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FINDING 2025-002 Subject: COVID-19 - Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds - Reporting Federal Agency: Department of the Treasury Federal Program: COVID-19 - Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Assistance Listings Number: 21.027 Federal Award Number and Year (or Other Identifying Number): CY2025 Compliance Requirement: Reporting Audit Findings: Significant Deficiency, Other Matters Condition and Context The City included expenditures on the 2025 Annual Project and Expenditure Report (P&E) that did not occur within the reporting period. As a result, the current period expenditures and cumulative expenditures were both overstated by $35,974 due to including expenditures from April 2025. Criteria 2 CFR 200.303 states in part: "The non-Federal entity must: (a) Establish and maintain effective internal control over the Federal award that provides reasonable assurance that the non-Federal entity is managing the Federal award in compliance with Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the Federal award. These internal controls should be in compliance with 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). . . ." Compliance and Reporting Guidance, State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, page 13, states in part: ". . . 10. Reporting. All recipients of federal funds must complete financial, performance, and compliance reporting as required and outlined in Part 2 of this guidance. Expenditures may be reported on a cash or accrual basis, as long as the methodology is disclosed and consistently applied. Reporting must be consistent with the definition of expenditures pursuant to 2 CFR 200.1. Your organization should appropriately maintain accounting records for compiling and reporting accurate, compliant financial data, in accordance with appropriate accounting standards and principles. . . ." 31 CFR 35.4(c) states in part: "Reporting and requests for other information. During the period of performance, recipients shall provide to the Secretary . . . periodic reports providing detailed accounting of the uses of funds, . . ." Cause The internal controls designed and implemented were not operating effectively and did not detect errors in the P&E report. The City inadvertently included an additional month of expenditures in its April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025 P&E report submission. INDIANA STATE BOARD OF ACCOUNTS 15 CITY OF NEW HAVEN SCHEDULE OF FINDINGS AND QUESTIONED COSTS (Continued) Effect Without the proper implementation of an effectively designed system of internal controls, errors could occur and remain undetected. As such, the City could not ensure that the reports submitted were accurate and correct. Questioned Costs There were no questioned costs identified. Recommendation We recommended that management of the City strengthen its system of internal controls in the preparation and review of federal reports to ensure appropriate reviews, approvals, and oversight are taking place. We also recommended the development of policies and procedures to ensure the City provides the U.S. Department of the Treasury with complete and accurate information for the P&E report. Views of Responsible Officials For the views of responsible officials, refer to the Corrective Action Plan that is part of this report.