Finding Text
Finding 2025-001: Review of Compliance Matrices and Narratives - Special Tests and Provisions Federal Program Name: National Railroad Passenger Corporation Grants Assistance Listing No. 20.315 Federal Award Nos.: 69A36525520030AMTDC 69A36525520040AMTDC 69A36524520000AMTDC 69A36523504100AMTDC 69A36523504110AMTDC FR-AMT-0025-22 FR-AMT-0026-22 FR-AMT-0028-22 FR-AMT-0027-22 Federal Agency: Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration Criteria 1. The code of federal regulations – 2 CFR 200.302 Financial management requires that: (a) Each state must expend and account for the Federal award in accordance with State laws and procedures for expending and accounting for the State’s funds. All recipient and subrecipient financial management systems, including records documenting compliance with Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms of the conditions of the federal award, must be sufficient to permit the preparation of reports required by the terms and conditions; and tracking expenditures to establish that funds have been used in accordance with Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the Federal award. 2. The code of federal regulations – 2 CFR 200.303 Internal controls requires that recipients and subrecipients must: (a) Establish, document, and maintain effective internal control over the Federal award that provides reasonable assurance that the recipient or subrecipient is managing the Federal award in compliance with Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the Federal award. These internal controls should align with the 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). (b) Comply with the U.S. Constitution, Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the Federal award. (c) Evaluate and monitor the recipient’s or subrecipient’s compliance with statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of Federal awards. Condition The following exceptions to the criteria were observed during the performance of the audit procedures: 1. For the compliance matrix that is maintained for the annual grants under Assistance Listing No. 20.315, Ernst & Young (EY) identified that for two provisions, the wording contained within the matrix did not match in its entirety to the respective grant agreement. Additionally, EY noted that two provisions that were present in the grant agreements were not included in the matrix. 2. For the compliance matrix that is maintained for Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) grants under Assistance Listing No. 20.315, EY identified that two provisions present in the grant agreements were not included in the matrix. 3. For the compliance matrices maintained for both the annual grants and IIJA grants under Assistance Listing No. 20.315, EY identified a lack of evidence to support management's assessment of certain provisions as not applicable. Cause In reviewing management’s internal controls, the key internal control identified by management is not designed such that consistent, proactive monitoring and/or review occurs to ensure all compliance requirements and any changes to the wording of specific provisions are updated and reviewed within the compliance matrices and narratives. Effect or Potential Effect Amtrak is not in compliance with the 2 CFR 200.302 (a) and 2 CFR 200.303. This may also put Amtrak at greater risk of non-compliance with specific provisions in accordance with the federal awards. Questioned Costs None identified. Context EY reviewed the federal awards in scope and compared them to the compliance matrices and compliance narrative maintained by the company as part of the audit procedures in connection with the testing of the special tests and provisions compliance requirement. Per review of the grant agreements, a total of 159 provisions exist of which EY identified six provisions as missing or inaccurate as described in the condition section above. As such, this finding relates to 3.77% of the total population of provisions. Identification as a Repeat Finding This is a repeat finding of 2024-002. Recommendation EY recommends that Amtrak update the control design with enough precision to ensure that reviews and updates to the compliance matrices are made on a regular cadence to ensure that any updates, amendments or changes are monitored and updated timely. Views of Responsible Officials Amtrak recognizes the need to improve our controls over the updates of the compliance matrices and will review its control processes by the end of FY2026.