Finding 1169643 (2024-004)

Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Agriculture Federal Program Name: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Cluster Assistance Listing Number: 10.561 Federal Award Identification Number and Year: 232MN101S2514 – 2024 Passed Through Entity: Minnesota Department of Human Services Pass Through Numbers: H55240010 Compliance Requirement: Procurement, Suspension, and Debarment Award Period: 2024 Type of Finding: Significant Deficiency in Internal Control Over Compliance Criteria or specific requirement: The County must follow Uniform Guidance Subsection 200.320 Methods of Procurement for all applicable procurements over the County’s micro-purchase threshold. For purchases over the County's micro-purchase threshold of $10,000 but not exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold of $250,000, the County should follow small purchase procedures. If small purchase procedures are used, price or rate quotations must be obtained from an adequate number of qualified sources as determined appropriate by the County. Title 2 U.S. Code of Federal Regulations § 200.303 states that the auditee must establish and maintain effective internal control over the federal award that provides reasonable assurance that the auditee is managing the federal award in compliance with federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the federal award. Condition: During our testing, it was noted that for one contract out of four tested the County was unable to provide documentation showing that the county followed the open competition requirement. Questioned costs: None Context: One out of the four contracts tested had no documentation of open competition. Cause: The County purchasing likely followed County purchase policies for nonfederal expenditures. Effect: It would be possible that the County could end up spending more federal dollars than necessary for a product or service, if they are not going through the steps to ensure they are utilizing the best vendor for the county and documenting this process each year. Repeat finding: 2023-010 Recommendation: We recommend the County follow their federal purchasing policy in all their federal programs and retain documentation of that process occurring. As necessary, the County may need to add internal controls that are specific to each program to ensure this properly occurs. Views of responsible officials: There is no disagreement with the finding.