorecard on our internal server, we will now begin saving a copy of the review with approval for each application that is processed. We are in the process of updating our NC Pre-K guidelines. This change will be reflected in these guidelines.