Finding 1216443 (2025-001)

Material Weakness Repeat Finding
Requirement
A
Questioned Costs
-
Year
2025
Accepted
2026-06-03
Audit: 402954
Organization: Zero to Five Montana (MT)

AI Summary

  • Issue: The Organization failed to follow its own approval policies for program expenditures in 3 out of 40 cases.
  • Requirements Impacted: This oversight could lead to improper use of funds outside Federal Award guidelines.
  • Follow-Up: Revise policies to prevent self-approval of expenditures by management.

Finding Text

2025-001 Federal Award Approvals – Significant Deficiency Criteria: The Organization should follow their policies related to approval on program expenditures. Condition: During our testing, we found 3 instances out of 40 samples that the Organization did not follow their control policies when approving expenditures. Cause: Undetermined. Potential Effect: The Organization did not follow their policy for the approval process which could allow for funds to be expended for purposes outside of the Federal Award parameters. Recommendation: We recommend that the Organization improves their policies to ensure that members of management cannot self-approve expenditures.

Corrective Action Plan

Corrective Action Plan: Zero to Five Montana (ZtF) has implemented updated policies and procedures governing program expenditures to strengthen internal controls. Employees in managerial or director roles are no longer permitted to approve their own submitted expenditures. All expenditures, including purchase orders, must be approved by the next level of managerial authority. Similarly, employee timecards cannot be self-approved by individuals in managerial roles who have system access to approve time entries. The expense management and timekeeping systems have been reconfigured to prevent approvals when the approver and requestor are the same individual. Contact Person Responsible for Corrective Action: • Caitlin Jensen, Executive Director Anticipated Completion Date: May 15, 2026

Categories

Significant Deficiency

Programs in Audit

ALN Program Name Expenditures
93.434 EVERY STUDENT SUCCEEDS ACT/PRESCHOOL DEVELOPMENT GRANTS $2.55M
93.575 CHILD CARE AND DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT $613,057