Finding Text
Child Nutrition Cluster Reporting Segregation of Duties Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Agriculture Federal Program Name: Child Nutrition Cluster Assistance Listing Number: 10.553 and 10.555 Federal Award Identification Number and Year: N/A Pass-Through Agency: Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Pass-Through Number(s): 2025-710203-DPI-SB-546 and 2025-710203-DPI-NSL-547 Award Period: July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025 Type of Finding: Significant Deficiency in Internal Control over Compliance Criteria or specific requirement: Segregation of duties is an internal control intended to prevent or decrease the occurrence of errors or intentional fraud. Segregation of duties ensures that no single employee has control over all phases of a transaction. Review of the reimbursement request and supporting documentation by someone other than the preparer prior to submitting the request for reimbursement is an internal control intended to prevent or decrease the occurrence of errors. Condition: For four of six reports tested, here was no review of the monthly reports by someone other than the preparer. Accordingly, this does not allow for a proper segregation of duties for internal control purposes over reporting compliance requirements. Questioned costs: None Context: While performing audit procedures, it was noted that there was no review the reimbursement requests before submission to verify accuracy of meal counts reported against supporting documentation while the food service director was out for part of the year. Cause: The food service director was out for part of the year and during this time, claims were submitted to DPI but not provided to the finance director for review prior to submitting the claims. Effect: Errors in the monthly reporting could be made and not detected prior to submission resulting in an incorrect reimbursement amount. Repeat Finding: No. Recommendation: We recommend that the District review its internal controls and implement a procedure to ensure all reports required under the grant have a designated reviewer that is different from the individual responsible for preparing, even when there are gaps of coverage in preparer and reviewer positions, and that the review and approval happens prior to submitting the reports to the granting agency. Views of responsible officials: There is no disagreement with the audit finding.