Finding Text
Finding 2025-002: Material weakness due to lack of evidence of oversight controls from management. Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Justice Program Title: Transitional Housing Assistance of Victims of Domestic Crime Victim Assistance Assistance Listing Number (ALN): 16.575 Federal Award Years: Year ended June 30, 2025 Pass-through grantor and identifying numbers: State of Washington, 18POVC-22-GG 00686-ASSI Criteria: 2 CFR 200.303(a) requires that “the non-Federal entity must establish and maintain effective internal control over the Federal award that provides reasonable assurance that the non-Federal entity is managing the Federal award in compliance with Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the federal award. These internal controls should be in compliance with 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 and Context: YWCA Pierce County was unable to consistently demonstrate that internal controls were operating related to the requires of activities allowed, allowable costs / cost principals, period of performance, and reporting. Through the samples related to testing internal controls, we identified the following: 5 expenditures out of 60 selections did not have any evidence of approval from a manager prior to being included in reimbursement request that was remitted to the Pass-through Grantor. There is no evidence that any of the reimbursement requests that were remitted to the Passthrough Grantor were reviewed prior to submission. These are conditions identified using a statistically valid sample. Cause: During the year under audit, there was an absence of procedures that clearly required that managers approve expenditures prior to charging them to the federal awards. Further, the CEO appears to have placed an undue amount of trust in the individuals responsible for compiling the monthly invoices to the grantors which resulted in inadequate oversight over the requests for reimbursements. Effect: Due to the lack of review and approval controls, there is an increased possibility that expenditures were invoiced to the federal award that were not for allowed activities or allowable costs. In addition, since there the possibility that expenditures were included in the reports were included that were outside of the period of performance. There were no instances of questioned costs identified as part of testing procedures. This is only a finding for lack of controls operating consistently and effectively. Questioned Costs: None Repeat Finding: This is not a repeat finding. Recommendation: We recommend that YWCA Pierce County develop and implement a policies that would ensure that all expenditures remitted to the federal award are approved by the appropriate manager and evidence is retained. In addition, policies should be developed and evidence retained that ensure that a responsible individual is providing proper review and approval over request for reimbursements prior to the submission to the grantor. Views of Responsible Officials: See Corrective Action Plan.