Finding 1167341 (2025-003)

Material Weakness Repeat Finding
Requirement
N
Questioned Costs
-
Year
2025
Accepted
2025-12-30
Audit: 378376
Organization: Tri County Area Schools (MI)
Auditor: UHY LLP

AI Summary

  • Core Issue: The District submitted a meal claim that did not match the supporting documentation, indicating a lack of effective internal controls.
  • Impacted Requirements: Compliance with OMB guidelines, which state that meal reimbursement requests must accurately reflect total meals served.
  • Recommended Follow-Up: Implement an additional review process for meal claims to ensure accuracy and alignment with documentation.

Finding Text

2025-003 Significant Deficiency in Internal Control (Special Tests and Provisions) Federal Program: Child Nutrition Cluster Assistance Listing Numbers: 10.553, 10.555, 10.559 Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Education Pass-Through Entity: Michigan Department of Education Pass-Through Number: 251970, 241970, 251980, 251960, 241960, 250904, 940900 & Entitlement Commodities Federal Award Year: July 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025 Criteria: In accordance with OMB requirements, the District can only request funds for meal reimbursements based on total meals served, no more or no less. Condition: The District had one month of meal claims under the school nutrition program where the supporting documentation did not agree with the meal claim. Cause: The District failed to have controls in place that would prevent, detect, or correct an incorrect monthly meal claim. Effect: The District’s internal controls were found to be ineffective as they claimed less meals than they should have, resulting in less revenue for the District. Questioned Costs: No questioned costs as the District did not claim more meals than they were supposed to during the year. Perspective Information: The finding appears to be an isolated instance. No sampling was necessary to determine this finding. Identification of Repeat Findings: None Recommendation: The District should have an additional level of review as it relates to submitting meal claims to ensure the correct amount is submitted based on the supporting documentation. View of Responsible Officials: Per discussion with Lisa Newton, Food Service Director, and Corey Bordo, Director of Business and Finance, the District recognized this one time issue and is implementing additional procedures to ensure that funds requested for meal reimbursements agree to total meals served.

Corrective Action Plan

This finding is due to the District not having the proper controls in place to prevent, detect, or correct an incorrect monthly meal claim. The month that had the incorrect meal claim used incomplete Z-Reports which resulted in the meal claim being submitted for less than it should have been. The persons responsible for the corrective action are Lisa Newton, the Food Service Director and Corey Bordo, the Director of Business and Finance. The anticipated completion date of the corrective action plan is immediate. The plan for monitoring adherence is the Food Service Director will ensure that all meal counts are final on the Z-Report before the claim requests are made.

Categories

Special Tests & Provisions Subrecipient Monitoring Cash Management School Nutrition Programs Significant Deficiency Internal Control / Segregation of Duties

Other Findings in this Audit

  • 1167338 2025-003
    Material Weakness Repeat
  • 1167339 2025-003
    Material Weakness Repeat
  • 1167340 2025-003
    Material Weakness Repeat

Programs in Audit

ALN Program Name Expenditures
10.555 NATIONAL SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM $705,211
10.559 SUMMER FOOD SERVICE PROGRAM FOR CHILDREN $445,852
84.010 TITLE I GRANTS TO LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES $393,552
10.553 SCHOOL BREAKFAST PROGRAM $304,712
84.367 IMPROVING TEACHER QUALITY STATE GRANTS $111,805
84.424 STUDENT SUPPORT AND ACADEMIC ENRICHMENT PROGRAM $61,096
84.027 SPECIAL EDUCATION_GRANTS TO STATES $41,790
84.425 EDUCATION STABILIZATION FUND $27,398
21.027 CORONAVIRUS STATE AND LOCAL FISCAL RECOVERY FUNDS $12,420
10.558 CHILD AND ADULT CARE FOOD PROGRAM $3,736