2025-002. Allowable Costs/Cost Principles – (Excess Reimbursement Due to Inaccurate Final Expenditure Reporting) United States of Department of Education, Passed Through New York State, Department of Education: COVID-19: Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund ALN: 84.425D Pass-through Entity Number: 5891-21-1490 COVID-19: American Rescue Plan - Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief ALN: 84.425U Pass-through Entity Number: 5880-21-1490 COVID-19: American Rescue Plan - Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief ALN: 84.425U Pass-through Entity Number: 5884-21-1490 Criteria: Per 2 CFR Part 200, specifically §§200.302 and 200.403, financial management systems must ensure that expenditures reported for federal awards are accurate, allowable, and properly supported. Costs charged to federal awards must be incurred and supported by underlying accounting records. Reports and reimbursement requests must be reconciled to the recipient’s accounting records. Additionally, guidance from the pass-through entity, New York State Education Department, requires that the Final Expenditure Report (FS-10F) reflect actual expenditures incurred, not outstanding obligations or encumbrances that have not been fully liquidated (e.g., purchase orders), and that districts revise or adjust claims as necessary if amounts differ from final expenditures. Condition: The District submitted Form FS-10F final expenditure reports that included amounts for open encumbrances that were not fully expended after the final reports’ submission; the cumulative expenditures in the District’s accounting records for two of the Education Stabilization Fund (ESF) grants (CRRSA ESSER II, pass-through entity number 5891-21-1490, and ARP ESSER III, pass-through entity number 5880-21- 1490) were less than the amounts claimed by the District on the FS-10Fs. The FS-10F for a third ESF grant (ARP SLR Learning Loss, pass-through entity number 5884-21-1490) included a duplicated amount for purchased services that was the result of a duplicated journal entry in the District’s accounting records. As a result, the expenditures reported on the FS-10F final expenditure reports exceeded the actual expenditures incurred and recorded by the District, and the District received reimbursements from the pass-through entity, New York State Education Department (NYSED) for expenditures it did not incur. Cause: The District lacked adequate internal controls and review procedures to ensure that FS-10F reports were based solely on actual, incurred expenditures, and reported amounts are subsequently reconciled to final general ledger balances in its accounting records. The District’s procedures for reviewing and approving journal entries failed to identify two erroneous entries. Additionally, there was a failure to implement procedures to monitor outstanding encumbrances included in the FS-10F and to communicate adjustments to the NYSED when those encumbrances were not ultimately realized as expenditures. Effect: As a result of the overstatement of expenditures on the FS-10F, the District received reimbursement in excess of allowable amounts. The District may be required to repay the excess funds received. Questioned costs: $52,798 for CRRSA ESSER II grant, $119,095 for ARP ESSER III grant, and $25,667 for ARP SLR Learning Loss grant. Context: For the CRRSA ESSER II grant, a payment of $72,906 to a vendor was charged to the grant in a prior year and included on the FS-10F filed in October 2023, the District subsequently determined that expenditure was not an allowable cost and corrected its accounting records; however, the District did not notify the NYSED of the change and the FS-10F was not revised to reflect this correction. Furthermore, there were $20,107 of expenditures recorded in the District’s accounting records that were not included in the FS- 10F; collectively, these two items resulted in the District reporting expenditures on the FS-10F for the CRRSA ESSER II grant that exceeded actual, allowable expenditures incurred by a net amount of $52,799. For the ARP ESSER III grant, the District included $6,400 related to an open purchase order for architectural and engineering fees on the FS-10F filed in October 2024. The purchase order was originally encumbered for $10,400; however, only $4,000 in actual expenditures were incurred, the remaining $6,400 balance was never expended as the project was completed with no additional invoices received from the engineering firm. Additionally, unliquidated payroll-related encumbrances at June 30, 2025, totaling $112,695 were included in the FS-10F; however, there were no actual expenditures incurred. For the ARP ALR Learning Loss grant, the District recorded a journal entry to reclassify the expenditure for a payment made to a vendor, but duplicated that amount in another journal entry recording expenditure to the grant. The duplicated amount was included in the FS-10F filed in October 2024. Identification of a Repeat Finding: This is not a repeat finding from the immediately prior audit. Recommendation: The District should strengthen its internal controls over grant reporting and reimbursement processes to ensure that expenditures reported on the FS-10F final expenditure reports are accurate, allowable, and fully supported by the accounting records. Journal entries affecting federal grants expenditures The District should perform a comprehensive reconciliation of the FS-10F to the general ledger prior to submission, and again after the grant period ends to confirm all reported amounts were ultimately expended, and establish a formal process to review and clear outstanding encumbrances included in grant reports, ensuring any amounts not realized as expenditures are removed or adjusted. Additionally, the District should develop procedures to identify and track subsequent adjustments, including reclassifications of unallowable costs, and ensure that such changes are timely communicated and corrected with the New York State Education Department, and to require documented supervisory review and approval of all final expenditure reports and their subsequent reconciliations with supporting documentation and final accounting records. Views of Responsible Officials of Auditee: The District acknowledges the finding related to the reporting of expenditures on the FS-10F and agrees that certain encumbrances and subsequently adjusted items were not properly reflected in the final expenditure submissions to the New York State Education Department (SED). The District notes that several of the identified items, including open purchase orders and payroll encumbrances, were initially included in the FS-10F in accordance with prior internal practice and interpretation of reporting guidance at the time of submission. In addition, the District acknowledges that certain post-submission adjustments, including reclassifications of unallowable costs and the liquidation of encumbrances, were not subsequently reflected through amended FS-10F filings. The District further recognizes that these conditions resulted in reporting discrepancies between the FS-10F submissions and actual expenditures incurred, leading to an overstatement of expenditures and excess reimbursement. The District has calculated the net obligation of $52,798.77 and intend to reimburse the NYSED for this amount.