Finding Text
Assistance Listing, Federal Agency, and Program Name - 84.424, U.S. Department of Education, Student Support and Academic Enrichment Program Federal Award Identification Number and Year - 250750; 2025 Pass through Entity - Michigan Department of Education Finding Type - Significant deficiency Repeat Finding - No Criteria - Per 2 CFR § 200.303(a), nonfederal entities must establish, document, and maintain effective internal control over the federal award that provides reasonable assurance that the recipient or subrecipient is managing the federal award in compliance with federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the federal award. These internal controls should align with the guidance in Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government issued by the Comptroller General of the United States or the Internal Control-Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). Condition - The School District's controls did not prevent, or detect and correct in a timely manner, duplicative costs charged to the grant. Questioned Costs - None If questioned costs are not determinable, description of why known questioned costs were undetermined or otherwise could not be reported - N/A Identification of How Questioned Costs Were Computed - N/A Context - Within a sample of 40 special pay home visit payroll transactions, there was one transaction identified that consisted of duplicative costs where the same payroll costs were charged to the grant twice. The School District determined that duplicative costs were submitted for pay during a time of staffing transition in the department that is responsible for tracking home visits. The costs were submitted to payroll by the former employee responsible for tracking the time, as well as submitted by the new employee within that role. Special pay for home visits does not follow the standard payroll procedures; instead, it is processed and approved manually. The costs submitted did go through a manual review process prior to being charged to the grant, but the review in place did not operate effectively to identify the duplicative costs. The School Districted identified a total of five transactions in total that amounted to $3,023 in duplicative costs. Cause and Effect - Controls in place did not prevent or detect and correct duplicative costs charged to the program. As a result, the School District received reimbursement in excess of the actual amount spent on the grant and the initial SEFA provided to the auditors was overstated by $3,023. The schedule of expenditures of federal awards for the year ended June, 30, 2025 was corrected. Recommendation - We recommend that the School District review the controls in place to ensure that the review control is at a sufficient level to address the risk of duplicative expenses being charged to the grant. Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions - The School District annually processes thousands of supplemental payments for home visits. The audit found only five individual payments were duplicated. The duplication was caused by human error during an internal staff transition within the Family and Community Engagement (FACE) department. This led the new manager to incorrectly report employee home visit logs twice. The FACE team will add internal controls during staff transitions to ensure documentation is not duplicated.