Finding 1174060 (2025-001)

Material Weakness Repeat Finding
Requirement
M
Questioned Costs
-
Year
2025
Accepted
2026-02-18

AI Summary

  • Core Issue: The Foundation failed to conduct required internal control surveys for subrecipients, impacting compliance monitoring.
  • Impacted Requirements: Subrecipient monitoring criteria were not met, risking noncompliance with federal regulations and grant terms.
  • Recommended Follow-Up: Implement a plan with timelines to address missed monitoring tasks and ensure adherence to established policies.

Finding Text

Finding 2025-001 Subrecipient Monitoring Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Program Title: Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities Assistance Listing Number: 93.073 Compliance Requirement: Subrecipient monitoring Criteria: Internal control surveys are to be conducted by the Foundation to evaluate and document each subrecipient's risk of noncompliance with Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the Federal Subaward for the purpose of determining the appropriate level of subrecipient monitoring required. In addition, if a subrecipient's single audit disclosed any findings, the Foundation should consider updating its risk assessment to determine if any adjustments are needed in the subrecipient's risk level and also ensure that it issues management decisions on the subrecipient’s findings within six months. Condition: The Foundation did not perform internal control surveys and did not document monitoring procedures surrounding follow up on corrective actions of subrecipients with audit findings in their respective single audit reports. Cause: Staffing challenges and other organizational changes resulted in the Foundation not completing certain subrecipient monitoring activities during the year ended June 30, 2025. Effect: Subrecipients expenditures may not be in compliance with federal or grant award provisions. Questioned Cost: None Context: Elements noted above for subrecipient monitoring were not consistently followed throughout the year as evidenced in our sample. We noted four out of five subrecipients tested did not have internal control surveys completed due to the cause noted above. None of our sample items had single audits with audit findings, however the enhanced monitoring response to any single audit findings was not found to have been completed for any subrecipients during the period of May-October 2025 due to the staffing challenges noted above. Recommendation: The Foundation should ensure that established policies and procedures are in place to ensure proper subrecipient monitoring activities are adhered to and if there are delays in performing certain key tasks that a plan with a timeline be developed to address when missed tasks will be completed. Management Response: The Foundation concurs with this finding. Corrective Action Plan: See attached management’s corrective action plan.

Corrective Action Plan

Finding 2025-001: Subrecipient monitoring Name of contact person: Shavone Smith, Vice President of Finance, (404) 653-0790 Recommendation: The Foundation should ensure that established policies and procedures that are in place to ensure proper subrecipient monitoring activities are adhered to and if there are delays in performing certain key tasks that a plan with a timeline be developed to address when missed tasks will be completed. Corrective action: The Foundation acknowledges that it did not obtain internal control surveys and audit certification forms for a portion of fiscal year 2025 due to reductions in force and other organizational changes which temporarily limited staff capacity to complete all monitoring activities. Internal control surveys and audit certification fully resumed in October 2025. At that time, we also went back to the period May-October 2025 to perform the procedures that were paused and completed monitoring for all subrecipient agreements that were still active. The procedures we performed retroactively did not indicate any heightened risks for the applicable subrecipients. Additionally, all current subrecipient agreements with end dates beyond October of 2025 have had monitoring completed or are scheduled to be completed (due to more recent start dates). To prevent recurrence, the Foundation has implemented procedural safeguards to ensure continuity of compliance monitoring (specifically internal control survey administration, audit certification and an audit review and follow-up) during periods of staffing or operational disruption. These safeguards include (1) reaffirming formal assignment of responsibility for internal control survey administration and audit certification/foll-up to designated roles rather than individual staff, (2) cross-training of additional personnel to perform these functions as needed, and (3) increased management review to confirm completion and timeliness of monitoring. The Foundation will proactively assess the potential impact of anticipated and unanticipated staffing changes on subrecipient monitoring and compliance activities. Management will identify critical functions (including internal controls surveys and audit certification collection) and will ensure appropriate coverage, cross-training, or alternative resources are in place to maintain compliance with federal requirements. These controls were designed to ensure continuity of compliance activities during periods of staffing transition or operational disruption. Management will monitor compliance with this process on an ongoing basis to ensure monitoring is consistently performed in accordance with policy. Proposed completion date: October 2025

Categories

Subrecipient Monitoring

Programs in Audit

ALN Program Name Expenditures
93.322 CDC PARTNERSHIP: STRENGTHENING PUBLIC HEALTH LABORATORIES $17.98M
93.136 INJURY PREVENTION AND CONTROL RESEARCH AND STATE AND COMMUNITY BASED PROGRAMS $12.13M
93.185 IMMUNIZATION RESEARCH, DEMONSTRATION, PUBLIC INFORMATION AND EDUCATION TRAINING AND CLINICAL SKILLS IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS $7.53M
93.073 BIRTH DEFECTS AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES - PREVENTION AND SURVEILLANCE $7.16M
93.318 PROTECTING AND IMPROVING HEALTH GLOBALLY: BUILDING AND STRENGTHENING PUBLIC HEALTH IMPACT, SYSTEMS, CAPACITY AND SECURITY $2.43M
93.283 CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION INVESTIGATIONS AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE $1.01M
95.007 RESEARCH AND DATA ANALYSIS $699,921
97.044 ASSISTANCE TO FIREFIGHTERS GRANT $142,781
93.421 STRENGTHENING PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEMS AND SERVICES THROUGH NATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE NATION’S HEALTH $42,559
93.855 ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES RESEARCH $2,386