Finding 1179621 (2025-002)

Material Weakness Repeat Finding
Requirement
E
Questioned Costs
-
Year
2025
Accepted
2026-03-16
Audit: 392018
Organization: Sunshine Connections, Inc. (KS)
Auditor: ADAMSBROWN LLC

AI Summary

  • Core Issue: Two providers submitted inaccurate meal counts for reimbursement, leading to improper payments.
  • Impacted Requirements: Internal controls must ensure accurate meal counts and proper documentation, including Income Eligibility Forms for all children.
  • Recommended Follow-Up: Review and update controls to guarantee complete and accurate meal submissions to the State.

Finding Text

SIGNIFICANT DEFICIENCY 2025-002 10.558 – Child and Adult Care Food Program – Eligibility Criteria or specific requirement Internal controls should be in place to ensure that complete and accurate meal counts for eligible providers and children are submitted to the State for reimbursement. Condition Two providers received an improper amount for their meal reimbursement for the month tested. Context We determined, through testing of provider meal reimbursements, that an inaccurate number of meals was submitted to the State for reimbursement for 2 transactions within our sample of 60. Cause For one of the transactions, an inaccurate meal count was submitted to the State because of an incorrectly recapped meal count. For the second, a new provider entered the program and took over the children from a previous provider of the program who would no longer be providing those services. The new provider’s children had been enrolled under the previous provider, and they also did not share a last name with their provider parent, so staff did not catch that they needed to be flagged as Provider Children during the transfer. As a result, no Income Eligibility Form was completed for those children. Effect For one transaction, the provider was under-reimbursed by one snack for the month tested. The known questioned cost for this is ($0.96), and the estimated questioned cost when compared against the population is ($33). For the second transaction, a provider joined the program for the last three months of the fiscal year, and her children were reimbursed for their meals during that time. However, no Income Eligibility Form was on file for them. Total reimbursements received for those children during the period was $760. Recommendation Controls should be reviewed and updated to ensure that complete and accurate meal counts are submitted to the State for reimbursement. Views of responsible officials and planned corrective actions See corrective action plan.

Corrective Action Plan

2025-002 – 10.558 – Child and Adult Care Food Program –Eligibility Condition Two providers received an improper amount for their meal reimbursement for the month tested. Recommendation Controls should be reviewed and updated to ensure that complete and accurate meal counts are submitted to the State for reimbursement. Comments on the Finding Given Sunshine Connections, Inc.’s limited staffing structure, full segregation of duties within the meal claims process is not always possible. However, the organization has implemented practical internal controls to reduce the risk of errors and ensure accurate claims are submitted. All meal count and attendance records submitted are reviewed for completeness and accuracy before being entered into the claim system. Meal counts are checked against enrollment, attendance, and licensed capacity to ensure they are reasonable and allowable. Action Taken Whenever possible, someone other than the Director will prepare the monthly claim. The Director will then review the claim for accuracy and compare totals between the Excel spreadsheet and the Little Organizer program before submission to ensure the information is correct.

Categories

Cash Management Eligibility Significant Deficiency Internal Control / Segregation of Duties

Programs in Audit

ALN Program Name Expenditures
10.558 CHILD AND ADULT CARE FOOD PROGRAM $1.58M
10.560 STATE ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES FOR CHILD NUTRITION $283