Finding Text
22025-001 – Meal Count Forms Not Reconciled to Claim for Reimbursement U.S. Department of Agriculture Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) – AL #10.558 TN Department of Human Services Compliance Requirement – Activities Allowed Condition: We noted several instances in which the daily and monthly meal count forms were not reconciled to the claim for reimbursement for the month. In addition, there were instances in which the number of meals reported as served on a particular day exceeded the number of students in attendance. Criteria: Title 7 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Section 226.10(c) states, “In submitting a claim for reimbursement, the institution shall certify that the claim is correct and that records are available to support the claim.” Cause: There is a lack of documented controls in place relating to reconciling daily and monthly meal count information to the claim for reimbursement. Additionally, as this is a manual process as opposed to an automated process, errors are more likely to occur. Effect: Lack of proper reconciliation to the claim for reimbursement forms could ultimately result in funds to be returned to the State. Context: A sample of forty (40) daily meal count forms and twenty monthly meal count forms (20) were selected for testing. While the daily census data was reviewed by the Site Manager, the number of meals served for the individual day exceeded the number of students in attendance for four (4) selections. Additionally, while the claim for reimbursement was prepared by the Lead Cook and reviewed by the Site Manager, the claim did not agree to the monthly and daily meal count census data for eight (8) selections. This resulted in both known and projected questioned costs that were well below the reportable $25,000 and are not material to the program. Recommendation: We recommend that management implement additional controls over the CACFP meal count and reimbursement process. This should include implementing documented review procedures in which daily and monthly meal count forms are compared to attendance records and reconciled to the site’s claim for reimbursement by multiple program personnel prior to submission. Reviewers should document their review and approval. Management should also provide additional training to personnel responsible for completing and reviewing meal count forms, preparing claims for reimbursement, and performing reconciliations between these records. In addition, management should establish a separate supervisory review to verify that: the number of meals claimed does not exceed participant attendance, totals reporting on the site’s claim form agree to supporting meals count documentation, and any discrepancies identified are investigated and resolved in a timely manner. Management’s Response: See accompanying management’s corrective action plan.